urtains at her door they would guard
against evil spirits entering her room. The order was that one of us
should remember to place them back again when the audience was over. We
fixed every piece of furniture in her bedroom. Her toilet table was the
most important thing. She would not let anyone see it-not even the wives
of the Officials who came in, so of course we had to put it in a safe
place, and lock it up. We changed her bed from pink color into blue.
All her furniture was made of sandalwood, also carvings on her bed. This
sandalwood, before it was made into furniture, was placed in different
temples, to be sanctified, so of course no foreigner could see it. As
we could not take this carving from her bed, we covered it up with
embroidered hangings. While we were working Her Majesty came in and told
us not to hurry in her bedroom, because the audience the next day would
only be for Admiral Robley Evans and his staff, and they would not visit
the private rooms. The audience for Mrs. Evans and the other ladies
would be the day after. She said it was important to see that the
Audience Hall was fixed up properly. She said: "Place the only carpet
we have here in the hall. I don't like carpets anyway, but it cannot be
helped."

After we had finished, Her Majesty started to tell us what to wear for
the ladies' audience. She said to me: "You need not come to the throne
to-morrow, there will only be gentlemen. I will get one of the Ministers
from Wai-Wu-Pu (Bureau of Foreign Affairs). I don't want you to talk to
so many strange men. It is not the Manchu custom. These people are all
strangers. They might go back to America and tell everybody what you
look like." At the same time Her Majesty gave orders for the Imperial
Yellow Gown to be brought in next day, for the gentleman's audience. She
said that she must dress in her official robe for this occasion. This
robe was made of yellow satin, embroidered with gold dragons. She wore a
necklace composed of one hundred and eight pearls, which formed part of
this official dress. She said: "I don't like to wear this official robe.
It is not pretty, but I am afraid I will have to." She said to all of
us: "You need not dress especially."

The next morning Her Majesty got up early, and was busier than ever.
It seemed to me that whenever we had an audience we always had so much
trouble. Something was sure to go wrong and make Her Majesty angry. She
said: "I want to look nice, and be am