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Just that morning we had seen hundreds of yards of the stuff drying on the lawn by the canal. The place included a large courtyard, with many racks for hanging the goods, and a long two story house. It was clear of other buildings on three sides, and separated by a characteristic high fire wall from the courts on the fourth. Nothing but the walls were left after the fire had died down.

This morning when we started for the train at six-thirty we saw many people carrying away partially burned pieces of timber, and pieces of burned clothlittered the street.

We left Hangchou with regret, and arrived in Shanghai about noon. In the afternoon we set out to do some errands, and did everything we could, though the fact of a bank holiday and the closing of many sotres for the afternoon made us hold over some things until the next morning. It it pleasant to shop in regular stores of the home-side variety occasionally, and to sit in a proper candy shop and drink ice cream sodas and buy real chocolates. In the evening we took a long ricksha ride,ending at the Majestic Lawn Cinema, where we sat in comfortable chairs on a moonlit lawn and watched Strongheart, the famous actor dog, go thru a play that hadlittle besides him to recommend it.

Tuesday, 4 August

We were up betimes this morning, after a very pure night on two very poor beds. We had been told that the train left at seven-thirty, but my love of being early to such performances got us there before seven, when it actually did go. We were soon in Soochow and got rickshas to help us see the town. What could be better for a honeymoon, which is veritably heaven itself, than Hangchou and Soochou, which, the proverb tells us, are the nearest counterparts to heaven on earth?

The station is outside of the the city wall, and we circled back to a gate through which we went into a narrow street, made into an arcade in places by overhanging awnings and banners. It was a hilly street, frequently interrupted by the steep arching bridges over the many canals that give Soochou