ill--and at once. I shall take you out
and amuse you. No time like the present! To-day I shall telephone for
a motor, get Lily to look out my smartest clothes, and you and I will
make a round of calls. You know it is the duty of a new arrival to
wait on the residents?"

Sophy nodded.

"We will go in the afternoon, when they are all out, and so get through
a number. There are no end of sets here: the Government House, the
civilian, military, the legal, and above all the mercantile--they
really _count_, these merchant princes, being numerous, wealthy, and so
generous and charitable, and can snap their fingers at precedence.
Then there is the German set, to which I should belong--but I don't. I
tell Karl that my father was an English General and I am English--a
real Englander. We differ in so many ways from these German women--in
what we eat, like, and believe, and how we make our beds, do our hair,
and even how we knit!"

Dressed for making a round of visits, Mrs. Krauss presented a different
appearance from that loglike invalid her niece had first beheld. She
was a picturesque, graceful woman, with a pair of heartrending dark
eyes, while a little touch of colour on her faded cheeks illuminated a
face that still exhibited the remains of a remarkable beauty. Mrs.
Krauss, in a hired and luxurious motor, made a rapid round of calls
among the principal mem-sahibs--who, as predicted, were not at
home--and wrote her own and Sophy's name in Government House book.

The last house they visited was "The Barn." Mrs. Gregory received them
and gave Mrs. Krauss and her niece a genial welcome. She and Mrs.
Krauss had known one another for years, but had never been really
intimate or close friends. Mrs. Gregory was energetic, modern and
vivacious; the other, a somewhat lethargic beauty, was not interested
in the burning questions of the day, and had long ceased to take part
in local gaieties; but her niece, as Milly said, was charming, and Mrs.
Gregory felt immediately inspired by a liking for this pretty,
graceful, unaffected girl. Sophy, for her part, was delighted with
this large, English-looking drawing-room, with chintz-covered
furniture, quantities of flowers, books, an open grand piano, and a
pile of music. The hostess, too, Mrs. Milward's cousin, attracted her
and made her feel at home.

"And what do you think of Rangoon?" inquired Mrs. Gregory.

"Oh, do not ask her," interposed Mrs. Krauss with a dramatic ge