There seemed to be such a singular misapprehension upon the part of
the courteous visitor that the Easy Chair was beginning again to
explain--"Yes, but the indisputable superiority of our glorious
country"--when the son of Altangi interrupted, with suavity:
"Certainly. I was about to add that while my fair companion insisted
that I should confess the pinching of the feet to be a heinous folly,
if not, as she was plainly disposed to believe, a crime, my eye was
arrested by another lightly and lowly draped figure of the same sex
advancing towards us with an uncertain, hobbling step so like the gait
of the lovely Chinese maidens of almond eyes that again I watched
intently, and I saw that not only was this sylph drawn out of all
natural form at the waist, but that she was attempting to walk in
little shoes supported upon high pivots called heels under the centre
of the feet. It was an ingenious combination of torture and
helplessness, to which no social circle in my native land offers a
parallel. It is a wonderful achievement, due, I have no doubt, Mr.
Easy Chair, to the manifest superiority of your great country, and
plainly a striking illustration of it. Yet it is interesting and
touching that the maidens of your politer circles, gasping in pinched
waists, and balancing and tottering on pivots under their shoes,
should inquire with so amused an air about the squeezed feet of
Chinese ladies. I pay you my compliments, Mr. Easy Chair, upon your
extraordinary country." The urbanity of the visitor was perfect. The
Easy Chair looked at his eyes to see if they twinkled, but they had
only a bland regard; and as it was beginning again--"Nevertheless,
sir, you will admit that the superiority of our institutions"--there
seemed to be so positive an approach to twinkling in the Chinese eyes
that the Easy Chair paused, smiled, and then said: "Worthy son of Lien
Chi Altangi, thy words enlighten the mind, even as those of thy