She looked up at King-lo with questioning eyes. “He’s one of the tailors,” Lo told her. “Sên Ya Tin’s best one. She has sent him to you.” “To me! What ever for?” “To make you a habit.” “A habit—what sort of habit?” Did she need more Chinese clothes, she thought rebelliously. Did they think she was going to stay here forever? Lo had promised to take her home. Didn’t they know that? Ruben was in England! Didn’t they care? “A riding-habit,” King-lo told her. “A Chinese riding-habit! I didn’t suppose there were any. Why must I wear it? When must I wear it?” “No,” Sên said gently, “there are no Chinese riding-habits. An English riding-habit.” “He couldn’t make one,” Mrs. Sên retorted with an unappreciative glance at the motionless tailor. “He can make most things,” Sên laughed. “Has he ever seen an English habit?” his wife demanded. She was not in the least convinced. “Surely not,” King-lo owned, “nor any other sort of riding-habit, nor even any sort of a picture of one, I dare swear. But he’s a genius.” “He doesn’t look it,” Mrs. Sên remarked crisply. “Granted,” her husband agreed good-naturedly, “but you know the classic adage, ‘Things are not always what they seem’—not even Chinese things. ‘Skim milk’—you know the poem. This chap can do as he’s told.” “But who’s to tell him?” “You and I.” Ruby giggled—she had not often done that of late. “You’re crazy, Lo,” she asserted. “I couldn’t tell him how to make one, and I’m sure you can’t.” “Don’t be too sure,” King-lo advised her. “Ah, here come the stuffs for you to choose.” Several half-grown Chinese boys had padded in as he spoke, each carrying a paper-wrapped roll of material—sober-eyed lads with far shaven foreheads and silk-tasseled queues hanging almost to the hems of their sober robes, the crest-badge of the Sêns on each blue-clad back. “Master-artist Worth’s apprentices,” Sên pronounced them. “Tell them to apprentice off then,” his wife commanded. “They look more like dummies than apprentices,” she added. “Tell them to go, Lo. I don’t want a habit—here—what should I do with it? We couldn’t even ride in Hongkong. Send them away.”