was ashamed to be seen."

Finally her mother, who did not wholly share her husband's view of the
matter, took advantage of his absence from home, and replaced the bandages.
When she would ask, "Can you stand them a little tighter?" the little
devotee to the stern mandates of fashion and custom invariably replied,
"Yes, mother, a little tighter"; for was she not going to be a lady and not
hear "those feet," "those feet" any more! But when her father came home he
had a long and serious talk with his wife about foot-binding, and off came
the bandages again. Later the little girl went on a visit to a relative,
who was greatly horrified at her large feet, and took it upon herself to
bind them again, to the child's great delight. It was with an immense sense
of her importance that she came hobbling home, supported on each side. Her
mother was ill in bed at the time, but greatly to King Eng's
disappointment, instead of being pleased, she bade her take the bandages
off and burn them, and never replace them. To the child's plea that people
were all saying "those feet," "those feet," until she was ashamed to meet
any one, Mrs. Hü replied, "Tell them bound-footed girls never enter the
emperor's palace." "And that," says Dr. Hü, "put a quietus on 'those feet,'
and when I learned that all the world did not have bound feet I became more
reconciled."




II

EDUCATION IN CHINA AND AMERICA