358 Sport and Life. 



her, when she offered them a few days later to wash clothes. She 

 stood watching me with longing eyes, and I had to give her a 

 smoke to get rid of her. I felt that even the men's way of washing 

 their flannels would be more successful than any the old " clootch- 

 man " would be likely to adopt. Theirs was a simple method. 

 They would put their flannel shirts into the river, weight them with 

 a stone, and after they had had a day's soaking they were hung up 

 to dry. 



When I went back to Victoria the second time, Gee had long 

 gone back to Hong Kong. He had written to me twice from 

 there ; once to tell me that he was married, and that he had a son, 

 and the second time in answer to my inquiry as to whether he 

 would come back to my service. To this he answered that he was 

 going to stay and help his father in his store in Hong Kong, so I 

 thought that I would try a white servant. I advertised for a 

 " general," but got no reply, then I advertised for a " help." The 

 next day a nice-looking girl, becomingly but quietly dressed, 

 applied for the place. She told me that she had seen my 

 advertisement for a general servant, but she was not going to 

 answer that kind of advertisement, but when she saw my last she 

 thought that she would come round and have a look. I explained 

 that she would have all the cooking and housework to do, excepting 

 the nurseries, and a good deal of ironing. Did she think she could 

 do it? She was so pretty and languid and lady -like, that I felt I 

 could never ask her to scrub a floor and clean up. "Yes," she 

 would do everything, or rather she could do everything, but whether 

 she did do it would depend entirely on what I did myself. "What 

 part of the work do you do ? " she asked. Although somewhat 

 taken aback, I answered as deliberately and quietly as I could that 

 I had a great amount of needlework and letter writing, and many 

 social duties, and a great deal of necessary reading to get through. 

 In fact, if she only left off being busy when I did, she would have a 

 hard time. I fully expected to see her depart at once, but, to my 

 surprise, she rose from her chair with dignity, and said, " Wai, I 

 reckon we'll suit each other, shall I come right in to-night?" 



