of paintings, and said:

"How much I should like to have a picture of the Empress Dowager
as the goddess of mercy!"

"I'll paint one for you," said he.

All this conversation I soon discovered was only a diplomatic
preliminary to what he had really come to tell me, which was that
he had been eating fish in the palace a few days before, and had
swallowed a fish-bone which had unfortunately stuck in his
throat. He said that the court physicians had given him medicine
to dissolve the fish-bone, but it had not been effective; he
therefore wondered whether one of the physicians of my honourable
country could remove it. I took him to my friend Dr. Hopkins who
lived near by, and told him of the dilemma. The doctor set him
down in front of the window, had him open his mouth, looked into
his throat where he saw a small red spot, and with a pair of
tweezers removed the offending fish-bone. And had it not been for
this service on the part of Dr. Hopkins, I am afraid I should
never have received the promised picture, for he hesitated as to
the propriety of him, a court painter, doing pictures of Her
Majesty for his friends. However as he often thereafter found it
necessary to call Mrs. Headland to minister to his wife and
children he came to the conclusion that it was proper for him to
do so, and one day he brought me the picture.

The Empress Dowager not only loved to be painted as the goddess
of mercy, but she clothed herself in the garments suitable to
that deity, dressed certain ladies of the court as her