ent journeys from one home to the other; in another, the matter of
the sum required as dowry could not be finally fixed; in a third, she
would have been required to worship idols.

Amongst the number was a young man, favoured by Mrs. Fan but known as a
wild and dissolute youth, and the missionaries who had cared for Ai Do
so many years refused their consent to the engagement. Now they were
dead, and Mrs. Fan had scope for the exercise of the domineering will
which made her ruler of the home, for while she was an enthusiastic
follower of the Church she had never given evidence of personal
conversion.

It was certainly advisable that a young woman of Ai Do's age should not
be unmarried at that difficult time. Christians went in daily peril of
their lives, and the soldier was scarcely less to be dreaded than the
Boxer.

"No one uses good iron to make nails, and no one will use a good man to
make a soldier," says a Chinese proverb, which has been proved to be
only too true in many cases.

Hastily, and almost secretly, the formalities of the engagement were
performed, cards were exchanged which fixed the contract, and the
earrings, rings, and silk and satin garments were brought from the
bridegroom's home. Ai Do had heard much of this man, and his reputation
was such as to cause her the gravest misgivings. The household which
she was to enter as a bride would not require her to join in the
offering of nuptial sacrifices to idols because her future mother-in-law
had come under the sound of the Gospel, but more than this can scarcely
be said. The son to whom she was engaged had been brought up on a regime
of such extreme indulgence as can only be met with amongst an Oriental
people. His mother had never once restrained him in a childish
selfishness nor a manly vice. From a spoilt, inconsiderate, wilful
childhood he passed to a cruel, passionate, licentious manhood; finally,
he took to opium smoking and ruin threatened the home. His mother reaped
a bitter harvest of sorrow from the planting of those wasted years, and
now her urgent plea was: "My son is good at heart, and a virtuous bride
will soon work a reform in him."

Every relation and friend and neighbour had a say in the transaction,
only Ai Do must not be consulted, and though she weep and plead to be
left unmarried for a time yet, her tears and supplications can cause no
effect. In vain were the silver ornaments and fine clothes displayed
before her; she refused t