At a long table in the dining room was Woo Ting Fang and his Chinese retinue, some in European dress and others in Chinese. Mr. Woo was Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the United States, Spain, and Peru. He was always dressed in elegant silks, beautifully embroidered. His queue had twisted silks braided into it. His little fingers and the next one were encased in fragile jade cases. On his head he wore a fluted silk cap with a diamond crescent in the front. He wore beautiful embroidered shoes. Mr. Woo's constant companion and security was a small man in European dress and haircut. He was a Yale graduate who spoke many languages. Some of the others wore queues and more simple Chinese dress. Claude became very friendly with Mr. Woo and taught him to play poker. One morning when I was playing chess with a gentleman I had met, Mr. Woo watched us for a while and then said, "I would like to play checkers with you this afternoon at two o'clock." This was almost a command, so I was in the salon waiting for him promptly at two. In a few minutes His Excellency arrived in the most beautiful costume imaginable. It was made of a grayish mauve silk with a heavily embroidered panel on either side in shades of wisteria. He wore a stole and sandals of similar embroidery. The cap on his head had the diamond crescent to which had been added a white egret. I was so entranced with his beautiful costume and courtly manners that I lost the first game. We had quite an audience by this time. Mr. Woo challenged me to another game which went on for a long time until we both had four kings. Suddenly he made a misplay and I took three of his kings. He jumped up like a spoiled child and insisted it was a mistake. Our audience said I had won the game.

The weather was beautiful the last three days. We saw a lot of Mrs. McKesson who was interested in our trip and greatly disturbed that we had no plans. She said that they were stopping at Rouen on their way to Paris and asked us to go with them. We were rewarded by seeing the handsome cathedral with its "Butter Tower." The money for this was gotten by the peasants who made and sold butter. We saw the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and many other things in connection with her history. On the train to Paris the McKessons pointed out many places of interest. They gave us some helpful addresses and good hints about abroad. We saw them many times in Paris also Bert Bushnell. They were at a hotel and we in a delightful small pension to which we had a letter of introduction. The food was delicious and we met charming people. Bert Bushnell of St. Louis was in Paris with his mother. Other interesting people on our ship were a group of actors, the Olga Nethersole troupe. They had had a good season in the United States. I think Everyman was one of their plays that I had seen. Claude and I were invited to have tea with one of these actors and his wife in London at the end of our long trip. They were very English in every way.

After seeing Paris pretty thoroughly with the help of the McKessons and my friend Bert Bushnell of St. Louis, Claude and I visited the Italian Lakes, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor; then Vienna, Germany, Belgium, Holland, and England. While in Naples we met Mrs. Darling and her two daughters of New York. She gave us a letter of introduction to her husband who was in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was there representing an armor plate company of New York. When we told Mrs. Darling we had obtained visas in Paris so we could go to Turkey, she said that was all right as that was what they had done. The law had been changed by a new Sultan and we got into a lot of trouble over this later.