Chapter 4

_The jungle once more_. _Time_: _noonday_. _In place of the hut is a building_, _half Burmese_, _half Italian villa_, _of white Chunam_, _with curled roofs rising on roofs_, _gilded and adorned with spiral carvings and a myriad golden and jewel-encrusted bells_. _On the broad verandahs are thrown Eastern carpets_, _rugs_, _embroideries_.

_The world is sun-soaked_. _The surrounding trees stand sentinel-like in the burning light_. _Burmese servants squat motionless_, _smoking on the broad white steps that lead from the house to the garden_. _The crows croak drowsily at intervals_. _Parrots scream intermittently_. _The sound of a guitar playing a Venetian love-song can be heard coming from the interior_. _Otherwise life apparently sleeps_. _Two elderly retainers break the silence_.

"When will the Thakin tire of this?" _one asks the other in kindly contempt_.

"The end is already at hand. I read it at dawn to-day."

"Whence will it come?"

"I know not. It is written that one heart will break."

"He will leave her?"

"He will leave her. He will have no choice--who can war with Fate?"

_The sun shifts a little_; _a light breeze kisses the motionless palm leaves_--_they quiver gracefully_. _Attendants appear R. and L. bearing a great Shamiana_ (_tent_), _silver poles_, _carved chairs_, _foot supports_, _fruit_, _flowers_, _embroidered fans_. _Three musicians in semi-Venetian-Burmese costume follow with their instruments_. _The tent erected_, _enter_ (C.) MENG BENG _and_ MAH PHRU, _followed by two Burmese women carrying two tiny children in Burmese fashion on their hips_.

_The servants retire to a distance_. MENG BENG _and_ MAH PHRU _seat themselves on carven chairs_; _the children are placed at their feet and given coloured glass balls to play with_. MENG BENG _and_ MAH PHRU _gaze at them with deep affection and then at each other_.

_The musicians play light_, _zephyr-like airs_. MENG BENG _and_ MAH PHRU _talk together_. MENG BENG _smokes a cigar_, MAH PHRU _has one of the big yellow cheroots affected by Burmese women to-day_.

"It wants but two days to the two years," _he tells her sadly_.

"And you are happy?"

"As a god."

_She smiles radiantly_. _She suspects nothing_. _She is more beautiful than before_. _Her dress is of the richest Mandalay silks_. _She wears big nadoungs of rubies in her ears_.

_Presently_ MENG BENG _arranges a set of ivory chessmen on a low table between them_. _The sun sinks slowly_. _The sound of approaching wheels is heard_.

_Enter_ (_C._) U. RAI GYAN THOO, _preceded by two servants_. MENG BENG _looks up in surprise_--_in alarm_. _He rises_, _etc._, _and goes forward_. U. RAI GYAN THOO _presents a letter written on palm leaves_. MENG BENG _does not open it_.

_The curtains at the opening of the tent are_, _Oriental fashion_, _dropped_. _The music ceases_.

MENG BENG _and the_ GRAND VIZIER _converse apart_. _The Minister explains that the Princess of Ceylon's ship and its great convoy have already been sighted_. _The Court and city wait in eager expectancy_. _The King has worshipped long enough at the Pagoda of Golden Flowers_--_his subjects and his bride call to him_. U. RAI GYAN THOO _has come to take him to them_.

MENG BENG _is terribly distressed_.

"You can return one day," _the Vizier tells him_. "The Pagoda will remain. I also, once, in years long dead, Lord of the Sea and Moon, worshipped at a Pagoda."

MENG BENG _seeks_ MAH PHRU _to explain that he goes on urgent affairs_, _that he will come back to her and to his sons_, _perhaps before the waning of the new moon_. _Their parting is sad with the pensive sadness of look and gesture peculiar to Eastern people_.

MENG BENG _goes_ (C.) _with_ U. RAI GYAN THOO. MAH PHRU _mounts to the verandah to watch them go from behind the curtains_. _Then_, _slowly sinking across the heaped-up cushions_, _she faints_.

_The sun has set_. _The music ceases_. _The melancholy cry of the peacocks fills the silence_.

ACT DROP