Tuen went about as one in a dream after her interview with the Viceroy, but she uttered no complaint. She had decided to go willingly, even cheerfully, on account of the many favors she had received from her benefactor, since she knew that he wished her to go, and day by day she nerved herself to the ordeal. Knowing that she was helpless, she accepted her fate in silence, and gradually she became more resigned. Girls in China are not allowed to have a voice in such matters,—that she knew, and after all she had always been most fortunate. Then she had heard that the faithful Wang would accompany her, and that Ta-ta, whom she loved dearly, would go[Pg 121] as her maid, and she was pleased with this arrangement. She had learned, too, that she was to go in great state. A barge was even now being fitted up for her convenience, and she would have not only Wang and Ta-ta, but other servants to wait upon her, and the blind old story-teller, Szu, would be sent along that he might beguile the weariness of the journey, which would last three months. The entire trip would be made by water, first through unimportant streams, then into the Yang-tse-kiang, and on through the Grand Canal.

The time that intervened before her departure was filled with bustle and confusion, and she hardly had a moment to think about the future, even if she had wanted to. There were many things to be arranged when one went on such a long trip, and Tuen must also be provided with handsome costumes, suitable to be worn at court. She could not [Pg 122]repress exclamations of delight when she saw all the beautiful things that were designed for her, and she commenced to feel that she had not been very badly treated by the gods.

The morning appointed for her to set out dawned fair and pleasant, but all night she had lain awake and thought about her journey, for she had been too excited to sleep. When she was ready to leave and there was no excuse for longer delaying, all the servants of the yamen pressed around her to say goodbye, and the Viceroy and his wife looked very sad, for in their way they were quite fond of their pretty adopted daughter. Tuen was as one stunned by a sudden blow. She neither wept nor said a word, but when the last adieus were over and she was safely ensconced in her little apartment on the barge, she covered her head with the silken cover of her couch and wailed aloud. But one cannot cry[Pg 123] always, and after the first paroxysm of grief had passed she wiped her eyes, that were now red and swollen, and looked curiously about her. There was nothing interesting in the narrow room, with its cot and bamboo pillow,—the only other furniture a low stool and many cushions,—but from without came noises of every description, forming an indescribable din. Rising from the floor where she had thrown herself, she pressed her face against the tiny window of painted gauze, and gazed with eager interest at the scene on the busy water. What a great, hurrying world it was! And how full of struggling, shouting people! She even experienced a thrill of enjoyment of her novel surroundings. Barges, junks, pleasure-boats, passage-boats, floating homes, freight-boats, sculls and river crafts of every description passed each other in an endless procession. Women in flowing blue robes, their hair adorned with flowers[Pg 124] and glittering pins, rowed many of the heavy boats, their armlets and anklets clinking musically with every motion. Now a tankia glided by, with only a bamboo canopy as protection from rain and sun and cold, the mother at the helm, while around her clustered happy children who had never known any other home than this little "egg house." For so great is the population of China that many families live in boats upon the rivers, and have but little knowledge of mother earth, as they but seldom feel the ground beneath their feet. Tuen looked with delight at the many phases of life that surged around her as unceasingly as the ripples of the water, and then passed away. Now she shuddered as a clumsy lighter, used for loading and unloading coal, bore down upon her on its w............