"Are you going to let her go, as I asked you?" went on the old t'ai-t'ai.
"Oh, there will be plenty of time to talk of that presently. This is no occasion to discuss such important plans. It's not for me to decide, anyway, what we ought to do with Nancy. That is for the others to determine."
"What you decide, they too will decide."
"You must have your broth now," said the daughter, trying to make light of the obstinate way her mother clung to her demands. "Why vex yourself about these things now? To-morrow will be time enough for a decision. There are so many things to be considered. It's no use being too hasty."
"There is one thing to be considered, her happiness and yours. For don't deceive yourself by thinking you will be happy if you keep the girl. We can't flaunt our spite in the face of heaven. And I tell you this marriage is against heaven itself; I have seen and I know. And everyone who has anything to do with it is cursed. What happened to her father? He died, the day of her marriage. And before another year is out, if you keep her here, you will be dead too. Are you going to release her or are you going to force me back from the dead to set her free? You have found me a stubborn old woman in life and you will find me more stubborn in death."
Not only had the voice of the sick woman gained its full power, but the old magical ascendancy of her will had asserted its strength. Her threat stirred the superstitious heart of her daughter. The boldness which had been gaining ground at the expense of her mother's weakness retreated again before a fear she did not know how to dispel, a vague intangible fear, here one minute, there the next, always eluding her when she tried to grapple with it, when she tried to laugh it down, the fear that a curse did in truth lie heavy upon Nancy's marriage to Ming-te. She remembered with terror how they had labored to straighten out Herrick's stiffened limbs.
"When do you want us to send her away?" she asked, after a sullen pause.
"When she asks to go," answered the t'ai-t'ai.
The daughter ransacked her mind for some pretext to avoid a promise, but she knew her mother too well of old, knew that she was not easily hoodwinked when she wanted a direct answer.
"Ah well, it can't be helped," she said finally. "If you really order me to do this, what can I do but obey? I will not keep her here. I will send her off."