While we were having tea she asked to see Mr. Headland, as many of the older of my friends did. I invited him in, and as he entered the dining-room the young woman stepped out into the hall. My friend greeted my husband, and with a mysterious nod of her head in the direction of the young woman she said: "Chiu shih na ke,--that's it." XVI The Social Life of the Chinese Woman The manners and customs of the Chinese, and their social characteristics, have employed many pens and many tongues, and will continue to furnish all inexhaustible field for students of sociology, of religion, of philosophy, of civilization, for centuries to come. Such studies, however, scarcely touch the province of the practical, at least as yet, for one principal reason--that the subject is so vast, the data are so infinite, as to overwhelm the student rather than assist him in sound generalizations.--A. R. Colquhoun in "China in Transformation." XVI THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHINESE WOMAN The home life of a people is too sacred to be touched except by the hand of friendship. Our doors are closed to strangers, locked to enemies, and opened only to those of our own race who are in harmony and sympathy with us. What then shall we say when people of an alien race come seeking admission? They must bring some social distinction,--letters of introduction, or an ability to help us in ways in which we cannot help ourselves. In the case of a people as exclusive as the Chinese this is especially true, so that with the exception of one or two women physicians and the wife of one of our diplomats no one has ever been admitted in a social as well as professional way to the women's apartments of the homes of the better class of the Chinese people. A Chinese home is different from our own. It is composed of many one-story buildings, around open courts, one behind the other, and sometimes covers several acres of ground. Then it is divided into men's and women's apartments, the men receiving their friends in theirs and the women likewise receiving their friends by a side gate in their own apartments, which are at the rear of the dwelling. A wealthy man usually, in addition to his wife, has one or more concubines, and each of these ladies has an apartment of her own for herself and her children,--though all the children of all the concubines reckon as belonging to the first wife. I have heard Sir Robert Hart tell an amusing incident which occurred in Peking. He said that the Chinese minister appointed to the court of Saint James came to call on him before setting out upon his journey. After conversing for some time he said: "I should be glad to see Lady Hart. I believe it is customary in calling on a foreign gentleman to see his lady, is it not?" "It is," said Sir Robert, "and I should be delighted to have you see her, but Lady Hart was in England with our children, and has not been here for twenty years." "Ah, indeed, then perhaps I might see your second wife."