“Then do please take an interest in me, Aunt Flora,” said Sophy coaxingly, putting her arm about her and smiling into her haggard eyes.

“Very well, my dear; yes, I will—­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 gesture, “she has been with me for more than a fortnight, and this is the first time she has been beyond Kokine.  It is all my fault; she has had such a lot of housekeeping to see to and take over, and she is such a delightful companion that I have not been able to bear her out of my sight.”