ething very neat about their movements. A
little way off is a Burman with a pink goungbaum and very rich silk
skirt. The grass, kept green by plentiful early morning watering, is
quite vivid in colour, and the clear cloudless sky is of a thrilling
blue. Government House itself is a great palace, not beautiful, as it is
built of yellow brick and pink terra-cotta, but imposing and dignified.
Burman attendants wearing turbans and skirts, called _lyungis_, of
purest mauve, and dainty white jackets, glide about with the
refreshments. Burmans will seldom take service with anyone, generally
they leave that to the natives of India, but they make a distinction in
the case of anyone so important as the Lieutenant-Governor.

"It's all rather overwhelming to me," says my friend. "You know I am a
quiet man; a well-seasoned pipe and a den full of books are about my
mark. I had no idea till I came out here that my brother was such a
boss; it makes me want to run away."

"Tell us about some of the guests," I suggest. "Why does that man in the
saffron-coloured robe have yards too much of it?"

[Illustration: A LITTLE BURMESE LADY.]

"That's his best garment, called a _putso_, I understand. The more stuff
the better, all bunched up; to show he can afford it, I suppose. Doesn't
leave much room for the tailor to display his cut. He's a prominent
Government man. I don't know him personally. Those two ladies in the
fussy little jackets are royalties; they wear that sort of thing because
they're of the old royal blood, though otherwise you only see it in the
_pwes_, or plays. They are of the house of Theebaw, the king we
dethroned in 1885 when we took over Upper Burma. He's living still in
India, where he was sent into exile. I don't know what relation these
two are to him, but when every king had at least thirty sons, there was
no scarcity of relations! It was the custom for the son who mounted the
throne in the old days to kill off all his brothers if he could lay
hands on them, as a precaution in case of accidents. I take it some of
the ladies were spared, which would make for the inequality of the
sexes."

"I suppose your brother is like a king out here?"

"He is the representative of the King. You should see him driving in
state with outriders in scarlet liveries. People in England don't
realise it. I always say how he will suffer when he retires and goes to
England, where no one will shiko to him!"

At that moment he springs to