Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 125 (Color Image)

0125	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. v.] WAITING IN PEKING. 97

from the general style of his movements, they

thought it extremely improbable that he would

wait for me there more than three-quarters of

an hour. As it turned out, we never met

again till we arrived in India, and then Colonel

Bell told me that he really had waited for me

a whole day in H ami this place in the middle

of Central Asia, nearly two thousand miles

from our starting-point—and, astonished at

finding I had not arrived punctual to time, had

proceeded on his way to India !

Meanwhile I had to remain in Peking to

await the reply of the telegram to the Viceroy,

and occupy myself in sundry preparations, and

in the search for an interpreter. A favourable

reply arrived, and then Sir John Walsham,

with his usual kindness, interested himself in

procuring for me the best passport it was pos-

sible to obtain from the Chinese, and, having

been successful, April 4, 1887, was fixed as the

date of my departure from Peking.

The evening preceding was one which it

will be hard indeed to forget, and I think I

then for the first time clearly realised what I

was undertaking. Lady Walsham asked me

after dinner to mark for her on a map the

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