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."
One day when one of my friends came to call I said to her: "It is
a long time since I have seen you. Have you been out of the
city?"
"Yes, I have been spending some months with my father-in-law, the
viceroy of the Canton provinces. His wife has died, and I have
returned to Peking to get him a concubine."
"How old is he?" I inquired.
"Seventy-two years," she replied.
"And how will you undertake to secure a concubine for such an old
man?"
"I shall probably buy one."
A few weeks afterwards she called again having with her a
good-looking young woman of about seventeen, her hair beautifully
combed, her face powdered and painted, and clothed in rich silk
and satin garments, whom she introduced as the young lady
procured for her father-in-law. She explained that she had
bought her from a poor country family for three hundred and fifty
ounces of silver.
"Don't you think it is cruel for parents to sell their daughters
in this way?" I asked.
"Perhaps," she answered. "But with the money they received for
her, they can buy land enough to furnish them a good support all
their life. She will always have rich food, fine clothing and an
easy time, with nothing to do but enjoy herself, while if she had
remained at home she must have married some poor man who might or
might not have treated her well, and for whom she would have to
work like a slave. Now she is nominally a slave with nothing to
do and with every comfort, in addition to what she has done for
her family
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