Ku Nai-nai was unusually pleasant at the last. She told Little Yi that she should miss her, and said a few kind words to Nelly.
Just before sunset the party started. An Ching and the children were inside the cart, with Hung Li as driver, sitting on the shafts. Hung Li had forgotten to pull down the curtain in front of the cart, and just as they turned out of the compound into the street they came face to face with Chang.
Nelly and Little Yi both started and bent forward to greet him, but An Ching held them back and whispered, 'Hush!'
Chang, after making sure that Hung Li was not looking, quickly put his head forward and asked under his breath, 'To Peking?'
The children nodded vigorously, but An Ching said, in a low voice, 'I don't know.'
Chang vanished, and the children looked questioningly at An Ching. She motioned to them to keep silent, and they did so, greatly wondering. When Hung Li, who was sitting with his back to the others, turned and saw that the curtain was not drawn, he angrily pulled it down, whipped up the mule, and they were off at a good pace. Nelly was quite pleased to feel the jolting of a cart once more. 'But surely,' she thought, 'this one bumps more than others.' It seemed so to her because she had not been in a cart for so long a time.
Just when they were getting outside Yung Ching, the thunderstorm which they had been expecting came, and the rain fell heavily, so that they were glad to keep well inside the cart. Hung Li tried to get under shelter too, but he found that he must make up his mind to bear the rain, if he meant to get any distance on the road before it became dark. He was very cross, and no one dared to speak a word.