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was finally able to come in Tom was waiting on the pier, all in white including white shorts. (He admits now that the white shorts might have been a bit out of place. Brown and dark colored shorts are extremely common in Japan, but even the Japanese truned on the street to look at his whites.) The whole ship knew of Violet's romance, and when they came in everyone wanted to see Tom. With a glass they picked him out from among the crowd on the pier, and after Violet had pointed him out someone remarked, "Why, he has forgotten his trousers." Violet says that is what she thought at first. Our three girls, who went thrid class on the same boat, and who had had word of Violet from Dorothy before they left the States, said that Violet was surprised and pleased to see Tom, and more surprised than pleased. Well, they were married, and thought the civil service was performed with Tom in the shorts he did put on his regular clothes before they were married by the church. (Violet is a Catholic.) The spent a few days in Nara, then came to Peitaiho for the rest of the summer, and got to Peking the day after we did. The story is all over the town in varying versions with varying thrills, but this version is that vouched for by the principals.

We had a good lunch, and came home rather early. Later in the afternoon we went out to the Temple of Heaven, where we had supper with Eleanor. Louise, and Mears, in a quiet corner, and then watched the moon rise over the great round white marble altar.

When the moon was well up we walked homeward. The [[strikethrough]] xxxxx [[/strikethrough]] girls were going to see Mei Lan Fan in a play based on the life of the famous T'ang dynasty beauty, Yang Kuei Fei, and we decided to try to get seats also. We were successful, and thoroughly enjoyed one of the most beautiful Chinese plays I have seen. The story concerned the emperor Ming Huang and his meeting with the young Taoist nun, and her elevation to the place of chief affection in his art and chief concubine in the palace. The last seen was a marvel of graceful and beautiful dancing.

Monday, 31 August.

My morning was occupied giving the written English entance examination, and the afternoon with correcting the papers, with the help of Miss Konantz of my department, and Tom in lieu of his wife.