SHW&Y DINGA 
 
 The 
 Repentance 
 
 of 
 Destiny
 
 ^^vA 
 
 J. < '3
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF 
 DESTINY 
 
 A ROMANCE OF ANGLO-BURMAN LIFE 
 
 SHWAY DINGA 
 
 ADTHOR OF "WHOLLY WITHOUT MORALS' 
 
 LONDON: DUCKWORTH & CO. 
 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 1913
 
 All rights reserved
 
 FR 
 606? 
 
 PART I
 
 THE 
 
 REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " A LONELY mind in a holy setting does not attract 
 me," said Tun Min with emphasis, " and I refuse to 
 be a monk !" 
 
 He was addressing his father, Ko Moung, a blood- 
 stained Burman, whose declining years were passed in 
 the ancient and royal city of Pegu. It had once been 
 famous as the capital of the Talaings for its sub- 
 stantial fortifications, its broad streets, and the sanctity 
 of the great Shwe-hmaw-daw Pagoda ; but it was 
 shorn of much of its glory when devastated by the fire 
 and sword of Alompra the Terrible. Ko Moung him- 
 self was not a Talaing, having been born and bred in 
 Upper Burma of pure Burmese blood, but after the 
 expulsion of Thebaw he retired to the comparative 
 peace and quiet of a town that had enjoyed the benefits 
 of good government for a third of a century. In his 
 youth as well as in his prime he had regarded the law 
 with contempt, and its infraction with delight ; he had 
 stolen his neighbour's wife, defrauded tax-collectors, 
 waylaid and dacoited whole flotillas of paddy-boats 
 that had exchanged their cargoes for coin, and had 
 stuck at nothing, whether it was smuggling, stealing, 
 
 3
 
 4 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 burning, or killing, provided it was the right stimulant 
 his moral nature wanted at the moment. When, how- 
 ever, the cataclysm came which swept the descendants 
 of Mindoon Min from off his throne, Ko Moung readily 
 attached himself to Victoria's lieutenants, and helped 
 them scour the country in search of dacoits who were 
 then ravaging the newly annexed territory. But 
 though the occupation had the right flavour its 
 energetic character was rather beyond his weight of 
 years, and at a convenient pause in the chase he with- 
 drew to the repose of a city not fully awake from the 
 deep slumbers of decadent years. He was religious in 
 neither life nor thought, but he was deeply impressed 
 with the necessity in old age of atoning for the pleasant 
 memories of youth, and setting vigorously to work had 
 come to be known and honoured as the builder of 
 pagodas and kyoungs and zayats. Those were un- 
 doubted works of merit, but he had lived a busy life, 
 and was afraid that there was still a shortage on the 
 credit side of life's ledger. Such a thought was a 
 source of grave anxiety, till he resolved to be done with 
 it once and for all by making his only son a monk. 
 
 " My influence," he reflected, " will make him a 
 Bishop, and what can be more meritorious ? The past 
 will be sponged wholly out." 
 
 But Ko Moung had reckoned without Tun Min, on 
 whose shoulders the robes of monasticism had never 
 sat lightly. 
 
 " The language of rebellion," said the father reprov- 
 ingly, "suggests a disturbed mind and a purblind 
 soul." 
 
 "Those are wljat I left with the Bishop in his
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 5 
 
 kyoung," said Tun Min, as he undutifully cast off his 
 novitiate's robes. 
 
 " Well, well, boy, youth has its temperature, and 
 we won't quarrel about a degree or two more or less. 
 But what did you say when you broke the sad news 
 to the Bishop ?" 
 
 " I left no doubt about my renunciation. I told 
 him I had a complaint which he had not, and that as 
 different diseases had different remedies I should test 
 the efficacy of another treatment." 
 
 " By that you meant change of air ?" 
 
 " By that I meant the life of a man and a gentleman. 
 I know what is in Ko Moung's mind. Yes, I like the 
 ladies. But what I feel most is the spur of ambition." 
 
 " Of what ?" 
 
 " I want to rise and shine. I want to be a myook, 
 ruling and judging, punishing and rewarding." 
 
 Ko Moung laughed heartily but not mockingly. 
 
 A myook in those early days of empire was some- 
 times a judge of unlimited incapacity, but always of 
 strictly limited jurisdiction. In Burmese times his 
 commission had been both simple and comprehensive : 
 endowed with a ward, they bade him " eat " it ! There 
 was then neither pay nor promotion, the myook being 
 permitted to devour what was handy in exchange for 
 his public services ; and the office, being free from the 
 embarrassment occasioned by audits and inspections, 
 was regarded as both honourable and lucrative. But 
 we changed all that. Change in our political philosophy 
 connotes growth, enlightenment, and prosperity, so we 
 rudely put the myook on pay. The Burman is a merry 
 soul, and when the decree went forth that the myook
 
 6 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 was to cease his exactions, he celebrated it in song, and 
 with pwes and with wine. He thought it a capital joke, 
 possibly as a bold effort to Christianize the race at one 
 stroke, and he laughed all the louder ; but he was un- 
 deceived when he found that we not only put myooks 
 on pay, but also put them in gaol ! Pay and punish- 
 ment were, in short, our purifiers, and there emerged 
 from the Imperial lazaretto a new and clean-looking 
 public service, but emphatically more honourable than 
 lucrative. 
 
 " I am serious," said Tun Min, " so don't laugh." 
 
 " Come, come, child !" said his father discouragingly. 
 " Sane men do not desire the jewels in the tsainbaw of 
 the Shwe Dagon. Myook, indeed ! Often enough 
 have I thought of that noble order; but it was far 
 oftener that they thought of me. Trap after trap did 
 they lay for me, but I was too wary." 
 
 " Bury the past, for its remembrance only impover- 
 ishes you, and your finances will not bear the strain of 
 any more charities." 
 
 " My finances," said Ko Moung, who was very well 
 off, " have broad shoulders, and have supported both 
 myooks and charities. But has Ko Tun Min's am- 
 bition gone mad ? What hope is there that his dreams 
 will be realized ?" 
 
 " Myooks," said Tun Min, holding up his forefinger 
 " are not born, but made." 
 
 " Like money ?" 
 
 " Exactly. In ways that are lawful or not, according 
 to one's prejudices." 
 
 " Only some ways are shorter than others." 
 
 " That is what the Sayadaw said with sadness. He
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 7 
 
 thought there was no quicker route to a fat billet than 
 by marrying one's sister to an official that is, tem- 
 porarily." 
 
 " You have no sister to sentence." 
 
 " The Sayadaw was not thinking of me, but was 
 illustrating the ugly truth that straight roads are longer 
 than circuitous ones." 
 
 " Geometry, my son, does not mix with morals but 
 what does is common sense. You are highly gifted 
 how have you chosen ?" 
 
 " Well, the front door of competition is barred and 
 bolted." 
 
 " I never heard of it." 
 
 " They don't often open it," said Tun Min, who had 
 studied the question, " but when they do it is for brainy 
 fellows without interest in high places." 
 
 " I never met a brainy myook in my life. Who's 
 been stuffing you up ?" 
 
 " Ask the Sayadaw. But they are regarded with 
 suspicion, and are employed on menial jobs, such as 
 counting stamps or whitewashing plague spots." 
 
 " You will never enter by that door. What of the 
 others, my son ?" 
 
 " The others are all behind and they have this 
 unique distinction that they are always open." 
 
 " And who are they that enter ?" 
 
 " The well-introduced." 
 
 " Let's get to the bottom of statecraft," said Ko 
 Moung, who was thoroughly interested. " You have 
 now spoken of the thoughtfulness of our Government 
 for the minority who have either brains or friends ; 
 but how about the multitude ? they have neither."
 
 8 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " They are not forgotten," said Tun Min, taking a 
 pull at Ko Moung's leg. " For them were the pro- 
 fessions invented such as law, medicine, and journal- 
 ism. Believe me, they are not only well filled but over- 
 stocked." 
 
 " Charlatans one and all," said Ko Moung, thinking 
 of his hairbreadth escapes. " I have been in tight 
 corners, my son in the grip of the law or of death. 
 But it was Ko Moung that saved himself." 
 
 " Besides, father, there's no honour in the practice of 
 a profession. No one ' shikoes ' to doctors and 
 pleaders, but the myook is a prince in his township." 
 
 " There is no incense like worship, my son. It is the 
 soul's intoxicant. It was the same with Mindoon's 
 myooks as with Victoria's. They are all of one pattern. 
 And has this notion of a pattern ever occurred to Ko 
 Tun Min ?" 
 
 " I don't follow." 
 
 " Well, I'll explain. Look at our rulers, and tell me 
 if every class has not a distinct stamp of its own. For 
 instance, when out on column I was thrown much with 
 soldiers, and found them all alike habitually tight, 
 and immoral and abusive. And as for our commis- 
 sioners, they were uniformly peevish and penurious, 
 loving none and beloved of none. Then who is the 
 policeman but an expert in polo and other pastimes 
 that his pay will never cover ? And have we forgotten 
 the young wundauk mins ?" 
 
 " What about them ?" 
 
 " They were the nicest of the lot, with their curries 
 and cocktails and concubines, and there was little to 
 choose between them."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 9 
 
 " I don't know what my pattern is," said Tun Min, 
 unalarmed. " But they can try me as they did the 
 secretary's butler he made quite an orthodox myook." 
 
 " I knew that Madrassi ' boy ' well," said Ko Moung, 
 who had an excellent memory. " And it came to a 
 severe crisis in the Burma administration when it was 
 felt that either he or his master must go. In the end 
 matters were compromised, and the ' boy ' went but 
 it was to a myookship." 
 
