The upshot of it all was that he stayed; he felt that in the face
of the Yamên's remarks he could not treat such kind and considerate
employers as the Chinese otherwise. But one of the quaintest touches
in the whole affair was that his strongest private reason for holding
back, at first, from the splendid appointment as British Minister
was that he did not wish to tie himself for five years longer in
China--and yet after all he was to stay twenty-five willingly in the
land of his exile.




CHAPTER VIII

AN IMPORTANT MISSION TO HONGKONG AND MACAO--THE BEGINNING OF A
PRIVATE BAND--DECORATIONS, CHINESE AND FOREIGN--THE SIKKIM-THIBET
CONVENTION--FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE POST OFFICE--WAR LOANS


Robert Hart therefore went quietly on with his work in the Customs
(1885), setting personal ambitions calmly aside, and finding--let us
hope--his reward in the satisfaction which the Chinese and the service
generally expressed at his sacrifice of the British Government's
tempting offer.

The very year after it was made, an important piece of business,
safely, even brilliantly concluded, added greatly to his reputation.
This was the settlement of questions relating to the simultaneous
collection of duty and likin on opium--two of the burning questions of
the day in the south. China had long desired to levy both taxes at one