I have forgotten what we had for luncheon—caviare canapé, I think, and with it finger bowls.
“No, Chang, not finger bowls yet,” I heard Mr. K. say. So Chang removed them, only to bring them back again with the next course.
“There is no use,” laughed Mr. K. to me, “he will keep bringing them back no matter how often I tell him to take them away. He always does, and we just have to have them from the beginning through.”
Mr. K. carved on the table—Chang probably insisted on that too—and asking me whether I preferred dark or white, put the breast of a broiled chicken on a plate. The Celestial one in green brocade instead of passing it to me, deftly picked up a fork, placed the chicken breast back on the platter, took a second joint instead, and saying severely:
“Him likee leg pliece!” carried the plate to Mr. K.’s mother. Company or no company, Chang served her always first.
Also the K.’s told me that Mrs. K., senior, was the only member of the family whose personal wishes he invariably respected. He is also the slave of the K. baby, but to the rest of the family he behaves exactly as a chow, or a Persian cat, or any other purely decorative independent household belonging.
China is the place for old women to live in! They receive all the attention and consideration that is shown in our own country only to the most young and beautiful.
Mrs. S., whose husband was for many years chargé d’affaires in the American legation in Pekin, is the most enthusiastic champion of everything Chinese. “If a Chinaman is staying under your roof, you need have no uneasiness on the subject of his good intentions,” she said this morning. “No Chinaman will stay in your employ if he does not like you.” As an example, she told us that while she was in Pekin the head boy of another legation was taken to task about something in front of some of the under servants—a situation of great indignity. The occurrence happened in the midst of the serving of a meal. The Chinaman quietly laid down the dish he was holding and left the room and the house. In less than ten minutes he presented himself before Mrs. S. and announced that he had come to live with them. For nothing would he go back to the other legation, and having elected Mrs. S. as his tai tai (lady) in her particular service he stayed. One New Year’s he presented her with a miniature pig, stunted in the way that the Japanese stunt trees or else just a little freak. It was only a foot long, but full grown, and as black as though it had been dipped in shoe polish.
One day in San Francisco, I went out shopping in the Chinese quarter with Mrs. S. The sensation may be imagined of an American lady suddenly speaking perfectly fluent Manchu Chinese. Such a grinning and gesticulating and smiling as went on! And the whole neighborhood gathered suddenly into the discourse.
Understanding not a single syllable, I could only watch the others, but even more than ever, they fascinated me.