 " Ma Le !" exclaimed Tun Min as he saw the Saya- 
 daw enter after leaving his sandals at the door. 
 
 The Sayadaw, or Bishop, U Dharna, had attained 
 episcopal office without a struggle, for he was dis- 
 tinguished alike for his piety and his learning in a 
 society that was prolific in neither. He had, moreover, 
 been a diplomatist, and in the troublous days of Thebaw 
 had conducted secret negotiations between the two 
 Courts at Mandalay and Rangoon, which brought 
 equal credit to his character and profit to his diocese. 
 Asceticism was deeply set on both his face and figure, 
 but it had never marred the sweetness of his expression 
 or of the silvery tones of a voice that rang of purity and 
 love ; and he knew his powers, for they had seldom 
 failed. Buddhist bishops are not less dignified than 
 our own, and a visit to the house of Ko Moung would 
 never have occurred to U Dharna, but he was engaged 
 in reclaiming a recalcitrant pupil, and therefore did 
 the end justify the means. He had brought back many 
 a waif and stray, and when he set out to reclaim 
 Tun Min he already pictured the pupil back in his 
 kyoung, deep in his studies, and dead to the world and 
 its distractions. He seated himself on a Donabyu
 
 io THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 mat while his hosts knelt deferentially before him, 
 expecting to be led in a devotional exercise not 
 prayer, but a service in which wholesome precepts are 
 recited. But the Bishop proceeded to business at once. 
 
 " Now that my son," he said with a smile, " has done 
 his filial duty to a loving parent, doubtless he will be 
 glad to return with me." 
 
 " Never, my lord ! It is our fashion to become 
 monks just as it is for Kalas to go to school only for 
 a time ; and with me that time is past." 
 
 " But where there are pupils there must be teachers . 
 And what is there more meritorious than the care of 
 the young ?" 
 
 " The care of the old, the wrong-headed, the wicked," 
 said Tun Min promptly, for he had thought it all out, 
 and was prepared to discuss the matter if challenged. 
 
 " That," said the Bishop, " is none of your business. 
 We surrendered it to our rulers at the Conquest ; and 
 no one could do it as well." 
 
 " But, my lord, they do not do it unassisted." 
 
 U Dharna had never suspected that deep down in 
 Tun Min's heart was a longing to shine in the judicial 
 service, and for a moment he looked out on the river 
 that flowed by the side of Ko Moung's house, and was 
 silent. 
 
 " It is not the charm of good-fellowship," he re- 
 flected, " nor the fascination of fair women, nor yet the 
 magnetism of athletics that attracts him, but it is 
 ambition of another and more virulent type. It is 
 the subtlest seduction of all it is the glamour of 
 Imperialism !" 
 
 The Bishop knew he had nothing to offer that would
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY n 
 
 tempt a mind made up to seek employment under 
 Government ; but his experience had proved that plans 
 hastily formed were hastily abandoned, and he thought 
 it worth the trouble to investigate the genesis of Tun 
 Min's ambition. 
 
 " When did my son make up his mind ?" he asked, 
 drawing nearer to Tun Min. 
 
 " Long before I passed the patmabyan examination." 
 
 " Then your ambition was a plant that grew and 
 matured in darkness ?" 
 
 " Altogether, my lord." 
 
 " That, at any rate, was appropriate," said the 
 Bishop, " for it is in darkness and mystery that the 
 people of this world are ruled and misruled. But 
 beware of pitfalls ! In their busy lives officials must be 
 doing not thinking they haven't the time for it, 
 and there's the danger. You will be vested with 
 powers for good and evil, and if you wish to draw your 
 pay you will exercise them. You will draw your pay ? 
 What then ? Will the mistakes of to-day bear no fruit 
 to-morrow ? There will be no Naikban for Tun Min." 
 
 The association of cause and effect has deeply im- 
 pressed the Buddhist mind, and it is accustomed to 
 shu4der at the eternal consequences that flow on and 
 on from the most ephemeral and imponderable causes, 
 and imperil the attainment of Naikban or Nirvana, 
 which, being the absorption of the Ego in a general and 
 all-pervading essence, is the goal of all true Buddhism. 
 But Tun Min had come early within the zone of a 
 Christian missionary's teaching and preaching, and had 
 ceased to^be enamoured of Buddhist metaphysics with- 
 out being exactly divorced from them. This, however, he
 
 12 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 could not admit, so he resolved to turn the Bishop's 
 flank with his own weapons. 
 
 " It is not, my lord," he said with humility, " that evil 
 alone begets consequences, but good is as virile a 
 parent ; and if you say that I've been a good pupil, then 
 why not a good myook ?" 
 
 " Bother you and your myooks," said Ko Moung 
 impatiently. " I thought we had done with impossi- 
 bilities." 
 
 " It may be impossible for a myook to be good, but 
 it is not impossible for Ko Tun Min to be a myook," 
 said the Bishop, intending to be severe. 
 
 " But," said Ko Moung, who was not disposed to 
 abandon his doctrine of patterns lightly, " is that 
 stripling of the right pattern, my lord ? When I think 
 of all the myooks I either evaded or killed, they were 
 all cast in one contemptible mould." 
 
 " Are two faces, are two souls, ever alike ?" asked 
 the Bishop. " Who did Ko Moung resemble when he 
 was pillaging and plundering ? Who, again, did he 
 recall when he gave wells to the thirsty, shelters to the 
 homeless, and medicine to the sick ? I see Ko Moung's 
 mistake. He means not patterns, but ideals. There 
 are no ideal judges." 
 
 " When I was a boy," said Ko Moung, " they talked 
 of ideal princesses." 
 
 " Only in fable," said the Bishop, and, turning to Tun 
 Min, asked if his choice were irrevocable. 
 
 " Quite, my lord," said Tun Min in a clear voice, 
 showing that he had no desire to continue the discussion. 
 
 ' You mean to join the Government ?" 
 
 Tun Min nodded.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 13 
 
 " Then," said the Bishop, " possibly I have without 
 intending it assisted you very considerably on the way 
 to the desired goal." 
 
 Both Ko Moung and his son looked open-mouthed at 
 the Bishop, wishing that he would at once remove their 
 suspense. 
 
 " Do you," asked the Bishop, " know the new civilian 
 with the red face and straw-coloured hair ?" 
 
 " Walworth Bubbles ?" 
 
 " The same. He's a brainy boy, and you'll learn a 
 lot from him." 
 
 " What, go to school again ? Never !" said Tun Min, 
 feeling that practical joking was not exactly within the 
 episcopal province. 
 
 " As a teacher," said the Bishop, looking amused. 
 " He has to pass in Burmese." 
 
 " He's begun quite well," said Ko Moung with a 
 grunt. " He actually ordered his young lady before he 
 arrived, and now that she's moved in he never moves 
 out." 
 
 There was little foundation for the libel, but it had 
 been true of all Walworth's predecessors, so Ko Moung 
 assumed it was true of him. 
 
 " That," said the Bishop sadly, " is the prescribed 
 course of study for the colloquial test ; but there are 
 higher standards for which scholarship is essential, and 
 when they asked me to name a tutor I could think of 
 none other than the gifted Tun Min." 
 
 Moung Tun Min wept silently. 
 
 " Let me see," said the Bishop, " the good missionary 
 grounded you well in English before you joined us ?" 
 
 Tun Min nodded, for he was still very choky.
 
 14 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " And with us you shone so in Pali scripts that the 
 examiners were amazed. My son, whither this tutor- 
 ship will lead to who can see or say ? You have my 
 benediction may you follow the light. Purity and 
 firmness of purpose have their own reward prove that 
 the myook can also be a missionary." 
 
 The Bishop left as he had come, without greeting and 
 without farewell. 
 
 " I'm glad the silly old man has gone," said Ko 
 Moung, assuming a more comfortable pose. " Who 
 knows, Ko Tun Min, but this may be the chance of a 
 lifetime ! Take it with both hands. These young 
 civilians have long memories, and show their gratitude, 
 not by tossing you a ten-rupee note, but by speeding 
 you on your official way." 
 
 " But it will take time to qualify." 
 
 " That is ' ullayga.' They reward services more 
 handsomely than appropriately. You remember Loo 
 Tyouk the scullery-boy who kept the Yaybaing's pots 
 and pans sweet and clean ? They made him a myook ! 
 Judging may be good for his circulation, but what 
 about the litigants ?" 
 
 " Their laws, however, are simple," said Tun Min, 
 taking a rosier view. " There are ten precepts, and 
 the missionary thought they covered all possible human 
 contingencies that might arise." 
 
 " A code of only ten commandments," said Ko 
 Moung, surprised at Tun Min's appalling ignorance, 
 " would be contemptible. The Empire would be the 
 laughing-stock of the nations. Don't you know my 
 sporting records ?" 
 
 " I know you've done some killing."
 
 15 
 
 " The kala's prowess is measured by the number of 
 the tigers he shoots." 
 
 " And by the elephants' tusks he mounts." 
 
 " Big or small," said Ko Moung, " game is game, and 
 the sportsman counts success by the heads in his bag. 
 So did I. There are no less than two hundred and 
 ninety-eight sections of the penal code that I have 
 broken as if they were biscuits. You won't believe 
 me, but the public prosecutor said I was top scorer, and 
 that the Government was positively sick." 
 
 " Sick ?" 
 
 " Sick of having to make newer and more severe 
 laws every day." 
 
