To comfort them, Miss Grant promised to fetch them every Sunday, to spend
the day with her. She came for them at five o'clock in the morning,
before it was light, and took them back at nine, when it was quite dark.
If she had not fetched them herself, they would not have been allowed to
go.
After awhile, they were _not_ allowed to go. The reason was, that the
heathen mother wanted Chun to marry a heathen Chinaman. Chun refused to
commit such a sin. Then her mother was angry, mocked her, and prevented
her going to see Miss Grant. Still Chun refused. She saw her mother
embroidering her wedding-dresses, but she still persisted that she would
not marry a heathen, especially as she would have to bow down before an
idol at her marriage. Chun grew very unhappy, and looked very pale, she
wrote many letters to her kind friend, and offered up many prayers to her
merciful God. And did the Lord hear her, and did He deliver her? He did.
A Christian Chinaman, who had been brought up by a missionary, heard of
Chun, and asked permission to marry her. He had never seen her, for it is
not the custom in China for girls to be seen.
Miss Grant was delighted at the thought of her darling Chun marrying a
Christian, and she helped to prepare for the wedding. There was no bowing
down before an idol at that wedding, but an English clergymen read the
service. Chun's face, according to the custom, was covered with a thick
veil, and even her hands and feet were hidden.
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