"Still the talk and desultory parleying went on; and I remembered, with my back against the wall, scenes of the same kind in other countries - a tea-house, for example, in Shanghai, to which we had been taken one evening by a Chinese guide, a stout ruffianly man scarred with smallpox. It was a huge room, looking out onto a busy street, full of women sitting round little tables; to every three or four girls an ancient governess, like a peasant-woman who has brought pigeons to sell at a fair .... By comparison, what a refreshing informality! The young women, girls of fifteen and sixteen, wore trousers and short pyjama coats, dull blue, over white socks and little satin slippers. None was attractive, but the indistinguishable mass chattered as glib and bold as a crowd of schoolchildren. They pulled and stroked our clothes as we went by, unafraid and unabashed, almost indifferent. No taint there of this agonizing propriety. Flesh was flesh, sold and bought - bought and enjoyed. The effect might be sinister but it was also friendly; the very cynicism of the whole proceeding sweetened the air...."

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