 " It must be lovely making laws !" said Tun Min, 
 leaning back against the wall, and trying to imagine 
 the charms of legislation. 
 
 " Nothing to the exhilaration of smashing them to 
 smithereens ! But don't run off with the notion that 
 myooks make laws. He had enough to do to ad- 
 minister them when Ko Moung and his friends were on 
 the loose. Those were grand days ! And to think 
 of the absurdity of Ko Moung's son wishing to be a 
 myook. We bribed them, killed them, spat on them, 
 or evaded them as it suited our purpose, but such a 
 notion as wielding magisterial power never entered our 
 dull minds. Still, it is a worthy ambition." 
 
 " Did the Bishop," asked Tun Min, " say when I 
 should call on the young Wundauk Min ?" 
 
 " He was obsessed. The episcopal mind is easily 
 shocked and reduced to pulp by the mildest dis- 
 appointment." 
 
 " And yet Ko Moung looked forward with equal
 
 16 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 repose and satisfaction to his son's promotion to the 
 same office." 
 
 " It was its meritorious aspect," said Ko Moung, 
 wishing to forget all about it, " that soothed but never 
 mind that. Walworth Bubbles when translated means 
 ' good fortune ' ; and, believe me, if you wish to get on 
 you must woo fortune both early and late." 
 
 " Will you come with me, father ?" 
 
 " That would be fatal. Thakin will want to be 
 private and confidential. He is honeymooning with a 
 bride he cannot talk to, and you must be his mouth. 
 Walk warily. If you're suspected of making fun you're 
 ruined. Keep the fun for your dad." 
 
 Moung Tun Min did not like the prospect of going 
 alone, and was angry with the Bishop for not suggesting 
 a personal introduction ; but he decided he would wait 
 on his lordship, the Wundauk Min, only, Burman-like, 
 he put the visit off till the morrow as though he were 
 paying a debt.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 TUN MIN looked out of his bedroom window on the 
 murky waters of the Pegu River, and listened to the 
 boatman's song of love and beauty and wealth. It was 
 a song characteristic of a light-hearted, happy-go-lucky 
 peasant, who had no thought of happiness unless it 
 was connected with his paddy-boat and paddy-field, 
 with his loving wife and gay rollicking children, and 
 with the cattle he regarded as his own flesh and blood. 
 But the song touched no chord in Tun Min's heart. 
 His soul was stirred by other ambitions, and he yearned 
 for another life. He turned from the busy river to the 
 equally busy highway, and gazed for a moment on a 
 melancholy group of monks returning with their 
 morning's collections, and wondered whether he was 
 cast in a different mould from his compatriots. 
 
 " The Burman," he mused, " is one or other of two 
 types. My father represents one, and the Bishop the 
 other. Ko Moung dedicated every possible moment of 
 his life to pleasure, and there's not a fibre in his bulky 
 body that wasn't trained to contribute to his animal 
 delights. With the Bishop it was the other way. He 
 abrogated natural law in the animal world for himself 
 and pretends that he has found a comfortable asylum 
 in a monkish mind. Bah ! Ko Moung's life was 
 depraved the Bishop's is useless and purposeless." 
 
 17 2
 
 i8 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 While he mused he heard an unfamiliar voice chant- 
 ing an equally unfamiliar maxim. 
 
 " Those," said the voice, " who sit in the shadow of 
 the Great shall bask in the sunshine of Goldmohurs." 
 
 It was Bindasery, the messenger who had been com- 
 manded overnight in imperious tones to " fetch " Tun 
 Min to the bungalow of the impatient Walworth 
 Bubbles. " Take this and begone !" said Tun Min, 
 mistaking him for a beggar, and flinging him a four- 
 anna bit. 
 
 " It is blessed to give," said Bindasery, salaaming, 
 " but I'm no mendicant. I'm the humble slave of the 
 new Wundauk. You're a lucky fellow to have found 
 favour with him." 
 
 " Does he want me ?" 
 
 " By telegram ! If you dawdle it'll be death ! 
 These young civilians have neither manners nor 
 patience." 
 
 " They have their ways and we ours we must be 
 tolerant. But just a minute while you call a gharry 
 I'll put on my very best putsoe, and, believe me, Thakin 
 will be amazed at our expedition." 
 
 Tun Min's blood was aglow, and his heart literally 
 thumped to hear the good news that he was summoned 
 to the presence of his creator. 
 
 " I shall now," he said to himself, " be created anew 
 in estate, if not in body and mind, and the glory will be 
 Walworth Bubbles's. If he has sense, gratitude, and 
 influence, we shall rise and shine together. Of course, 
 I cannot aspire to the dizzy heights of a commissioner- 
 ship. In the Imperial economy the guardian is 
 always greater than his ward. He is my trustee
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 19 
 
 some day he will be my governor may I then be his 
 Woon." 
 
 The ticca was at the door almost before Tun Min 
 had completed his simple toilet, and he was soon started 
 on the first momentous journey of his life. It was a 
 long drive, and he thought he would encourage the 
 garrulous messenger to discuss his master in the hope 
 of discovering whether the Wundauk had any moral 
 and spiritual corns that were better avoided. The 
 missionary had shown marked symptoms of several, 
 and Tun Min thought it likely that Bubbles might 
 possibly have a few that were peculiar to him. 
 
 " Is this Wundauk different from other men ?" he 
 asked, shutting the door of the carriage with some 
 violence in the hope that it would jam and stay in its 
 place. 
 
 " He has a man's appetites, and a master's manners," 
 said Bindasery, looking the picture of disgust. 
 
 " That," said Tun Min with approval, " is natural to 
 all in masculine authority. But what of his tempera- 
 ture ? Does it rise and fall like a tidal river ?" 
 
 " It never falls ; and I have watched it with alarm ! 
 He began by abusing my mother, but that is only 
 customary. Then he took to fining and beating me ! 
 Now he suggests sending me to penal servitude for life, 
 twice a day !" 
 
 " His cook is to blame," said Tun Min, as if he had 
 had the complaint all his life. " You know the 
 Sayadaw ? According to him temper is much more a 
 matter of digestion than of morals." 
 
 " Neither his digestion nor his morals bother him 
 much, as you'll soon see. Yesterday the policeman
 
 20 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 asked him how he liked the country, and what do you 
 think he said ?" 
 
 " Doubtless something polite, though possibly untrue 
 that, the Sayadaw said, was characteristic of English 
 manners." 
 
 " No, no ! He told the brutal truth with a snigger. 
 He said where there were curries and concubines there 
 was his paradise." 
 
 "That is not an uncomfortable temperature, and he 
 might be a capital fellow for all that." 
 
 " Why do you ask ?" said Bindasery, wondering 
 whether he had given not only his master but himself 
 away. 
 
 " I'm interested. I'm going to be his munshi that 
 is, to begin with, but if I'm lucky " 
 
 " Yes. He can work miracles with your destiny. 
 But you must be necessary to him. I tried that game 
 myself, but only succeeded in becoming a peg for his 
 blasphemy." 
 
 " If you were guilty of an error of judgment you can 
 surely correct it," said Tun Min. " You are both young ; 
 and time passes slowly." 
 
 " Matters will never improve. As I said, I'm not 
 necessary to him. Whether he plays or whether he 
 works and he's prodigious at both he can do without 
 Bindasery." 
 
 " So play and work consume all his energies ?" 
 
 " All. As a matter of fact, it is all play, only work is 
 its serious side. But he exhibits the same tastes and 
 the same temper whatever he is doing. In office he 
 imposes taxes, raises rents, fines and imprisons out of 
 office he is shooting and killing !"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 21 
 
 " I don't know that I shall take to him," said Tun 
 Min, feeling nervous about the approaching interview. 
 
 " Give him a chance. But if he begins dropping you 
 out of a top window then you'd better limp home, 
 and resume the yellow robe of a monk." 
 
 " I'd rather die than that !" 
 
 " Disappointment doesn't agree with you Burmans," 
 said the messenger with a smile. " I've met many 
 who took to dacoity to be even with destiny, and, my 
 word, they had a merry time till they were caught! 
 But let's have a look at your hands. It was my skill 
 as a palmist that got me my present job, and, believe 
 me, if you are hanged I can foretell the day and hour to 
 a nicety." 
 
 The Burman brackets palmists and astrologers with 
 the barest necessaries of life, and shows the esteem in 
 which they are held by addressing them as Sayas as 
 professors in some branch of science. Tun Min had had 
 his fortune told on the pagoda platform dozens of times, 
 and as the forecast was invariably favourable his belief 
 in the art was deep-rooted, and he held both hands out, 
 almost thrusting them into Bindasery's face. 
 
 " Empty hands," said Bindasery with the craftiness 
 of the trade, " betoken a still more empty future " ; 
 and taking the hint, Tun Min immediately made a 
 donation that was large enough to gild the thread of 
 destiny. 
 
 " You are a Burman," said Bindasery, squeezing the 
 soft hands he held, " and your destiny is naturally that 
 of a Burman." 
 
 " If that's all you know " 
 
 " Be patient you are not yet a Wundauk."
 
 22 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " But shall I ever be one ?" 
 
 " If you can kill a woman who threatens to destroy 
 you without destroying yourself." 
 
 " Women do not mingle with my thoughts you are 
 romancing." 
 
 " You can choose whether she makes your bed but, 
 mark me, she can dig your grave whether you like it or 
 not." 
 
 " But there are no new marks, my friend how do 
 you tell me that ?" 
 
