t tearing it down entirely, it was changed, that is the doors
and windows, passageways, furnishings, etc., were foreign, but the
arrangement of the house itself and courtyard was Chinese. This, like
all Chinese houses in Peking, was built in a very rambling fashion,
and with the gardens, covered about ten acres of ground. We had just
finished furnishing it and moved in only four days when we left for
Paris; and it has always been a great sorrow to my family that we should
lose this magnificent place, after having spent so much time and money
in building and beautifying it. However, this is only one of the many
trials that a high official in China is called upon to bear.

The houses in Peking are built in a very rambling fashion, covering a
large amount of ground, and our former house was no exception to the
rule. It had sixteen small houses, one story high, containing about 175
rooms, arranged in quadrangles facing the courtyard, which went to make
up the whole; and so placed, that without having to actually go out of
doors, you could go from one to the other by verandas built along the
front and enclosed in glass. My reader will wonder what possible use
we could make of all of these rooms; but what with our large family,
numerous secretaries, Chinese writers, messengers, servants, mafoos
(coachmen), and chair coolies, it was not a difficult task to use them.

The gardens surrounding the houses were arranged in the Chinese way,
with small lakes, stocked with gold fish, and in which the beautiful
lotus flower grew; crossed by bridges; large weeping willows along the
banks; and many different varieties of flowers in prettily arranged
flower beds, running along winding paths, which wound in and out between
the lakes. At the time we left for Paris, in the month of June, 1899,
the gardens were a solid mass of flowers and foliage, and much admired
by all who saw them.

As we now had no place of our own in Peking we did not know where to
go, so, while we were at Tientsin, my father telegraphed to one of his
friends to find him a house. After some little trouble one was secured,
and it turned out to be a very famous place indeed. It was the house
where Li Hung Chang signed the treaties with the Foreign Powers after
the Boxer Rising and also where he died. We were the first people to
live there since the death of Li Hung Chang, as the Chinese people were
very superstitious and were afraid that, if they went there to live,
some