Mr. Ahok, and disregarding the Chinese custom which makes it a breach of
etiquette to inquire after a man's wife, asked about Mrs. Ahok. Mr. Ahok at
once answered with evident pride, "She all the same one mandarin; she reads
books all the day." He was very proud of her unusual ability, and the
confidence and sympathy which soon existed between him and his wife was
much greater than is usual in a non-Christian home in China. Mrs. Ahok
shared her husband's warm feeling for his foreign friends. The words of
Mrs. Baldwin, who knew her intimately, characterize her well:

"She was, from my first meeting with her, ever a friend of me and
mine.... She was a woman of strong character, of fine personal
appearance, always attired in elegant dress, and so perfect in her
observance of the elaborate code of Chinese etiquette that it was
ever a marvel to me how she remembered the smallest details of the
exacting courtesy, never failing to meet the terse and telling
instruction of the standard book on etiquette for girls and women,
'As a guest demand nothing, as a hostess exhaust courtesy....' The
better I knew her the more I esteemed her."

Mr. Ahok had two beautiful homes in Foochow; one a very fine Chinese house,
the other an English residence, elegantly furnished with carpets, pictures,
piano, and all other foreign furnishings required for comfort and beauty.
In these two homes he and his wife entertained with great hospitality. Mrs.
Baldwin says that she has often seen almost the entire foreign community of
Foochow, officials, missionaries, and business people, entertained in the
Ahoks' home, sometimes in Chinese fashion, sometimes in foreign. It is, of
course, contrary to Chinese custom for the mistress of the home to appear
before gentlemen outside of her own family. Mrs. Ahok, however, knowing
that it was the custom in England and America for the hostess to dispense
hospitality to her guests, gradually accustomed herself to appearing as