 " The lines are as old and as unchangeable as your 
 destiny. I'm not lying. What inspires you with 
 other hopes ?" 
 
 " The ' htee,' of course. Doesn't that betoken a 
 royal crown and sceptre ambition satisfied and happi- 
 ness achieved ?" 
 
 " Be not deceived, my young friend the ' htee ' 
 you see is a hangman's noose !" 
 
 Tun Min withdrew his hands hastily, and, pale as 
 death, scanned them closely, expecting to see symptoms 
 of a cruel tragedy fully developed, but instead he saw 
 just the same old scrawks that pagoda palmists had 
 interpreted to mean a career heavy with years and 
 loaded with honours. 
 
 " No wonder," he exclaimed with wrath, " the 
 Wundauk prescribes untold tortures for a liar like 
 you ! Did you tell his fortune with a mouthful of 
 lies ?" 
 
 " If I have exaggerated the bitterness in your cup of 
 life by a single drop, then may the lightning reduce me 
 and mine to cinders !" 
 
 " Come, then, and tell me where the signs are, or I
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 23 
 
 shall sew you up in the hide of an ass, and drown you 
 with my own hands " 
 
 " Let me convince you do you know your line of 
 fate when you see it ?" 
 
 " I have two such lines ; and do you deny their 
 eloquence ?" 
 
 " I confirm it. Tell me where those lines end, and 
 don't scorch me with your looks." 
 
 " One ends on the head line, and the other on the 
 heart but that's a long way off." 
 
 " Don't be comforted with shadows. Be assured 
 that both your heart and mind will betray you. Are 
 your lines of life not snapped before you have begun 
 to be a man ? Is your line of head not broken in the 
 middle ? and how gleams the star on Saturn ? Then, 
 can you count the crosses on " 
 
 " Never mind the crosses I'm not a Christian, and 
 to me they mean nothing. But is there not a wealthy 
 marriage ?" 
 
 " Mercury and Venus do meet in life's thoroughfare 
 by accident but not in Tun Min's hand." 
 
 " Then what have I to hope for ?" 
 
 " A short life of more distraction than distinction 
 for a time you will rise and shine then you will fall 
 and wane and the end will be rapid." 
 
 While Bindasery spoke and prophesied, Tun Min 
 trembled, and a cold perspiration broke out all over 
 him. He remembered hearing the missionary say 
 that the art of prophesying had been brought to great 
 perfection by the ancients, and he recalled the names 
 and characters of Biblical seers with a feeling that he 
 was doomed.
 
 24 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Have you seen another hand like mine, and has 
 your forecast come true ?" asked Tun Min, hoping to 
 discover some foundation for doubt. 
 
 " Only one such, but the sun has not had time to rise 
 and set often enough for his thread to snap." 
 
 " It's a man, then ?" 
 
 " Curiously enough it is Walworth Bubbles, and it 
 is in good company that you will either be made or 
 marred." 
 
 Tun Min was now thoroughly alarmed, and wished 
 he had never left the sanctuary of the monastery, with 
 its simple life and promise of annihilation after a life 
 of concentrated thinking and self-denial ; but he could 
 now see both the Wundauk's house, and the Wundauk 
 himself looking at the approaching ticca, and no 
 retreat was possible. Anyhow, he thought he had been 
 warned enough, and to be forewarned might, he hoped 
 in his case, mean that he was forearmed, and taking 
 his courage in both hands, he left the ticca at the 
 gate of destiny, and, making a deep obeisance, entered 
 the study of the terrible Walworth Bubbles.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE partiality of scholarship for plebeian surroundings 
 is notorious, and Walworth Bubbles was therefore 
 respecting its traditions when he agreed to be born in a 
 grocery on the Walworth Road. There, however, his 
 reverence for tradition ceased, and, scorning the attrac- 
 tions of successful trade, applied his vigorous mind to 
 the acquisition of a sound knowledge of languages both 
 living and dead. Those were, indeed, the golden days 
 of Abbot, and becoming a " citizen " the child Wal- 
 worth grew in classic lore till he passed by natural and 
 easy transition to a junior studentship at the House, 
 taking en route the Indian Civil, the Hertford, the 
 Craven, and the Ireland. In strictness his Oxford 
 career should have determined at the close of his second 
 year, but the India Council then as now was captivated 
 by the ripeness and culture of Oxford scholarship, and 
 Walworth was allowed the indulgence of an extended 
 probation. His Dean had hoped that the association 
 would be permanent, and that a professorial fellowship 
 would be the goal of the young scholar's ambition, but 
 the atmosphere of Common room was closer than 
 Walworth liked, with its professed and unprofessed 
 beliefs and unbeliefs, and he openly expressed an 
 ungrudging preference for the pure air of Imperialism. 
 
 25
 
 26 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 The consolations of the cloisters seemed to him to 
 shrink to nothing when compared with the power and 
 dignity of an Imperial office, and if current reports were 
 true the larger latitude in Eastern morals was an even 
 greater attraction. 
 
 " To rise and shine by day," he reflected, " one must 
 go to bed with comfort by night." 
 
 Having discovered the secret of business success and 
 domestic happiness he boldly elected for service in a new 
 province that had widely extended its boundaries in 
 order to bring the blessings of Western culture to the 
 doors of the barbaric East. It was in this way that 
 it came about that Walworth Bubbles was settled in 
 the Talaing capital, whither he was sent for training 
 in the twin departments of law and administration, 
 and was bidden to begin by acquiring a working 
 knowledge of Burmese. To the uninitiated lingual 
 study is associated with bespectacled professors, pon- 
 derous dictionaries, and much tedious wandering in the 
 mazes of grammatical construction, but to the orthodox 
 student proficiency in Burmese is simplicity itself. 
 Concubinage, if referred to the standards of Western 
 ethics, is a deplorable heresy, but judged by the laxer 
 code of the Orient is of high utilitarian value ; and 
 Walworth's practical mind was at once attuned to its 
 many excellencies. It was a popular belief that he 
 had ordered his mistress by cable, but there was no 
 foundation for the fable. On the contrary, his im- 
 patience to be equipped with an interpreter was ex- 
 plained by his impatience to be furnished in a suite he 
 had set apart for his harem. 
 
 " My interpreter," he argued, " will know both the
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 27 
 
 garden and the flowers that grow in it but I shall cull 
 them alone and unassisted." 
 
 It was thus that the opportunity came to Tun Min 
 to rise and shine, but he did not spurn it, for he had 
 the practical mind of a navigator who is concerned 
 with the tides of a river rather than with the purity 
 of its waters. 
 
 " You were a monk ; what made you chuck ?" said 
 Wai worth, addressing Tun Min, now kneeling on a mat 
 before him. 
 
 " I wanted to return to manhood." 
 
 " By Jove, you Burmans do begin early ! Fancy 
 coming back to manhood at eighteen, when at my ripe 
 age I've never got there yet not permanently, any- 
 how, as I've only had the loan of another fellow's 
 missus, but he's due back from furlough. Well but 
 just a minute what about your pay ?" 
 
 " It is enough honour to sit in my lord's presence " 
 
 " That won't be a damned bit of use to you, or to 
 me either ! Listen. I expect you have some am- 
 bitioneh ?" 
 
 " To rise and shine that is, to find favour with my 
 lord." 
 
 " This is odd. I left the chilly cloisters of a rapidly 
 decaying church in order to have a damned good time 
 imperially in its widest sense with bed and board 
 amply furnished yes, and to be a dazzling star in the 
 political firmament. And, by God ! you, forsooth, 
 forsook those filthy dirty abominations they call 
 kyoungs for the same noble purposes. Well, let's 
 rise and shine together !" 
 
 Tun Min bowed low.
 
 28 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " You can begin at once. You shall be my bench 
 clerk. That, I understand, is an unfailing recipe for 
 making a judge." 
 
 " But I know no law except what the immortal 
 master has bequeathed to us in the dammathats." 
 
 " You will never know any law, and you will be none 
 the worse for it. Don't let it bother you. It's a con- 
 temptible subject. Almost more so than the mis- 
 guided people who come and shout for it in the godown 
 they call a court. Let's talk of something more 
 soothing. Tell me, Tun Min, do you know all the girls 
 in the district ?" 
 
 " Not to speak to ; I've only just doffed my robes. 
 But there's nothing simpler than an introduction." 
 
 " How so ?" 
 
 " It is understood that my lord is unmarried, and 
 the girls are at present looking their very best with 
 both eyes on the road that your lordship goes up and 
 down upon." 
 
 " Good God ! They're not expecting marriage ?" 
 
 " Not of course in your sense, but in ours ; and the 
 association is regarded as perfectly honourable." 
 
 " That's a comfort. For the law allows only one 
 wife was there anything more absurd ? Did one 
 curry satisfy your simple tastes ? Besides, curries and 
 concubines, you know, sound much better than curry 
 and wife there's a suburban tone of penury and 
 vulgarity about the latter." 
 
 Being well-bred, Tun Min repressed a smile, of which 
 Walworth caught only the barest suspicion. 
 
 " But Tun Min," said Walworth, continuing, " there 
 is one thing in my limited experience that I do really
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 29 
 
 bar, and it is to wake up with the smell of cocoa-nut 
 oil in my nostrils every morning. Surely your 
 religion " 
 
 " Its use, my lord, is prescribed, not by the religion 
 of the soul, but by the worship of the body." 
 
 ' You learnt that as a monk. Drop it. Let's 
 come to the point I'm always wandering from it ; but 
 do you know Ba Shin's daughter Minkale ?" 
 
