"No; they put him into a cage in which were holes for his head and feet, but in which he could neither sit down nor stand upright. Round the cage was an inscription relating the nature of his crime."
"How long was he left there?"
"That I was not able to hear, but the day he was incarcerated I saw his daughter feeding him with chop-sticks. These, which consist of two sticks that people hold in the same hand wherewith to feed themselves, instead of knives and forks, the Chinese always use when they eat. She must have found it difficult to get to him, as she was carrying a basket, as well as a baby on her back, for she had small feet, and women with small feet cannot walk any distance, even without a load at all. It is not the rule for lower class girls to have their feet made small, though in some cases it is done. This woman had once been better off."
"Why do Chinese ladies have small feet?" Leonard asked.
"But, father," Sybil put in, "please tell us first what became of that poor old man. I am so sorry he stole."
"I heard that great poverty had tempted him to do so, but that he afterwards bitterly repented of the crime which he had committed. How long he remained in the cage I was never able to ascertain; but I really think now that we must close our 'Peep-show' for to-day."
"After we've heard about the small feet ladies, father. I think you have just time for that."
"The feet of Chinese women would be no smaller than, perhaps not as small as, other women's feet, were they not compressed."
"What does that mean?"
"Made smaller by being pressed."