Of course, these foreign women do not say these things in words, but
their looks are most expressive, and I understand. I serve them tea
and cake, of which they take most sparingly, and when the proper
time has come they rise, trying not to look relief that their martyrdom
is over. I conduct them to the doorway, or, if the woman is the wife of
a great official, to the outer entrance. Then I return to my own rooms
midst the things I understand; and I fear, I fear, Mother mine, that I
gossip with my household upon the ways and dress and manners of
these queer people from distant lands.
I have been asked to join a society of European and Chinese ladies
for the purpose of becoming acquainted one with the other, but I do
not think that I will do so. I believe it impossible for the woman of the
West to form an alliance with the woman of the East that will be
deep-rooted. The thoughts within our hearts are different, as are our
points of view. We do not see the world through the same eyes. The
foreign woman has children like myself, but her ambitions and her
ideals for them are different. She has a home and a husband, but my
training and my instincts give my home and my husband a different
place in life than that which she gives to those of her household.
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