 Tun Min gasped, and turned a deadly hue, but Wai- 
 worth was engaged in relighting his cigar, and failed to 
 notice his interpreter's changed expression. It was a 
 well-kept secret, but it was true that Tun Min was 
 deeply attached to Minkal6, and his passion was held 
 to explain much more forcibly his " return to man- 
 hood " than his professed appetite for an Imperial 
 office. In his monastic solitude he had thought of her 
 by day and dreamt of her by night as his wife, and here 
 to his consternation was a thinly veiled suggestion that 
 he should surrender her with all his future happiness 
 to the soulless animalism of his Imperial master ! He 
 was staggered for a moment, but then he realised with 
 all an Oriental's instinct that the situation was one to 
 be intelligently exploited without surrendering any- 
 thing of any value, and he remembered that he had 
 come, not exactly fully equipped, but highly trained 
 in the Sayadaw's school of diplomacy. 
 
 " I have known her all my life," said Tun Min, 
 boldly proclaiming his ability to introduce the Wundauk 
 Min to the only girl he thought he ever did or could 
 love. 
 
 " Lucky dog ! My God, isn't she just adorable !" 
 
 Judged by Burmese criteria of beauty, Minkale was
 
 30 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 singularly beautiful, for, with the exception of her hair, 
 which was jet black, she was a tall handsome study in 
 the lightest of browns, her soft skin harmonizing exactly 
 with her large but eloquent brown eyes. Like the 
 women of her race, she dressed in exquisite taste, and 
 her national costume, if it adorned, also gave the fullest 
 expression to a graceful figure, the delicate outlines of 
 which were seen to greater advantage in repose than in 
 motion, for Burmese girls have never learnt to walk. 
 
 " But who," said Walworth, resuming in a tone of 
 irritation, " is Moung Ba Shin, and what does he mean 
 by having a beautiful daughter ?" 
 
 " He is a Kyoungtaga " 
 
 " You mean that he has left the long for the short 
 road to heaven, and is cultivating a little cheap but 
 ' meritorious ' philanthropy ? I don't care a damn 
 about that ! Is he a saheb, and is his wife a lady ?" 
 
 " He began life as a paddy-broker, and built up an 
 enormous fortune by his energies " 
 
 " And infernal rascality, you bet ! I'm interested ; 
 go on." 
 
 " Now he is a municipal commissioner, and wears 
 both a chain and a medal of eighteen-carat gold." 
 
 " That's a bit of all right. He's self-made like our- 
 selves, and won't despise us. But has he any privi- 
 leges rajahs, you know, are exempt from service on 
 juries, payment of debts, and so forth." 
 
 " He is exempt from personal abuse." 
 
 " The Deputy-Commissioner can call him what he 
 likes surely." 
 
 " No one may call him the son of a lady dog, and it 
 is an exemption he greatly values. He can gamble
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 31 
 
 without being invaded ; he can store contraband, such 
 as opium, without being searched ; he can sip whisky- 
 and-soda at the Chief Commissioner's garden - par- 
 ties " 
 
 " He's not such a damned fool as to do that !" 
 
 " And when he is sworn as a witness, judges and 
 barristers don't shout at him and call him a liar." 
 
 " I see," said Walworth disapprovingly ; " our 
 Imperialism has spoilt him, and practically made an 
 Englishman of him that is, so far as it can. With 
 his swelled head he'll be looking for a husband for 
 Minkale. What a goose when I only want her as a 
 loan !" 
 
 " Oh no, my lord ! There is nothing in the Imperial 
 arsenal, from patent leather to a knighthood, that 
 would make an Englishman of a Burman." 
 
 " I've heard of your pride of race, but where the 
 devil it comes from and what excuse there is for it 
 only God knows ! We've had enough of Ba Shin and 
 his exalted position I'll bet he climbs down but 
 Minkale, I'm sure, is a real darling ! And I'm sure she 
 means business she's always on the lookout when I 
 pass. Do you think she'd care to come and spend the 
 day just to give the introduction a cheery, friendly 
 tone ? You know, Tun Min, with your gentle manner 
 and persuasive power you could do the trick. But 
 perhaps just at first it would be asking too much." 
 
 " It is never bad form in the East to ask too much 
 in fact, it is the only way to get anything. But, my 
 lord, Minkale is not a character easily conquered." 
 
 " She isn't a little vixen ? Now come !" 
 
 " She has ideas she has character, my lord."
 
 32 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Don't tell me she's a saint before she's had time 
 to be a sinner. Up at Oxford nothing bothered me 
 more than to see youth with a fixed determination to 
 be godly without having sampled the joys of a godless 
 life. Is it the same with Buddhists ? And do your 
 women believe in religion ?" 
 
 "It is part of a woman's nature," said Tun Min, 
 " and it is the meritorious life that has caught Minkal6's 
 fancy." 
 
 " In what way ?" 
 
 " She threatens to become a nun !" 
 
 While the garrulous Walworth had been babbling 
 about Oxford and its saints and sinners, Tun Min's 
 active brain had been at work groping in the dark 
 for some dilatory suggestion which would, if followed 
 up, have the effect of restraining Walworth's impetu- 
 osity, at any rate for a time, while greater minds than 
 his were able to design a counter-attack. At first he 
 thought his brain had gone to sleep for ever, when the 
 brilliant idea struck him that they could play for quite 
 a long time with the notion that Minkale intended to 
 take the veil. 
 
 " And," he reflected, " if Thakin can only be got 
 to believe that it is my monkish influence that has got 
 hold of her, he will try to get me out of the way. And 
 to do that he will have to send me pretty far that 
 means a myookship at least to begin with, anyhow." 
 Tun Min was certain that Minkale would be willing 
 to act the part, but that if the news were sprung on 
 Walworth while he was courting her he might think it 
 was a ruse, and if he did, it meant his own extinction. 
 He therefore decided to prepare Walworth for a
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 33 
 
 possible, but by no means probable, disappointment 
 as the surest way of grinding his own axe. 
 
 " So the nun," said Walworth, " is a living reality 
 is she ?" 
 
 " That is so, my lord." 
 
 " That," said Walworth, looking puzzled, " is one 
 of the paradoxes of life. When you are in full posses- 
 sion of all your faculties with an unlimited capacity 
 for sensual enjoyment that above all is the time 
 curiously enough when fanatical youth wishes to abjure 
 the world. What damned rot ! But don't tell me 
 that the fair Minkale has renounced the flesh and the 
 devil irrevocably." 
 
 " Gautama thoroughly understood the Burman 
 heart," said Tun Min, " and therefore the Buddhist 
 vow is freely revocable. We can be saints and sinners 
 alternately as often as we please, and there is a tonic 
 in the change for both young and old. Perhaps my 
 lord's blandishments will correct Minkale's impressions 
 of life. She has met no Englishmen yet save the 
 Yaybaing Min." 
 
 The correction he hoped would never be accom- 
 plished, but that before Walworth was undeceived he 
 himself might rise to quite a respectable height. 
 
 " That reminds me," said Walworth, thinking of his 
 school and college days, " that whether I was com- 
 peting for a blue blazer on the river or for a blue riband 
 in the schools, my efforts were always crowned with 
 success. But still that was a world from which women 
 were excluded. Are women very different from men > 
 in Burma ?" 
 
 " They are more easily imposed upon." 
 
 3
 
 34 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 "Well, Moung Tun Min, it's useless talking we 
 must be doing. Another week of this cold companion- 
 less life would be death and damnation to the warm 
 heart that beats in my manly bosom. What do you 
 propose ?" 
 
 " My lord, nothing. I mean that my imagination 
 is much too dull to suggest a feasible plan, but my 
 father has had a picturesque past in which the brightest 
 colours were gay women. Let me consult him." 
 
 " He won't be shocked ?" 
 
 " I've seen him in many moods, and his temperature 
 bobs up and down, but he's never shocked. He takes 
 an indulgent view of a man's necessities." 
 
 " Egad ! There's nothing wrong with his circulation 
 nor with mine. Well, see me again to-morrow, and, 
 hark you, there's no such word as impossible in the 
 language you and I speak." 
 
 Walworth was one of those characters who almost 
 as soon as they have taken a serious step are assailed 
 by doubts as to its propriety, and the moment Tun 
 Min's back was turned he threw himself into a long- 
 armed chair, and wondered whether he had not com- 
 promised the glorious traditions of his service. The 
 fact that he might be the ruin of Minkale also occurred 
 to him, but looking about him he saw it was customary 
 for a young Englishman to borrow an equally young 
 Burmese woman without being held to have ruined her 
 or to have compromised his service, and for the time 
 his conscience was lulled. 
 
 " On the whole," he reflected, " it is the custom, and 
 a damned good custom !" 
 
 Had he just then looked down his drive he would
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 35 
 
 have discovered another custom, for Bindasery, guess- 
 ing from the length of the interview [and its friendly 
 tone that cordial relations had been established, swiftly 
 pursued Tun Min to the gate, and there received an 
 unwilling acknowledgment of a happy introduction. 
 
 " It is the custom," said Tun Min, tossing him a rupee, 
 " and a thoroughly detestable one."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 TUN MIN'S early summons to the presence of the 
 golden-haired Wundauk Min was soon both public 
 property, and the sensation of the quarter in which 
 he lived, and Ko Moung's many friends promptly 
 came round to congratulate the family on its good 
 fortune. Among the first callers was, of course, 
 Moung Ba Shin, who had all along known of Tun Min's 
 passion for Minkale, and who had openly rejoiced when 
 he was told how one of Ko Moung's plans for earning 
 merit had suddenly collapsed. He had, indeed, remon- 
 strated with Ko Moung for callously committing his 
 son body and soul to the monastic deep, but Ko Moung 
 had a masterful will, and suggestions from outside, 
 though pregnant with wisdom, made no impression- 
 upon him if they ran counter to his plans. All that, 
 however, was now passed, and Ko Moung greeted his 
 visitor with the warmth of an old friendship. 
 
