the Princesses and ladies who had accompanied the Empress Dowager to the door, sat outside on the verandah, smoked cigarettes, and gossiped, and I sometimes made one of that frivolous throng. After the audience their majesties took their respective ways followed by their respective suites to their own quarters. On arrival in her throne room the Empress Dowager had her robes of state removed, her imperial head dress with its flowers and jewels was taken off and she was then clothed in a simple gown and her hair arranged quite simply, close to her head with a single flower or one jewelled ornament. After this she sat down to rest and talk with the ladies. Then she would pose an hour for her portrait. I painted the first portrait in her throne room where she sat when her meals were served and out of which opened her bedroom and boudoir. During these sittings for the portrait she would sip tea from time to time or eat candied fruits, and now and then smoke cigarettes held in a jewelled mouthpiece. After an hour's sitting she would tire and say we must rest and when I protested I was not tired and could easily go on for an hour she would insist that if she were tired sitting, doing nothing, I must be, standing and working, that if she needed rest, I did also. Thus for the first three months I was not allowed to work except when she could sit, as the Throne room where I had to paint was her sitting room. When the sitting was finished the eunuchs removed the "holy picture" as the portrait was called; my brushes and palette were taken away to be cleaned, my easel removed and the throne room resumed its usual aspect, save for the throne which kept the place near the door where I had asked to have it moved that first day, and the great yellow covered box which had been made, at the Empress Dowager's order, to hold my brushes, palette, oils, etc.

After the sitting the Empress Dowager sometimes took a walk before ordering the luncheon or "early rice." For this, a long table was set with its one cover at the end for her majesty, for she took it alone. The table was loaded with yellow dishes, filled with the different meats, fish, soups and vegetables, and covered with curiously chased pyramidal

silver covers which were removed by an army of eunuchs when her majesty took her seat at the head. The meal, though the table was so bountifully set, was soon finished, for though she had a normal appetite the Empress Dowager was not a great eater. After the meal her golden rincebouche was brought, then a great silver basin with silken towels when she washed her hands.

After luncheon she took her siesta and was read to, when that was over there was a promenade through the grounds accompanied by the eunuchs bearing chairs, so that, if fatigued her majesty and the ladies could be carried over the rest of the ground. Sometimes she would be rowed on the lake in the imperial barge for the afternoon exercise. There was quite a fleet on the lake when she elected to go in her barge. This, with her throne chair covered with yellow, in the center of the raised platform, was drawn by two other boats of twenty-four standing rowers! The army of eunuchs who always accompanied the Empress Dowager and Emperor on their walks or when they went on the lake, stood in six or seven other boats which followed the imperial barge. She sat in her throne chair, the ladies sitting or reclining on cushions on the platform of the barge. When the Emperor elected to accompany her majesty, which he often did, he sat quite simply at her left on a cushion with no more ceremony than was accorded the ladies, the only difference being that his cushion was yellow, while the ladies had red ones. His and the Empress Dowager's chief eunuchs stood behind them on the barge. These often served tea or sweets while we were gliding over the waters of the lake. We sometimes landed at one of the landing places far from the throne room court, and the chairs met us and we were carried back. Sometimes the barge would be brought to the imperial landing place flanked by the great painted columns bearing the imperial pennants, and we would disembark in front of the throne room. On our return from the promenade Wahn Fahn or late rice was served in her majesty's throne room. This, the dinner, was no more elaborate than luncheon. It could not be! There was the same long table laden with the yellow porcelain silver-covered dishes, filled with the

same rare and tempting food. Bird's nest soup, shark's fins, preserved eggs, white shrimps, boneless capons and ducks, bamboo shoots, salads and all the wonderful dishes that make the Chinese menu the most recherché and elaborate in the world. It seemed a strange anomaly to call these repasts, worthy of Lucullus, by such simple names as early and late rice!

After dinner (rarely later then six o'clock) when her majesty made the sign, I bade her good-night and, accompanied by the Ladies Yu Keng and the eunuchs set aside for our service while in the palace, we were carried in our chairs to the outer gates, thence to our palace in our own carts and chairs.

