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- The Imperial Audience-
1911
April 18 was the day for the long expected Audience  for ladies - the first Audience given by the present Emperor. We had preplanned for it carefully at two meetings of the women of the corps held at Lady Jordan's. The invitation from the court was extended to one lady from each Legation and six interpreters. The selection of the latter had its difficulties, but after a good deal of talking was amicably arranged. So long as they granted me Miss Corbett, I cared very little who the others were, but we have heard since that the Chinese criticized the selection of Mrs. [[Bauer?]] (making two from the Austrian Legation) and [[Miss?]] [[Ping?]] because of their limited knowledge of Chinese. Lady Jordan who is [[doyenne?]] is not firm enough, but he has so much good feeling and sweetness that no one minds. The question of escort came up and it developed that she had formerly taken 8 soldiers & 4 ting - chairs. So as we all thought it would be a pretty thing to do, we decided to adopt it. But when I suggested it to Major Russell, he [[unclear]] off, said he would have to think it over & that it had never been the American custom. So when I found that the escort was to be mounted, I sent him a note