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He made his way slowly through the croton bushes and round the clubhouse. He was too saddened
to feel the full pain of the disaster yet. It would begin hurting, as all deep wounds do, long afterwards.
As he passed through the gate something stirred the leaves behind him. He started. There was a
whisper of harsh Burmese syllables.
‘Pike-san pay-like! Pike-san pay-like!’
He turned sharply. The ‘pike-san pay-like’ (‘Give me the money’) was repeated. He saw a woman
standing under the shadow of the gold mohur tree. It was Ma Hla May. She stepped out into the
moonlight, warily, with a hostile air, keeping her distance as though afraid that he would strike her.
Her face was coated with powder, sickly white in the moon, and it looked as ugly as a skull, and
defiant.
She had given him a shock. ‘What the devil are you doing here?’ he said angrily in English.
‘Pike-san pay-like!’
‘What money? What do you mean? Why are you following me about like this?’
‘Pike-san pay-like!’ she repeated almost in a scream. ‘The money you promised me, thakin! You
said you would give me more money. I want it now, this instant!’
‘How can I give it you now? You shall have it next month. I have given you a hundred and fifty
rupees already.’
To his alarm she began shrieking ‘Pike-san pay-like!’ and a number of similar phrases almost at
the top of her voice. She seemed on the verge of hysterics. The volume of noise that she produced
was startling.
‘Be quiet! They’ll hear you in the Club!’ he exclaimed, and was instantly sorry for putting the idea
into her head.
‘Aha! Now I know what will frighten you! Give me the money this instant, or I scream for help and
bring them all out here. Quick, now, or I begin screaming!’
‘You bitch!’ he said, and took a step towards her. She sprang nimbly out of reach, whipped off her
slipper, and stood defying him.
‘Be quick! Fifty rupees now and the rest tomorrow. Out with it! Or I give a scream they can hear as
far as the bazaar!’
Flory swore. This was not the time for such a scene. Finally he took out his pocket-book, found
twenty-five rupees in it, and threw them on to the ground. Ma Hla May pounced on the notes and
counted them.
‘I said fifty rupees, thakin!’
‘How can I give it you if I haven’t got it? Do you think I carry hundreds of rupees about with me?’
‘I said fifty rupees!’
‘Oh, get out of my way!’ he said in English, and pushed past her.
But the wretched woman would not leave him alone. She began to follow him up the road like a
disobedient dog, screaming out ‘Pike-san pay-like! Pike-san pay-like!’ as though mere noise could
bring the money into existence. He hurried, partly to draw her away from the Club, partly in hopes of
shaking her off, but she seemed ready to follow him as far as the house if necessary. After a while he
could not stand it any longer, and he turned to drive her back.