For in getting up to preach in a sort of pill-box on a long stalk, I found the said stalk surging and nodding so under my weight, that I had to assume an attitude of most dignified repose, and to beware of 'beating the drum ecclesiastic,' or 'clanging the Bible to shreds,' for fear of toppling into the pews of the very smart, and really very attentive, brown ladies below.

A crowded congregation it was, clean, gay, respectable and respectful, and spoke well both for the people and for their clergyman.

But--happily not till the end of the sermon--I became aware, just in front of me, of a row of smartest Paris bonnets, net-lace shawls, brocades, and satins, fit for duchesses; and as the centre of each blaze of finery--'offam non faciem,' as old Ammianus Marcellinus has it--the unmistakable visage of a Chinese woman.

Whether they understood one word; what they thought of it all; whether they were there for any purpose save to see and be seen, were questions to which I tried in vain, after service, to get an answer.

All that could be told was, that the richer Chinese take delight in thus bedizening their wives on high days and holidays; not with tawdry cheap finery, but with things really expensive, and worth what they cost, especially the silks and brocades; and then in sending them, whether for fashion or for loyalty's sake, to an English church.