 " But where wih 1 it lead to ?" said Ko Moung, seizing 
 the betel-box and motioning his guest to a seat on the 
 gaudy Axminster that also did duty for a bed when 
 conversation nagged. 
 
 " His is a great destiny," said Ba Shin, who took 
 quite an affectionate interest in Tun Min. " Why be 
 anxious ? To look ahead is prudent, but to look far 
 
 36
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 37 
 
 ahead is to miss the good things that are near. He will 
 soon be a myook, and is that not enough ?" 
 
 " I," said Ko Moung, with a merry laugh, " used to 
 love the aroma of a myook, but never in my own house. 
 Burmese tastes, though, are like children's clothes we 
 grow out of them. I once chevied a myook who had 
 robbed a diamond merchant from the wind-tossed 
 waters of Meiktila to the city walls of royal Mandalay. 
 There I caught and slew him, and now I have a presenti- 
 ment that I shall be the father of one." 
 
 " Nobody will want to chevy Ko Tun Min," said Ba 
 Shin, rolling his chew about with his tongue ; " his 
 administration will be a boon and a blessing." 
 
 " To himself certainly," said Ko Moung, with a 
 wink, " but as you say, Ko Ba Shin, he is a good boy, 
 and is shaping well. How is it with Minkale ? and was 
 she interested in the news ?" 
 
 " She was speechless, but I watched her do her hair 
 again, and when she came downstairs it was in a new 
 thamein, and a lovely white silk jacket she'd got 
 them all on including her diamond comb and earrings." 
 
 " Her prophetic eye foresaw a visit." 
 
 " Exactly ; and her womanly heart thumped to 
 know it was near. Indeed, she's been in a flutter ever 
 since Shway Goung (golden-head) appeared ; it was 
 some silly superstition. Some lying say a on the 
 pagoda platform warned her that her destinies would 
 immediately alter on the appearance of a Wundauk 
 Min with golden hair, and now that he's come she daily 
 expects the fulfilment of the other half of the prophecy." 
 
 " The feminine mind is more heart than brain what 
 they wish they think will happen, and it's good that it
 
 38 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 should be so for Ko Ba Shin, it keeps them quiet. 
 But all the same, what you've just said fills me with 
 misgiving." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " As a boy I showed my deep reverence for the truth 
 by slippering such sayas as pretended to read my future, 
 either from a dirty horoscope or from a sanguinary 
 hand, but Minkale seems to have happened on one who 
 knew what he was raving about." 
 
 " But why should that distress you ?" 
 
 " I foresee trouble. That young Wundauk with the 
 golden head has an amorous heart, and his blood is 
 aflame. He will explode as it stokes up unless some- 
 body puts him in ice. What do you think ? He has 
 ordered the police to take an inventory of all marriage- 
 able girls in our quarter, and to note whether they are 
 disengaged." 
 
 Both men burst out laughing, for in the Burmese 
 moral code delinquency that is essentially masculine 
 is easily condoned. Doubtless it is so also in the West 
 that is to say, in practice but there it is deemed 
 respectable to have ethical standards that you bow 
 to on Sundays, but systematically cut during the rest 
 of the week. 
 
 " Minkale," said Ko Ba Shin, when he could talk 
 without gurgling or spluttering, " is perfectly safe. 
 She has been unwaveringly loyal to Ko Tun Min, 
 though she might have made a dozen brilliant marriages 
 while he was fasting and praying, and trying to con- 
 vince his soul that he had abandoned his human heart 
 for ever." 
 
 " Don't you believe it ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 39 
 
 " Don't believe what ?" 
 
 " That Ko Tun Min made any such spiritual effort. 
 But we are straying from the point. Never be sur- 
 prised. Supposing the Wundauk Min sends his greet- 
 ings and a hint or two that he intends to examine the 
 sanitation of your house " 
 
 " Minkale could pay a hasty visit to her cousins in 
 Rangoon." 
 
 " Then, my friend, you'd pay an equally hasty but 
 much more uncomfortable visit to the town lock-up, 
 where they'd search you for opium and find it." 
 
 " Impossible ! Give the Englishman his due he 
 does not oppress us in these matters, but I admit that 
 it's not nice to have him for an enemy. But I'm not 
 afraid. At the first sign of danger we can get the 
 young people married, and the annoyance would 
 cease." 
 
 " You would have a worse annoyance in its place." 
 
 " How so ?" 
 
 " Ko Tun Min would cease to rise, and therefore 
 cease to shine." 
 
 " Perish my crops and my cattle rather than that ! 
 But if we put our heads together we can play with the 
 Wundauk till he's transferred ; he's no danger." 
 
 " Two Burma heads may be better than one, but 
 the good missionary says they were made for forget- 
 ting. He was talking of the golden-headed Wundauk 
 Min, and forgetting the missionary's holy character, 
 I thought for a moment he was lying like a pleader. 
 He was talking of Durbar day at Oxford, when they 
 wear their gaudiest robes, and assemble to do honour 
 to their best ; and, my word ! here we think a lot of a
 
 40 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 man who is decorated with one chain or with one 
 medal, but Ko Walworth on four different Durbar 
 days carried off certificates of honour, silver dahs, 
 gold watches and medals, and purses filled with 
 sovereigns." 
 
 " He must have been brave in the capture of 
 dacoits." 
 
 " He never saw one till he visited the lock-up. 
 These were rewards for learning, so if you are pitting 
 your craftiness against his, give your Burma head a 
 brush with some of that polish that makes dull leather 
 shine." 
 
 " Levity at Ko Moung's age and in this crisis does 
 not become him. Let us be serious. The Wundauk 
 will never finish his training here, and his is a fickle 
 nature. When transferred, he'll forget Minkale all 
 right." 
 
 " But he mustn't be allowed to forget Minkale" if Tun 
 Min's to get on. I don't wish to distress you, but he's 
 got Minkale on his list to be ruined and abandoned." 
 
 " That's a fable," said Ba Shin, who would not have 
 minded the seduction, but the abandonment was dis- 
 tasteful. 
 
 " Well, here comes Ko Tun Min. Look at his face. 
 Let him talk ; perhaps he can reassure us." 
 
 But for being a shade paler, Tun Min's face was, as 
 usual, expressionless, and he calmly removed his shoes, 
 taking a seat on the carpet alongside Ko Ba Shin, of 
 whom he was very fond, and from whom he had re- 
 ceived every encouragement in private to forsake 
 monasticism for the Government service, with its 
 potentialities in the case of deserving servants.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 41 
 
 " Judged by the length of the interview, Ko Tun Min 
 must have made and left a favourable impression," said 
 Ko Moung, inviting the boy to relieve their suspense. 
 
 " He has made me Bench Clerk and Interpreter at 
 one stroke." 
 
 " Bravo !" said both the elderly men, immensely 
 pleased. 
 
 " He was most affable. He didn't try to freeze me, 
 as the Commissioner does when he rides round to 
 patronize the Bishop in his kyoung. He said we 
 could rise and shine together." 
 
 " He doesn't swell with his own importance ?" 
 
 " He's a lady's man first and foremost, with all his 
 feelings on the surface. There's importance about 
 him, too, but it has nothing to do with his 
 work." 
 
 " Play is much the more important of the two, and 
 the Wundauk has sense," said Ko Moung ; but all the 
 same he had a foreboding that as his son's narrative 
 developed, his own fears connected with Minkale 
 would be realized. 
 
 " Unless it's ' chinlon,' you'll be of little use to him 
 as a playmate," said Moung Ba Shin, beginning to 
 think that Walworth's estimate of Tun Min's worth 
 might suddenly change for the worse. 
 
 " I'm not the right sex for his games," said Tun Min, 
 with a smile ; " but I can give him plenty of play for 
 all that. To cut a long story short, he feels his isola- 
 tion, and wants a lady companion." 
 
 " Not a wife ?" 
 
 " No. And he has spied into our houses with some 
 success."
 
 42 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " The police have abetted him," said Ko Moung, 
 " and he has the photos of all our lady friends." 
 
 " He didn't want the police to tell him that Minkale 
 was the only pretty girl in Pegu." 
 
 " I told Ko Ba Shin so," said Ko Moung, now greatly 
 agitated. " That Wundauk is the son of a dog, and 
 unless we are very careful he will-be our ruin." 
 
 " Did you tell him," asked Ko Ba Shin, " that Min- 
 ka!6 was betrothed to you ?" 
 
 " It struck me," said Tun Min, not a bit ashamed, 
 " that the truth was not suited to such a crisis. It's 
 a funny thing about truth that it can both light and 
 extinguish the lamp of hope, and I preferred a little 
 harmless lying instead." 
 
 " It gives one time," said Ko Moung, rolling himself 
 a chew. 
 
 " I invented what might turn out to be a nice little 
 fable," continued Tun Min, " and, as it was chiefly to 
 save Minkale, it is not without merit." 
 
 " There is undoubted merit in tricking a rascal," 
 said Ko Moung, hoping that whatever the artifice was 
 it was enough. 
 
 " I suggested the futility of his thinking of her, as, 
 notwithstanding her father and mother's solicitations, 
 she was proposing to take the veil." 
 
