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"Yes, indeed," replied the Princess. "I watched her at work on
them. They are genuine."
It was some weeks thereafter that Mrs. Headland was again invited
to call and see the Princess, and to her surprise she was
introduced to the Lady Miao, with whom and the Princess she spent
a very pleasant social hour or two. When she was about to leave,
the Princess, who is the youngest sister of the Empress Yehonala,
brought out a picture of a cock about to catch a beetle, which
she said she had asked Lady Miao to paint, and which she begged
Mrs. Headland to receive as a present from the artist and
herself.
During the conversation Mrs. Headland remarked that the Empress
Dowager must have begun her study of art many years ago.
"Yes," said Lady Miao. "We were both young when she began.
Shortly after she was taken into the palace she began the study
of books, and partly as a diversion, but largely out of her love
for art, she took up the brush. She studied the old masters as
they have been reproduced by woodcuts in books, and from the
paintings that have been preserved in the palace collection, and
soon she exhibited rare talent. I was then a young woman, my
brothers were artists, my husband had passed away, and I was
ordered to appear in the palace and work with her."
"You are a Chinese, are you not, Lady Miao?"
"Yes," she replied, "and as it has not been customary for Chinese
ladies to appear at court during the present dynasty, I was
allowed to unbind my feet, comb my hair in the Manchu style, and
wear the gowns of her people
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