the table and everyone eats out of these bowls, sticking their
chopsticks in and helping themselves to what they want. The Manchus eat
quite differently and are served with individual bowls and dishes, the
same as in any other country. Her Majesty was very proud of this and
said that it saved time, not to mention being cleaner. The food in the
Palace was always very good and clean, especially when we had foreign
guests, and of course we had a variety of dishes for such occasions,
such as sharkfins, birds' nest pudding, not to mention a great quantity
of other things.

Her Majesty had given me the order that morning to have the tables
nicely decorated and they did look very nice when we sat down.
Besides the usual tableware, we had gold dragon menu holders, little
peach-shaped silver saucers filled with almonds and dried watermelon
seeds, and knives and forks in addition to chopsticks.

Her Majesty and the Emperor never ate with guests, so Mdme. Plancon was
entertained by the Imperial Princess and the Court ladies. When luncheon
was half over a eunuch came and told me that Her Majesty wanted to see
me at once. The thought flashed through my head that something had gone
wrong, or that some of the eunuchs had been making false reports, a bad
habit of the Court; and I was much surprised to find her all smiles. She
told me what a nice, polite lady Mdme. Plancon was, that she had seen
many ladies who had come to the Court, but none with manners like this
one, that she was sorry to say that some of the ladies who came did not
behave very well. She said: "They seem to think we are only Chinese and
do not know anything, and look down upon us. I notice these things very
quickly and am surprised to see people who claim to be well educated and
civilized acting the way they do. I think we whom they call barbarians
are much more civilized and have better manners." She was always very
polite to the foreign ladies, no matter how badly they behaved, but
after they had gone, she would tell us who was nice and who was not.
After she had finished saying this, she gave me a beautiful piece of
green jade to give to Madame Plancon. When I gave it to her, she said
she wished to thank Her Majesty, and I took her to the Palace again.

When we had finished luncheon, she told me how pleased she was with her
reception and the kindness that Her Majesty had shown her, and took her
departure, we accompanying her to the courtyard of the Audience Hall,