The Empress Dowager was a great purist as to language. She had a fine musical ear and detected at once and deplored any misuse of words or misplacing of the tonic accent, so important in speaking Chinese. It was a beautiful language as spoken by her, with her silvery voice and clear intonation. She bemoaned the fact of so many dialects being spoken in China. Even Mandarin (official) Chinese is marred by the many and varied accents of the different provinces; some of which were very trying to the ears of the Empress Dowager. She longed to have one language for China, spoken as well as written, and she would have welcomed with delight the reform the Republic is instituting, in the unification of spoken Chinese.

Thinking my stay in the palace would be short I decided I would not try to learn Chinese as there were three good interpreters always ready to translate. The Empress Dowager, probably dreading another shock to her sensitive ear, did not encourage my learning. She said the foreigners studied it for a lifetime and then rarely spoke it well and it would be better if I tried Manchu as that was more analogous to a European language as it has an alphabet. But after I had learned a few phrases of greeting in Chinese with an accent not too offensive she thought I might try to learn it and asked if the foreigners had not some simple books for beginners, I got two. One compiled by the missionaries for the use of novices for household needs; naturally

expressed in anything but court-language, this was the first I gave her majesty to look at, she turned the first few pages slowly and then more and more quickly, and finally hurled it from her saying, "It was impossible, I mustn't touch it." Then she looked at Giles' book for beginners in Chinese and though this did not meet her approval she decided I might study that, but said the young Empress would teach me to "speak properly." My efforts were a source of amusement to the princesses and even the eunuchs, and the ladies did not hesitate to burst into merry peals of laughter at my mistakes; all but the graciously-sweet young Empress. Even the Empress Dowager would sometimes share the general hilarity, for her sense of humor was strong, but she would soon check herself and the others by saying Chinese was so difficult that very few of the princesses spoke it properly as I would see when I learned more!

So simple is the construction of spoken Chinese I soon learned enough to understand what was said to me. When the Empress Dowager spoke it was so slowly and clearly her words being supplemented by eloquent gesture, I soon understood all she said. I have already alluded to her great love of flowers and this was not confined only to flowers, but to plants and the bettering of certain species. This was the same with her dogs, she was very careful about their breeding.

When her eyes were stronger she had embroidered a great deal, she drew and painted and was a famous writer of the great characters. She did not disdain to interest herself in humbler duties, and she overlooked the smallest details of the imperial household. One day when she expected to receive some ladies of the legation and the throne room had been arranged for their reception, and her majesty and the princesses were already assembled, she, like some careful New England housewife, looking around to see that all was "proper" noticed some dust upon a piece of furniture and promptly ordered a silken cloth brought to her, with which she herself proceeded to dust, not only that piece but several others saying, "the best way to have a thing done well is to do it oneself!" No one despises labor in China. There it has a dignity of its own.

Agriculture, one of the most important features of Chinese industry, has it own temple where the Emperor himself officiates. In the early spring of every year his celestial majesty himself plowed the first furrow of the year! It was one of the great court ceremonies! The plough drawn by an ox kept in the palace grounds whose toil of the year was confined to this imperial furrow, with the Emperor dressed in his robes of state between the handles of the plough guiding it with all seriousness and seeing that the furrow was straight and properly deep. The imperial princes and highest officials of China clothed in their official robes following his majesty's footsteps! And I can say I never saw the Emperor more interested than the day I accidentally saw this ceremony, which takes place in the palace park the day before the public ploughing in the grounds of the temple of agriculture! This ploughing by the Emperor was to show the agriculturists of China the nobility of their work, great enough for the Son of Heaven himself to perform! The manufacture of silk, the rearing of the cocoons is another great industry of China, and the title of Guardian of the Cocoons was a coveted honor, bestowed only upon the princesses of the imperial clan. Singing and dancing which we indulge in for our own amusement is relegated in China, to a class who do nothing else. The Empress Dowager having received a new grand piano while I was in the palace had me and the Misses Yu Keng try it for her one day, and when I played a waltz she asked to see it danced. When the Misses Yu Keng danced it and she found it was a regular practice among the Europeans, to do their own dancing she wondered why they couldn't get dancers to do it for them!

Music is a part of most of the great ceremonies in China, and they enjoy the singing of actresses and musicians, but well bred people consider it undignified to sing, however, musical they may be. One glorious afternoon when we were out in the barge, drawn by the two boats of rowers, over the lake, all abloom with gorgeous pink lotus, past beautiful bridges and the quaintly carved marble quays, the radiance of the setting sun glinting with added gold the upturned yellow roofs on the shore, the Empress Dowager