But I stood by and saw justice done, and saw the little maid of four enjoy the first luxury of her life-time.
Girls in China early learn that they are, at best, only necessary evils, to be endured, as tradition says Confucius taught, only as the possible mothers of men.

Yet the condition of women in China is far superior to that in any other heathen country.

Monogamy is the rule in China, polygamy is the exception, being confined to the three classes, the rich, the officials, and those who can by effort afford to take a secondary wife, their first wife having failed to give birth to a son.
It is impossible to read the combined experiences of many missionaries and travellers in China without forming the opinion that the condition of women in China is as nearly satisfactory as could be hoped for, in a kingdom of "civilised and organised heathenism," as the Rev.C.W.
Mateer terms it.

The lot of the average Chinese woman is certainly not one that a Western woman need envy.

She cannot enjoy the happiness which a Western woman does, but she is happy in her own way nevertheless.
"Happiness does not always consist in absolute enjoyment--but in the idea which we have formed of it." There was no impertinent curiosity to see the stranger.