The anxiety which all her friends begin to feel about a Chinese girl, as soon as she attains any considerable size, is exhibited in the inquiries which are made about her whenever she happens to be spoken of. These inquiries do not concern her character or her domestic accomplishments, much less her intellectual capacity--of which she has, theoretically, none to speak of--but they may all be summed up in the single phrase, "Is she said?" meaning by the term "said" "betrothed." If the reply should be in the negative, the intelligence is received in much the same way as we should receive the information that a foreign child had been allowed to grow to the age of sixteen without having been taught anything whatever out of books. "Why?" we should say, "what is the explanation age of this strange neglect?" The instinctive feeling of a Chinese in regard to a girl is that she should be betrothed as soon as possible. This is one of the many points in regard to which it is almost impossible for the Chinese and the Anglo-Saxon to come to terms. To the latter the betrothal of a mere child, scarcely in her teens, is a piece of absolute barbarity. As soon as a Chinese girl is once betrothed, she is placed in different relations to the universe generally. She is no longer allowed such freedom as hitherto, although that may have been little enough. She cannot go anywhere, because it would be "inconvenient." She might be seen by some member of the family into which she is to marry, than which it is hardly possible to think of anything more horrible. "Why?" the irrepressible Occidental inquires; and is quenched by the information that "it would not be proper."