fewer than two hundred persons_,
_keeping in view of the audience until lost by a bend in the avenue_.

SCENE II

THE PAGODA OF GOLDEN FLOWERS

Midnight

_Surrounded by Peepul-trees_, _the great Htee_, {6} _with its crown of a
myriad jewels_, _rises towards the violet_, _star-studded sky_, _its
golden bells tinkling in a soft night-wind_.

_When the curtain rises_, _the circular platform is deserted_. _Statues
of Buddha seated and recumbent fill the numberless niches in the wall_,
_and before each burn long candles_; _heaped-up pink roses and japonica
on brass trays are lit from above by swinging coloured lamps_. _At
intervals are stalls laden with fruit and cheroots_. _All is
mysterious_, _solemn_, _beautiful_.

_A deep Burmese gong tolls_. _People emerge from the four staircases
that lead up to the platform_. _Men_, _women_, _and children_, _all in
gala attire_. _The young people conversing_, _gesticulating_, _smiling_.
_The older people_, _more subdued_, _carry beads and votive offering to
Buddha_. _Charming Burmese girls_, _with huge cigars_, _meet and greet
handsome Burmese men smoking cheroots and wearing flowers in their ears_.
_Children play silently with coloured balls_. _In the corners_, _under
canopies_, _are seated fortune-tellers_, _busy casting horoscopes_. _It
is a veritable riot of colour_, _with never a discordant note_.

_Through the crowd_ THE KING _passes alone and unrecognised_, _and
disappears through double doors of heavily carved teak wood_. _He has
hardly passed when_ MAH PHRU, _a very lovely girl_, _enters in distress_.
_She whispers that she desires an audience of the King who has come
amongst them_. _The few who hear her shrug their shoulders_, _smile_,
_and pass on_. _They are incredulous_. _She goes from group to group_,
_but the people turn from her with disdain_. _Then the great doors
open_, _and_ THE KING _is seen_. _The girl throws herself_, _Oriental
fashion_, _in his path_. _Her beauty and her pathos arrest his attention
and he waves aside those who would interfere_. _She implores_ THE KING'S
_protection_. _She is willing to be his slave_. _He listens with deep
attention_. _She explains that since her father's death she has been
continuously persecuted by the village people on the double count of her
Italian blood and her poverty_.

_The girl invites him to come to her hut in the forest and verify what
she says_. _With a gesture he signifies that he