what Miss Carl said,
and she asked me whether she looked all right, or not. If not, she would
change her position. I assured her that she looked very grand in that
position. However, she asked the opinion of the Young Empress and some
of the Court ladies, who all agreed that she could not look better. I
could see that they never looked at Her Majesty at all, they were too
much interested in what Miss Carl was doing.

When Miss Carl commenced to make the rough sketch of Her Majesty
everyone watched with open mouth, as they had never seen anything done
so easily and so naturally. The Young Empress whispered to me: "Although
I don't know anything about portrait painting, still I can see that she
is a good artist. She has never seen any of our clothes and headdresses,
and she has copied them exactly. Just imagine one of our Chinese artists
trying to paint a foreign lady, what a mess he would make of it."

After the sketch was finished Her Majesty was delighted and thought
it was wonderful for Miss Carl to have made it so quickly and so
accurately. I explained that this was a rough sketch and that when Miss
Carl commenced painting, she would soon see the difference. Her Majesty
told me to ask Miss Carl whether she was tired and would like to rest;
also to tell her that she was very busy all the day, and would only be
able to give her a few minutes' sitting each day. We then took Miss
Carl to luncheon, together with Mrs. Conger, and after luncheon we
accompanied Her Majesty to the theatre.

After Mrs. Conger had departed I took Miss Carl to my room to rest. As
soon as we arrived there, Her Majesty sent a eunuch to call me to her
bedroom. Her Majesty said: "I don't want this lady to paint during my
afternoon rest. She can rest at the same time. As soon as I am up you
can bring her here to paint. I am glad that it looks like turning out
better than I had anticipated." I therefore told Miss Carl Her Majesty's
wishes in this respect and that she could paint for a little while,
if she chose to, after Her Majesty had had her rest. Miss Carl was so
interested in Her Majesty, she told me she didn't want to rest at
all, but that she would like to go on with the painting right away. Of
course, I did not like to tell her anything the first day, as it might
upset her, and did not say that this was a command from Her Majesty.
After a lot of maneuvering I got her to give up the idea of continuing
straight off, without offending her. I t