Not long after Mr Chiu had gone to Canton, he sent for his mother to come and stay with him in the big house where he now lived. When word was brought that the servants, whom he had sent with his own silk-lined chair for the old lady, were drawing near to the city, Mr Chiu left his retinue and joined them, following his mother’s chair on foot as it entered the gateway and passed through the city. The people, as they usually do when there is anything to be seen, lined the streets, filling every doorway with their eager faces, for men, women and children had turned out to see the great man welcome his aged mother. Old Mrs Chiu sat in the sedan, her big feet sticking out from under the silk front covering of the chair. As he walked along beside the bearers, her son noticed how awkward they looked in that position, and gently pushed them inside with his hand. On went the silken chair with its bearers and escort, the people gazing with interest on all the marks of honour paid by a good son to his mother. Presently the old lady again stuck out her feet, so that they “showed like a pair of boats” on the footboard of the chair beneath the gaze of the whole city. Mr Chiu, great man as he was, did not dare to push them back again, much as he disliked to have everyone laughing at his mother’s big feet. When the chair reached the Yamen, or official house, Mr Chiu went to help his mother to get out. “What place is this?” asked the old lady, as if she did not know her son. “What place is this?” “This is the Yamen, where you are to live, mother,” answered Mr Chiu. “I can have no such happiness,” said she. “Go and see whether there is an inn near by, where people cook their own food, that I may go and lodge there.” Mr Chiu, seeing that something had gone wrong, knelt down, careless of his silk clothes and all the crowd of onlookers, and said: “O mother, I do not know what may have displeased you, but if I have offended you in any way, I ask you to forgive my fault,” but his mother would not answer him a word. Mr Chiu, finding that he could make nothing of the old lady, sent for his wife, hoping that she might persuade her to leave the chair and go into the Yamen. By this time the court was full of people who had gathered to see what was going on. Her Excellency, young Mrs Chiu, came out in her long robes and satin shoes, and kneeling down upon the stone pavement, besought Mrs Chiu, saying: “What is wrong with you, mother? We do not know why you are so angry with us. Please tell your daughter what is the matter, and why you will not come into the house.” “There can be no such happiness for me,” said the old lady shortly, and then she said no more. Young Mrs Chiu’s tears fell freely and she began again to beseech her mother-in-law to forgive whatever might have offended her, and not to shame her son in the eyes of his friends and neighbours.