Mollie shook her head.  Of course she could not borrow Harriet’s gowns.  And, though Harriet was trying to comfort her, her tone showed very plainly that she had noticed the slimness of the Thurston girls’ preparations in the matter of wardrobe for several weeks of gayety in Washington.

At a little before one o’clock the “Automobile Girls” and Harriet were ushered into the reception room of the Chinese Embassy by a grave Chinese servant clad in immaculate white and wearing his long pig-tail curled on top of his head.

The minister and his wife came forward.  Lady Tu wore a dress of heavy Chinese embroidery with a long skirt and a short full coat.  Her hair was inky black and built out on each side of her head.  She had a band of gold across it and golden flowers set with jewels hung above each ear.  Her face was enameled in white and a small patch of crimson was painted just under her lip.

Bab could hardly restrain an exclamation of delight at the beauty of the reception room.  The walls were covered with Chinese silk and heavy panels of embroidery.  A Chinese banner, with a great dragon on it, hung over the mantel-piece.  The furniture was elaborately carved teakwood.

The girls at once glanced around for the Chinese minister’s daughter.  But she was no where to be seen.  Instead, Peter Dillon, Bab’s first chance acquaintance in Washington, was smiling a welcome.  Mrs. Wilson and her son were also present.  The two or three other visitors were unknown to the “Automobile Girls.”  Even when luncheon was served the little Chinese girl did not make her appearance.  The four girls were beginning to feel rather disappointed.  They had come to the Embassy chiefly to see Wee Tu, and they were evidently not going to be granted that pleasure.

Just as they were about to go back to the reception room, Mr. Tu Fang Wu suggested courteously to his girl guests:  “If it pleases you, will you now go up to my daughter’s apartments?  She does not eat her meals with us when we entertain young men guests.  It is not the custom of our country.”  The Chinese minister touched a bell and another Chinese servant appeared, his slippered feet making no noise.  At the top of the stairs a Chinese woman met the “Automobile Girls” and conducted them to the apartment of Wee Tu, the minister’s daughter.

Wee Tu bowed her head to the floor when the “Automobile Girls” entered.  But when she raised her face her little black eyes were glowing, and a faint pink showed under her smooth, yellow skin.  Think what it meant to this little Chinese maid, with her shut-in life, to meet four American girls like Barbara, Ruth, Grace and Mollie!  Harriet had lingered behind for a few moments.

“Your most honorable presence does my miserable self much honor,” stated Wee Tu automatically.

Bab laughed.  She simply could not help it.  Wee Tu’s greeting seemed so absurd to her ears, though she knew it was the Chinese manner of speaking.  But Bab’s merry laugh saved the situation, as it often had done before, for the little Chinese maid laughed in return, and the five girls sat giggling in the most intimate fashion.