foreign paper secured, and the book was made after the best style
of the printer's art, with gilt borders, gilt edges, and bound in
silver of an embossed bamboo pattern and encased in a silver box.
It was then enclosed in a red plush box,--red being the colour
indicating happiness, --which was in turn encased in a
beautifully carved teak-wood box, and this was enclosed in an
ordinary box and taken by the English and American ministers to
the Foreign Office to be sent in to Her Majesty

The next day the Emperor sent to the American Bible Society for
copies of the Old and New Testaments, such as were being sold to
his people. A few days thereafter a Chinese friend--a
horticulturist and gardener who went daily to the palace with
flowers and vegetables--came to me in confidence as though
bearing an important secret, and said:

"Something of unusual importance is taking place in the palace."

"Indeed?" said I; "what makes you think so?"

"Heretofore when I have gone into the palace," said he, "the
eunuchs have treated me with indifference. Yesterday they sat
down and talked in a most familiar and friendly way, asking me
all about Christianity. I told them what I could and they
continued their conversation until long after noon. I finally
became so hungry that I arose to come home. They urged me to
stay, bringing in a feast, and inviting me to dine with them, and
they kept me there till evening. One of them told me that the
Emperor is studying the Gospel of Luke."