 ' Youk Kya !" shouted Ko Ba Shin, " we are proud 
 of Ko Tun Min." And he began to sway his body 
 from side to side, as they do in a pwe. 
 
 " In time," added Tun Min, " the Wundauk will be 
 told that I am egging Minkale on to nunnery, and he'll 
 wish to be rid of me ; that's my chance of promotion." 
 
 " It is a brilliant thought," said Ko Ba Shin, " and
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 43 
 
 who would have supposed Tun Min capable of it ? for 
 he is not a born liar." 
 
 " He does quite well enough by practice," said Ko 
 Moung, by no means pleased at the turn things were 
 taking. " This is an emergency that wants a level 
 head the head of a man, not the tongue of a boy." 
 
 " Why are you alarmed ?" asked Ko Ba Shin, 
 amazed at Ko Moung's attitude. 
 
 " Who can see where this will end ?" said Ko Moung, 
 deeply moved. " The rivers that rise in the mountains 
 have their outlet in the sea ; but those that rise in the 
 heart often only too often flow to the grave." 
 
 For several moments no one spoke, but neither Tun 
 Min nor Ko Ba Shin could account for the gloom that 
 spread itself over Ko Moung's features. 
 
 " Ko Ba Shin," said Ko Moung after a while, " had 
 better take counsel with the adored Minkal6 and her 
 sweet mother ; and when Ko Tun Min and I have 
 settled a little business, he, too, can go and join their 
 charmed circle." 
 
 Ba Shin was accustomed to Ko Moung's brusque 
 and summary methods, and took his departure without 
 any annoyance. On the contrary, he was only too 
 eager to carry the good news of the double appointment, 
 and there was, moreover, the joke about the Wun- 
 dauk's amours, and how cleverly Tun Min had out- 
 manoeuvred him. He laughed as he shuffled along 
 with the aid of his staff, but gradually the light entered 
 into his mind, and he saw what it was that had alarmed 
 Ko Moung, and wondered that he had been such a fool 
 as not to have grasped the full import of the situation. 
 
 " I see now," he said, thinking aloud, " the chance
 
 44 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 it is for Minkale too to rise and shine. Ko Tun Min 
 is a very nice boy, but were I a girl I know which I 
 should choose if the Wundauk Min wanted me and 
 Minkale' is my daughter. She will know a chance 
 when she sees it. Poor Tun Min !" 
 
 When Ko Ba Shin had gone, Ko Moung beckoned to 
 Tun Min to move nearer to him, and addressed him in 
 a whisper. 
 
 " This is," he said, " a grave and delicate matter, 
 and it wants all a man's wits to keep it on the right 
 track. You and I, if left alone, would finish Walworth 
 Bubbles in as many ' chuckers ' as we pleased ; but 
 there is a pretty and scatterbrained woman in the play. 
 Dance and talk and sing she must but for whom ? 
 For herself or for Ko Tun Min ?" 
 
 " I don't understand." 
 
 " Surely you see that Bubbles will prove a tempta- 
 tion too strong for her to resist ! Women have their 
 ambition, and in Love's game you can foul your adver- 
 sary without limit." 
 
 " Ko Moung is doing Minkale an injustice." 
 
 " I hope I am, my son. But be vigilant. In the cup 
 of life there is no bitterness like that of disappoint- 
 ment." 
 
 Tun Min laughed when he thought there was any 
 danger of disappointment to himself, but he agreed 
 with his father that Minkale had a trying part to play, 
 and one in which she wanted all their resources as well 
 as her own.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 WHEN Moung Tun Min arrived at Moung Ba Shin's 
 house he knew there was great merriment within, and 
 that the laughter-loving ladies had had their sense of 
 humour considerably tickled. Externally the building 
 resembled his own, as, indeed, did most houses that 
 were built of wood, in two compartments, so to say 
 one below, and the other above ; but as he entered he 
 saw something very different from the cheap Axminster 
 and Donabyu mats that sufficed for Ko Moung's simple 
 tastes. There were gold-skirted mirrors, elegant 
 walnut-wood chairs, and sofas upholstered in crimson 
 plush, a Shan gong that hung between two rudely 
 carved Burmese braves, Benares bric-a-brac, a Satsuma 
 tea-service that stood on an undusted teak sideboard, 
 and vulgar-looking carpets from Agra, that gave the 
 room the appearance of a badly-arranged auctioneer's 
 depot. Tun Min nearly fell over an occasional tea- 
 table in his eagerness to salute his hostess, at which 
 they all laughed, and finally found a resting-place near 
 a Gautama, that looked sadly on an open but empty 
 hand. 
 
 " Now, I did hope," said Ma May, his hostess, " that 
 a distinguished guest like Ko Tun Min would like a 
 chair, but " 
 
 " Our national habits," suggested Tun Min modestly. 
 
 45
 
 46 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " And lowly ambitions," said Minkal6, finishing the 
 sentence, " are contented with very much less. I hate 
 a chair myself ; it always gives me pins and needles." 
 
 " Much good you got," said her mother, " from your 
 English education at the Rangoon convent ! If I had 
 that money over again which your father foolishly paid 
 the nuns, I should have it out in paddy advances." 
 
 To the Burmese materfamilias money has but one 
 function, and that is to earn a dividend. No matter 
 whether she be well or badly off, she will manage to 
 mix a little trade with her daily life, even if it be no 
 more than the manufacture and sale of a hundred cigars, 
 and Ma May had bitterly regretted what she regarded 
 as unproductive expenditure on Minkale's education. 
 It was a subject on which she waxed more and more 
 eloquent as her temperature rose, but the mere mention, 
 at their present domestic crisis, of the nuns had the 
 effect of provoking a mirth in the presence of which 
 such prosy notions as finance were quickly for- 
 gotten. 
 
 " I should simply love to be a nun," said Minkale, 
 looking at Tun Min with an amused smile ; " they were 
 always so sweet ; nothing ruffled them." 
 
 " No doubt," said Ma May acidly, " you did your 
 best to annoy them ; but that doesn't qualify for a 
 saintly life. Still, you might play the part." 
 
 It is unorthodox in Burmese life for a mother to 
 leave her daughter alone with her sweetheart, but Tun 
 Min and Minkale had been children together, and, 
 besides, Ma May had her own business to attend to ; so 
 she rose, and, taking up her keys, left the room to the 
 young people, in the hope that the conspirators would
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 47 
 
 arrange some plan which would have the effect of de- 
 feating Bubbles without destroying Moung Tun Min. 
 
 " It was only ambition," said Minkale, sticking a 
 rose in her hair, " that made you exchange the kyoung 
 for the court." 
 
 " Ambition is a chair that two can sit in," said Tun 
 Min, edging closer to her now that Ma May had con- 
 siderately left them alone. 
 
 Minkale blushed. She had been betrothed by her 
 parents, but she had an inkling that a proposal in the 
 English style would be much more sweet. 
 
 " Why does virtue rest in a smelly kyoung ?" asked 
 Tun Min, continuing. 
 
 " Rest ?" 
 
 " There are no activities in a kyoung except at 
 lessons. Perhaps, though, you mean the fleas and the 
 bugs ; there were plenty of those ! Sleep was impos- 
 sible. Night after night I lay awake and heard the 
 tiny bells of the pagoda ' htee ' tinkle in the summer 
 breezes ; day after day I heard the weary chant of a 
 hundred tinny voices intoning an oft-repeated lesson." 
 
 " You had worked too hard." 
 
 " I never did enough." 
 
 " Then your digestion was impaired ?" 
 
 " It was never better. But the food was well, it 
 was hpoongyi's food cold and stale. No, it was my 
 heart." 
 
 " But you left that with the thimbaw-gyi's daughter. 
 She would never lose it for you." 
 
 " With more hearts than one, one could afford to be 
 reckless with them and keep them in wrong places ; 
 but Minkale knows that I have only one."
 
 48 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " And, to be sure it was safe, Ko Tun Min buried it 
 in a quiet little grave at the door of his kyoung." 
 
 For a moment Tun Min thought her an arrant little 
 flirt, and wondered with whom she had kept her hand 
 in while his own eyes had been turned in the direction 
 of Pali examinations. 
 
 " If he did," said Tun Min, looking into her eyes, 
 " then he has dug it up, and now places it at Minkale' s 
 feet." 
 
 It was the supreme moment in a woman's life, 
 and Minkale was charmed with the delicacy of the 
 proposal, but beyond that she did not appear to be 
 moved. 
 
 " In novels," she reflected, while neither spoke, " it 
 is orthodox for a girl to weep when she is proposed to, 
 but that must be when she really loves the man. Tun 
 Min will make a nice comfortable husband, but he 
 doesn't altogether fill me with enthusiasm. Still, he 
 is better than any other Burman and possibly I may 
 never get another chance half so good. He will be 
 very wealthy. He will do." 
 
 " It was the vision of Minkale," said Tun Min, con- 
 tinuing, " my sweetly-scented lily, that roused my 
 nature and perfumed my soul ! There are more ambi- 
 tions than go to make a Woon or a Wundauk, and the 
 kyoung became a desert where there was neither food 
 nor drink for a hungry and thirsty heart. Now some- 
 body knows why I left the chilly, companionless 
 kyoung." 
 
 " For the throne of justice," said Minkale, with 
 banter in her tone. 
 
 " Thrones are all very well by day, but even the
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 49 
 
 incense of worship is sickening after a time, and there 
 is then no place like home." 
 
