in a
neighbouring city he supported alone a foundling asylum, in which
were one hundred little castaway girls to whom he supplied nurses,
clothing, etc., and he assured us that no one besides Mr. Baldwin
and myself knew of it. He had for some time been accustomed to come
to advise and consult Mr. Baldwin on various matters, and when
going away would give him a power of attorney to sign for the
firm."

When Mr. Ahok was married, he urged Dr. and Mrs. Baldwin to be present at
the ceremony, and gave them the privilege of bringing foreign friends with
them if they so desired. His wife was a member of a family of high rank,
the sister of a mandarin, and the possessor of an aristocratic little foot
two inches and a half long. Outside of those educated in the mission
schools, she was the first Chinese woman that Mrs. Baldwin had met who
could read and write. One day not long after the wedding, Dr. Baldwin met
Mr. Ahok, and disregarding the Chinese custom which makes it a breach of
etiquette to inquire after a man's wife, asked about Mrs. Ahok. Mr. Ahok at
once answered with evident pride, "She all the same one mandarin; she reads
books all the day." He was very proud of her unusual ability, and the
confidence and sympathy which soon existed between him and his wife was
much greater than is usual in a non-Christian home in China. Mrs. Ahok
shared her husband's warm feeling for his foreign friends. The words of
Mrs. Baldwin, who knew her intimately, characterize her well:

"She was, from my first meeting with her, ever a friend of me and
mine.... She was a woman of strong character, of fine personal
appearance, always attired in elegant dress, and so perfect in her
observance of the elaborate code of Chinese etiquette that it was
ever a marvel to me how she remembered the smallest details of the
exacting courtesy, never failing to meet the terse and telling
instruction of the standard book on etiquette for girls and women,
'As a guest demand nothing, as a hostess exhaust courtesy....' The
better I knew her the more I esteemed her."

Mr. Ahok had two beautiful homes in Foochow; one a very fine Chinese house,
the other an English residence, elegantly furnished with carpets, pictures,
piano, and all other foreign furnishings required for comfort and beauty.
In these two homes he and his wife entertained with great hospitality. Mrs.
Baldwin says that she has often see