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" 'She is ill to-day,' the mother replied.
" 'I am not surprised,' replied Her Majesty, 'for it must require
some time after the bandages have been removed before she can
again compress herself into the same proportions,' indicating
that the Empress Dowager supposed that foreign women slept with
their waists bound, just as the Chinese women do with their
feet."
The first winter I spent in China, twenty years ago, was one of
great excitement in Peking. The time of the regency of the
Empress Dowager for the boy-emperor had ended. I have explained
how a prince is not allowed to marry a princess because she is
his relative, or even a commoner his cousin for the same reason.
That is the rule. But rules were made to be broken, and when the
time came for Kuang Hsu's betrothal the Empress Dowager decided
to marry this son of her sister to the daughter of her brother.
It mattered not that the young man was opposed to the match and
wanted another for his wife. The Empress Dowager had set her
heart upon this union, and she would not allow her plans to be
frustrated, so an edict was issued that all people should remain
within their homes on a certain night, for the bride was to be
taken in her red chair from her father's home to the palace. So
that in this as in all other things her will was law for all
those about her.
She was a bit below the average height, but she wore shoes, in
the centre of whose soles there were--heels, shall we call
them?--six inches high
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