"I won't marry an Englishman," said Nancy.
"Then what will you marry?" put in Edward.
"I want to marry the Emperor," answered the girl in a sudden burst of fancy.
Because her auditors both laughed, Nancy obstinately defended the absurd notion.
"When the Emperor sends to choose a wife, I shall go to the palace, and then he will command me to be his Empress, and I shall make Edward a governor."
"But he can't do that any more. We have a republic now. And, besides, you are not a Manchu. You are not even Chinese; you are only English."
"That's all the better," said Nancy, "because if the Emperor has an English Empress then all the English will belong to him and he can use their guns to drive out these republican barbarians."
Nancy's extravagant words had soon been repeated through the household where they excited great merriment. The women giggled at her temerity and nicknamed the girl privately, calling her "Mock-Empress," a name of which Nancy did not become aware till by her haughty mood she provoked it from the lips of Li-an.
"You are nothing but a half-naked barbarian, you mock-empress," exclaimed the half sister in anger. "Do you expect me to knock my head on the ground to you?"
Then the hair flew. Nancy, her wrath swiftly wakened, pounced on the younger girl.