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Hester Jane Bredon (1866-1886) and the subsequent twenty-two years of living alone in Peking after Lady Hart moved back to enjoy life in London, we may surmise that Hart's years of liaison with Ayaou (roughly 1857-1865) gave him his fill of romance, including both his satisfactions and its limitations. For whatever reason, after that his need for feminine companionship declined as he steadily and inexorably became more enamoured of managing the Chinese Imperial Maritime Custom Service.
This point can be proved by what Hart says in his diary entry for 23 July 1864:
Merely, I presume, that I have gotten through the "love-fever, 20@30, term of life, and that for the future something other than woman will chiefly attract me. (Smith, Fairbank, Bruner 1991: 384)
Hart, of course, did not want to embarrass his family by confessing to a long relationship with Ayaou, a relationship that affected his life in so many ways, including his first experience of fatherhood. Thus, in Declaration 1 and 2 he attempted to reduce the extent of his relationship with Ayaou. He even covered up the year when his third child by Ayaou was born so that the duration of his sexual relationship with Ayaou was made even shorter. (We will give a more detailed analysis of this issue later in the paper.)
Hart also attempted to reduce the extent of his relationship with his children by Ayaou. In Declaration 2 he stated: "To the best of my recollection and belief I have seen Anna twice or three times only and Herbert once only. This was in China. I have never seen Arthur." It might be true that, as suggested before, Hart never had a chance to see his youngest son Arthur, as his intimate relationship with Ayaou might have ceased before the boy was born. However, it seems unlikely that he saw Anna "twice or three times only and Herbert once only". It was fatherhood that made Hart cease his relationship with his new native partner Ayi and resume his relationship with Ayaou. If he had not had both enjoyment with and responsibility for his children by Ayaou, particularly the girl Anna, he would have already abandoned Ayaou in 1858. It has been argued that (Bruner, Fairbank, Smith 1986: 232) Hart “was a man of conscience and in later life affectionate, almost doting, toward little girls and young women. One can imagine how his baby