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."

"And did you go into the palace every day?"

"When I was young I did. Ten Thousand Years"--another method of
speaking of the Empress Dowager--"was very enthusiastic over her
art work in those days, and often we spent a large part of the
day either with our brushes, or studying the history of art, the