China -- Court and courtiers -- Anecdotes; Cixi, Empress dowager of China, 1835-1908 -- Anecdotes; Empresses -- China -- Anecdotes
Her Majesty then proceeded on foot to her own Palace, to change her
dress for the portrait. It was a beautiful morning, and when she had
posed for about ten minutes, she told me that she felt too tired to
proceed, and asked if it would be all right to ask Miss Carl to postpone
it. I explained that as Miss Carl was going to be at the Palace for
some time, the postponement of one day's sitting would not make much
difference at that time, although I knew that Miss Carl would naturally
be disappointed. Still, I had to humor Her Majesty as much as possible,
otherwise she might have thrown up the whole thing. Miss Carl said that
if Her Majesty wished to go to rest, she could be working painting the
screen and the throne, and Her Majesty could pose again later on if she
felt like it. This pleased Her Majesty, and she said that she would try
to sit again after taking her afternoon's rest. Her Majesty ordered me
to give Miss Carl her lunch in my own room at twelve o'clock each day,
my mother, my sister and myself keeping her company. Dinner at the
Palace was usually taken about six o'clock, and it was arranged that
Miss Carl should take dinner with the Young Empress and the Court ladies
at that hour, after Her Majesty had finished dining. Her Majesty also
ordered that champagne or any other wine which Miss Carl preferred,
should be served, as she said she knew it was the custom for all foreign
ladies to take wine with their meals. Where she got hold of this
idea, nobody knew. I was sure that Her Majesty had been misinformed by
somebody, but it would have been bad policy to have tried to tell her
different at the moment. She disliked very much to be told that she was
wrong in any of these things, and it could only be done by waiting and
casually introducing the subject at some other time.
After Miss Carl had gone to rest during the afternoon, Her Majesty
sent for me and asked the usual question, viz.: What had Miss Carl been
saying? etc., etc. She seemed particularly anxious to know what Miss
Carl thought of her, and when I told her that Miss Carl had said that
she was very beautiful and quite young looking, she said: "Oh! well,
of course Miss Carl would say that to you." However, on my assuring her
that Miss Carl had given this opinion without being asked for it,
she showed very plainly that she was not at all displeased with the
compliment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account