"Ask him if I may see him."
"Oh, I can ask him, but I know what his answer will be."
Kuei-lien went away much disturbed.
"I have had the most absurd request from Nancy," she told her master, who was lying heavily on his couch. "She wants to see you. She told me she must see you."
"Very well, tell her to come," said Herrick.
Kuei-lien could not believe the report of her own ears.
"You want her to come?" she asked. "I told her you were too busy to see her."
"What right have you to speak for your master?" the man shouted. "Go and tell her to come."
Kuei-lien had no course but to go.
"You have made a pretty mess of things," she warned Nancy. "Your father is furiously angry at your asking to see him. He said, Yes, you should see him, and ordered me to make you come."