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high intent, and for Hart it cleared the way, as honourably as he could, for a British marriage.” (ibid: 363) Hart saw his career as I.G. in China as a long-term commitment. He was proud to hold the position of I.G. at twenty-eight years of age and on 24 December 1863 writes in his diary: "My life has been singularly successful: not yet twenty-nine, and at the head of a service which collects nearly three millions of revenue, in, - of all countries in the world! - the exclusive land of China. " (ibid: 53) Thus, when he planned to find a European girl to marry during his home leave in 1866 he definitely hoped that his future wife would stay with him in China. His proposal to Miss Hester Jane Bredon bears this out: "Could you find it in your heart to come to China with me?" (Bell: 57) Planning his future like this, sending the children to England to be educated regardless of the expense seemed the best possible solution to sever all connection with the past and to clear the way for Hart's future married life and career in China.
Hart certainly could not foresee the future when he made such an arrangement for his children with Ayaou. At that time he probably didn't think that his future wife would eventually return to live in London permanently even though he accepted it when it did happen because he felt "matrimony does interfere with a man's work at times". In 1875 when Lady Hart decided to go home, Hart began to think of a new arrangement for his three wards. In his letter to Campbell on 5 June 1875, he asked him, on his private behalf, to make some rearrangements for his three wards who at that time still lived in London and were cared for by Mrs Davison whose husband was a bookkeeper in Smith, Elder & Co. He wanted the two boys to be sent to boarding school at Clifton College and "when being placed at one of the boarding-houses I want it to be arranged that they shall spend their 1875-1876 vacations there"; he wanted the girl "to be sent for three years to a Protestant boarding school on the Continent" and "Her vacations will also have to be spent at school.” (Fairbank, Bruner, Matheson 1975: 192-3). It should be noted that 1875-1876 is when Lady Hart prepared and finally returned to Europe. Thus it may be argued that Hart's changed arrangements for his wards in 1875 was not simply a random act resulting from some past memory of Ayaou as suggested (Wang: 140). Less than a month later in a letter to Campbell on 2 July 1875 Hart tells his friend quite clearly: "Mrs Hart has positively declared that she'll go home next spring" (Fairbank, Bruner and Matherson 1975: 198) In this case, sending his wards to boarding school and arranging for them