fter the theatrical performance was over, Her Majesty ordered
the eunuchs to bring in their instruments and give us some music. She
herself sang several songs, and we all sang at intervals. Then Her
Majesty ordered the eunuchs to sing. Some were trained singers, and sang
very nicely, but others could not sing at all and caused quite a lot of
amusement by their efforts to please Her Majesty. The Emperor appeared
to be the only one present who was not having a good time; he never
smiled once. On meeting him outside, I asked him why he looked so sad,
but he only answered: "A Happy New Year" in English, smiled once, and
walked away.

Her Majesty rose very early next morning and proceeded to the Audience
Hall to worship the God of Wealth. We all accompanied her and took part
in the ceremony. During the next few days we did nothing but gamble and
scramble for Her Majesty's winnings. This was all very nice in its way,
until one day one of the Court ladies began to cry, and accused me of
stepping on her toes in the scramble. This made Her Majesty angry and
she ordered the offender to go to her room and stay there for three
days, saying that she did not deserve to be enjoying herself if she
could not stand a little thing like that.

The tenth of the first moon was the birthday of the Young Empress, and
we asked Her Majesty whether we would be allowed to give presents. She
gave us permission to give whatever presents we might wish to. However,
we submitted all our presents to Her Majesty for her approval, before
giving them to the Young Empress, and we had to be very discreet and not
choose anything which Her Majesty might think was too good. It was very
difficult to tell what to send, as Her Majesty might take a fancy to
any of the presents herself, even though they might not be of much value
intrinsically. In such a case Her Majesty would tell us that she would
keep it, and to give the Young Empress something else.

The celebration was very similar to that of the Emperor's birthday, but
not on such an elaborate scale. We presented the Ru Yee to the Young
Empress and kowtowed to her. She was supposed to receive these tokens of
respect sitting on her throne, but out of deference to Her Majesty
(we were Her Majesty's Court ladies) she stood up. She always was very
polite to us under all circumstances.

On this day, as on the Emperor's birthday, the Emperor, Young Empress
and Secondary wife dined together. These were the only tw