The woman interrupted with a demand from Edward as to what he was saying. She seemed suspicious and unwilling to let him proceed more than two or three sentences without having his words explained. Edward was visibly embarrassed.
"She wants that money now because that was promised and Nancy's new parents will be angry if they don't get it. It is more important than anything else."
"They will get it," said Ronald, "but I can't do anything just now. I can't touch a cent till your father's will is proved."
Edward did not understand this last sentence, so Ronald expressed his meaning at greater length.
"You see," he said, "your father was an Englishman, not a Chinese, and subject to English law. Even though he lived in Chinese style and kept Chinese customs, that makes no difference. His death must be reported to the British minister and all his papers have to be inspected, and his will, which tells how he wishes his money divided, this must be read and allowed. Before this is done the bank will not recognize me as his trustee and will refuse to pay me any money, no matter how many checks I choose to write."
The boy, still puzzled, did his best to explain these details to the t'ai-t'ai, but it was clear that she was not satisfied.
"She wants you to pay the ten thousand taels," Edward said, "then you can take it later from my father's money. She wants you please to do this—never mind about the other money; she can wait for that, but this money she must have, because Nancy's family will be very angry."
Ronald laughed.
"I haven't ten thousand taels," he declared, "or even half the sum—and am never likely to have. There is nothing else to be done. She will have to wait."
The t'ai-t'ai did not believe these statements. He was being polite. Of course he had ten thousand taels. What foreigner didn't have ten thousand taels? She returned again and again, in most tiresome pertinacity, to her request that Ronald pay this money at once, waving aside his most patient explanations as though she had never heard them. It was a strange thing, she remarked at last, that the wife of the dead man could not be trusted to dispose of his money: that a stranger had to be called in.