A recondite
significance, it was said, was to be given to the old ceremonial
dress, which was to be revived, from the fact that every official
would carry a Hu or Ivory Tablet to be held against the breast.
The very mention of this was sufficient to make the local price of
ivory leap skywards! In the privacy of drawing-rooms the story
went the rounds that Yuan Shih-kai, now completely deluded into
believing in the success of his great scheme, had held a full-
dress rehearsal of a ceremony which would be the first one at his
new Court when he would invest the numerous ladies of his
establishment with royal rank. Seated on his Throne he had been
engaged in instructing these interested females, already robed in
magnificent costumes, in the parts they were to play, when he had
noticed the absence of the Korean Lady--a consort he had won, it
is said, in his Seoul days in competition against the Japanese
Envoy accredited to Korea, thereby precipitating the war of 1894-
95. [Footnote: This story is firmly believed by many, namely that
a beautiful woman caused the loss of Korea.] The Korean Lady had
refused to enter the Throne-room, he was told, because she was
dissatisfied with the rank he proposed to confer on her. Sternly
he sent for her and told her to take her place in the circle. But
no sooner had she arrived than hysterically she screamed, "You
told me when you wedded me that no wife would be my superior: now
I am counted only a secondary consort.
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