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'But they are only heathen, she said to herself. Nelly and Little Yi were given a small room adjoining Ku Nai-nai's in the centre or chief building of the compound. An Ching and her husband had their quarters at the right, across the court. The children were sorry that they were no longer to be with An Ching, but, as she said, it was only at nights that they need be separated.
Make haste and we will go across the courtyard to Ku Nai-nai's room for breakfast. Then An Ching awoke Little Yi, who was very much amused to see Nelly putting on her Chinese dress. 'But her hair won't do, said Yi. 'No, replied An Ching, 'we must see to that. Poor Nelly! She had to swallow very hard to keep back the tears. What did they mean to do with her?
She soon found out, however, when they had all taken some Chinese porridge in Ku Nai-nai's room, and wiped their faces and hands with wet towels. Ku Nai-nai told her that she was to have her head shaved in front and the back dressed in a tail like Little Yi's. Nelly begged and protested and cried in vain.
And An Ching used to tell Nelly about her own childhood, which must have been very dull, Nelly thought; her marriage to Hung Li when she had seen him only twice, and how she was carried in a red chair from her parents' house to Ku Nai-nai's. She told Nelly that Hung Li was very greedy, and would do anything for money.
They saw no one but the Kus and their servant. Even when the barber came to shave Hung Li's head they were shut up out of sight, and their hair was kept short with Ku Nai-nai's scissors. Little Yi was becoming almost reconciled to life in Yung Ching, for although she was fond of her parents, she did not love them as Nelly did hers.
She never had a fit of the giggles now, and she was thin and pale; still, she was not absolutely miserable, for she felt sure she was going to leave Yung Ching soon, especially after she overheard a conversation which took place in Ku Nai-nai's room one night after she and Little Yi were in bed.
When she knows what I've suffered on that ladder she will give in, I think. So Chang mounted once more and told the children, who had heard a good deal of the talk, about Chang Nai-nai's efforts to converse with An Ching. They both went to try and persuade her to come, and found her in her own room. She finally consented, and, half dragged by the children, appeared through the round hole.
The larger court had the houses or set of rooms in it, and there was a smaller court which was entered through a queer gateway just like a large round hole in the wall. This court was at the side of Ku Nai-nai's rooms, and had no windows looking into it. An Ching, Nelly, and Little Yi used often to go and sit there with their work, and the children sometimes played at jumping through the hole.
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