Note 148 — Chapter XVI · THE CHINESE THEATRE AND DANCES.
Reading edition
A good example of the ludicrous side of this over politeness, may be given here. The host in China will constantly press his guest to accept of things which the latter is expected to refuse; the host is also required by etiquette to depreciate himself and extol his guest, which the latter returns in kind. An English gentleman having resigned himself to his interpreter, the following dialogue (like that in Kinglake’s “Eothen,”) takes place:—