, not having
received any orders as to what I should do. However, I thought it better
to be too polite than not enough, so I waited until either he or Her
Majesty went out of the room, as we were not allowed to salute or
courtesy to anyone in her presence. In a little while the Emperor went
out and I followed him out into the hall and just as I was in the act
of courtesying Her Majesty came out. She looked at me in a very peculiar
way, as if she did not approve of what I had done, but said nothing. I
felt very uncomfortable and made up my mind that being too polite did
not always pay after all.

I then returned to the room again and saw a small eunuch placing several
yellow boxes on a table at the left side of the room. Her Majesty seated
herself in a large chair, which was called her little throne, and this
eunuch opened the boxes, took a yellow envelope from each box and handed
them to Her Majesty. She opened these envelopes with an ivory paper
knife and read their contents. They were memorials from the heads of the
different Boards, or from the Viceroys of the different Provinces. The
Emperor had come back and was standing at the side of this table and
after she had finished reading, she handed them over to him. While all
this was being done I stood at the back of her chair. I watched the
Emperor as the different papers were handed to him and noticed that it
did not take him very long to finish reading their contents. After he
was finished reading the papers, they were placed back in the boxes.
During all this time absolute silence was maintained. Just as they had
finished the head eunuch came in, knelt down and announced that Her
Majesty's chair was ready. She immediately got up and went out of the
house, we following her, and I took her arm while she was descending the
steps to go to her chair. When she had entered the chair to go to the
Audience Hall, the Emperor and Young Empress and we all followed in
our usual places, the eunuchs, amahs and servant girls carrying all the
things exactly the same as was done the first day I came to the Palace.
When we arrived at the Audience Hall, we took our places behind the big
screen and the audience commenced. I was very curious to find out just
how the audiences were conducted and wanted to listen to what was going
on, but the Court ladies would not leave me alone. However, when they
were all talking together with my sister, I stole away into a corner
where I could sit and