38 NAPAJilMA. 



Tinder vny weiijht, that T liad to assume an attitude of most 

 dignified repose, and to beware of "beating the drum eccle- 

 siastic," or " danging the Bible to shreds/' for fear of toppling 

 into the pews of the very smart, and really very attentive, 

 brown ladies below. A crowded congregation it was, clean, gay, 

 respectable and respectful, and spoke well both for the people 

 and for their clergyman. But happily not till the end of the 

 sermon I became aware, just in front of me, of a row of 

 smartest Paris bonnets, net-lace shawls, brocades and satins, 

 fit for duchesses ; and as the centre of each blaze of finery 

 " offam non faciem," as old Ammianus Marcellinus has it 

 the unmistakable visage of a Chinese woman. Whether they 

 understood one word ; what thev thouoht of it all ; whether 

 they were there for any purpose save to see and be seen, were 

 questions to which I tried in vain, after service, to get an 

 answer. All that could be told was, that the richer Chinese 

 take deliG^ht in thus bedizening^ their wives on hicrh davs 

 and holidays ; not with tawdry cheap finery, but with things 

 really expensive, and worth v/hat they cost, especially the 

 silks and brocades ; and then in sending them, whether for 

 fashion or for loyalty's sake, to an English church. Be that 

 as it may, there they were, ladies from the ancient and incom- 

 prehensible Flowery Land, like fossil bones of an old world 

 sticking out amid the vegetation of the new ; and we will 

 charitably hope that they were the better for being there. 