 " Then husbands don't look for worship at home ?" 
 said Minkale in quite her merriest manner. 
 
 " Anyhow, he doesn't get it ; he's not spoilt 
 that is, unless he rises to very dizzy imperial heights, 
 where there is neither work to do nor money to spend. 
 Look at the Commissioner and his wife. There is 
 nothing for them to do but to worship each other." 
 
 " And if report speaks true, they've found out each 
 that the other is the poorest stuff to make a god or 
 goddess of." 
 
 " I promise Minkale won't be called upon to worship 
 Ko Tun Min." 
 
 " Or he me. But let us be serious for a moment. 
 Do tell me something about this golden-headed Wun- 
 dauk. Mother was saying that he was a real darling, 
 so affectionate and warm-hearted that he loved the 
 whole feminine world." 
 
 " Yes, but it isn't the love of a son or a brother. 
 We shall come to that in a bit. But if you've heard 
 anything to his discredit, don't believe it. He's not 
 like other C.S.* men who bully and abuse their sub- 
 ordinates, and think the road was made for them 
 alone to walk upon. He spoke like a man " 
 
 " Like a very wild young man." 
 
 " Until the women have tamed us, we men are always 
 wild. I imagine his mother must have died early and 
 have left him without sisters, as mine did me. I must 
 have struck you often as a savage." 
 
 " But he can bite and scratch." 
 * Civil Service.
 
 50 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Can't I, too ? But, seriously, he's very nice, and 
 has promised to help me along. Indeed, he modestly 
 suggested that we should rise and shine together 
 that's not exactly characteristic of his class." 
 
 " You can't make a Dorian of a Mangoe ; but we'll 
 say that he is a Netthai Mangoe." 
 
 Tun Min laughed at the figure of speech, but thought 
 it odd that she should so soon speak of him as a fruit 
 to be plucked and eaten. 
 
 " Of course he expects some return for his favours, 
 and, among others, he suggested that I should intro- 
 duce him to my lady friends. They all do that. And 
 everybody condones it as natural. In fact, if you ask 
 Ko Moung, he'll tell you that when he was a boy it 
 was at Ava or Amarapura I've forgotten if he 
 wanted a wife he stole her." 
 
 " Oh ! Weren't the fires of his affections sustained 
 by the love of a single wife ? Dreadful man !" 
 
 " He is no worse than our Commissioners and 
 Deputy - Commissioners. The fires of imperialism 
 would soon be out indeed were it otherwise." 
 
 Minkale looked at him in wonder and with alarm, 
 but Tun Min's words never failed to carry conviction 
 when he was explaining away a thoughtless statement 
 that had left an unintended impression. 
 
 " You were startled at what I said, but if you look 
 into it deeply, what is this new imperialism that 
 throws its shadow on Eastern monarchs that pulls 
 up old governments and old dynasties by their roots 
 and hurls them into the sea ? You ask the Bishop, 
 and he will tell you that the new system is a symptom 
 of great moral depravity, which shows itself far less
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 51 
 
 in the public acts of officials than in their private 
 lives." 
 
 " Then why be an imperial servant ?" 
 
 " They don't object to a clean knife, if they can get 
 one when there's cutting to be done. It's simply this. 
 They've got a fiction that they are here for the good of 
 the people ; they've got to keep that lie up, and the best 
 way to do it is by distributing a large number of 
 prizes. Naturally they keep the best for them- 
 selves." 
 
 " Or it wouldn't be worth their while to come." 
 
 " But it's quite a useful number that they place at 
 our disposal." 
 
 " But where is the charm ?" 
 
 " Not so much in the power that one wields ; it is 
 limited, and most annoyingly subject to appeal. But 
 no one molests you. Mind you, imperialism has its 
 parasites, like policemen and tax-gatherers, and a 
 horde of others who can make life quite unbearable 
 to you unless you make it bearable to them." 
 
 " And there are quite nice little pickings, surely ? 
 Don't tell me that the wives of distinguished Burmese 
 Judges found their diamonds and rubies in rubbish- 
 heaps." 
 
 " That is a sad but solemn fact. Burmese Judges 
 are occasionally distinguished, not for their learning, 
 but for their wealth ; but that was so in Mindoon's 
 time, and merely shows the conservatism of our Bur- 
 mese natures. The pickings, as you call them, how- 
 ever, don't appeal to me. What does is an indefinable 
 something that has nothing to do with money, or 
 with jurisdiction, or with freedom from molestation.
 
 52 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 If you look at the C.S.,* what is it that makes him so 
 haughty ? It is the subtlest of all delusions. He 
 thinks he is the owner, or rather the mortgagee in 
 possession that is the imperial instinct. There is 
 nothing so soothing in the doctor's art not even 
 opium as the feeling that the sun rises and sets in 
 your honour. That is the imperial emotion." 
 
 " It must produce a kind of intoxication," said 
 Minkale ; " for our Lady Superior at the convent, 
 who was an Irish lady, loathed the civilian from the 
 bottom of her heart. She said these boys drank a 
 lot, but it did them less harm than the conceit they 
 had of themselves ; they never knew whether they 
 stood on their heads or their heels." 
 
 " They did neither, if you ask me. They sat on 
 spring cushions and lay on downy beds." 
 
 " I'm sure I shall love to be a little imperial myself, 
 but shall we have very long to wait ?" 
 
 " That depends ; it is a very delicate matter. In 
 the ordinary course it would be months before my 
 turn as the Wundauk's clerk came to me indeed, 
 it may be years ; it may be never. But the Wun- 
 dauk can either accelerate or postpone that joyous day." 
 
 " But he takes a lively interest in Ko Tun Min." 
 
 " He takes a much livelier interest in Minkale." 
 
 " And you're not afraid to tell me ?" 
 
 " Without Minkale I should achieve little ; with 
 her I might reach the throne. No, don't smile. It's 
 nothing very funny. That he should have fallen in 
 love with you at first sight is most natural." 
 
 " But poor Minkale can do nothing." 
 * Civil servant.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 53 
 
 " Not alone. But I have a plan ; it is only hastily 
 evolved, but it'll work." 
 
 " Do be quick, or I shall faint." 
 
 " It's simplicity itself." 
 
 " You mean hypocrisy ?" 
 
 " The same thing. I encourage him to persevere 
 and pursue you you mildly dissuade him you talk 
 to him of the meritorious lives of nuns you " 
 
 " Is he the fisher or I ?" 
 
 " You're the fish in this pwe. He must be made 
 to feel that the bait is quite good, and that he is certain 
 to get a bite, but that " 
 
 " The fish is off colour." 
 
 " We must work this patent of mine for all it's 
 worth. Pegu is not a finishing school, and he is sure 
 to be sent away after six months to study some new 
 and intricate problem, such as bobabaing lands, in 
 Upper Burma, or the fisheries down in Maubin, and 
 we may never get another chance." 
 
 " Maubin !" exclaimed Minkal6 with contempt. 
 " There are plenty of girls in Maubin, but the men run 
 away from them." 
 
 " White men never run away from women. But 
 never mind Maubin. My point is that we must act 
 quickly, and make the pace so hot that we can get 
 all we want in less than six months. Supposing I 
 introduce him to Minkale to-morrow ?" 
 
 " Good gracious ! Must it be so soon ?" 
 
 " I was going to suggest to-day, but a little prepara- 
 tion, if not rehearsal, would grease the wheels of 
 my progress. Don't be nervous. He'll do all the 
 talking."
 
 54 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Then he must be only half a man." 
 
 " I don't follow." 
 
 " The nuns had a joke about the Christian heaven 
 that no women would ever get there, as some Divine 
 rules imposed silence for half an hour." 
 
 " But that was before the C.S. was invented. He 
 repealed that law, and now he not only lives in heaven, 
 but does all the bucking just when he likes. And his 
 talk is most fascinating. You see, he's the right tem- 
 perature." 
 
 " For what ?" . 
 
 " For love-making, of course." 
 
 " Then, as I'm not to be smitten, and am to pretend 
 that the flesh and the devil don't tempt me as the 
 nuns used to say am I to be very frigid ?" 
 
 " No ; tepid. In the tropics it is easier, and the 
 Bishop often declared that it was the tepid ones that 
 were the purest bred. You see, honeyed words belong 
 to both worlds. Bitter or insipid words would spoil 
 the game. In fact, if you find that the game has 
 a flavour, pretend you want to make a monk of 
 him." 
 
 " Let me see. I'm to set my eyes on the world to 
 come to be tepid to say honeyed words and to 
 convert the wild young Walworth Bubbles to a life 
 of calm and stoical self-denial. Is there any penalty 
 for failure ?" 
 
 " Ko Moung will tell you that we're playing with 
 fire." 
 
 " I don't at all feel insured. Do you ? Supposing 
 we burn our fingers ?" 
 
 " How ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 55 
 
 " Well, he has resources. And at his temperature 
 the heart doesn't consult the mind. He might run off 
 with me. Then ?" 
 
 " That looby o doesn't live in a lungyi. The English- 
 man has his ways, and we ours. To him a woman 
 is sport not business and in his sporting codes the 
 laws of honour have the fullest expression. Abduc- 
 tion is bad form ; it is worse it is death and damna- 
 tion !" 
 
 " That doesn't satisfy me. You remember the saya 
 with a face like a cattle-lifter's the one your father 
 slippered for lying ?" 
 
 " No ?" 
 
 " He told me that a golden-headed Wundauk would 
 come to Pegu, and that my destiny would immediately 
 alter. He said nothing about " 
 
 " Who or what ?" 
 
 " About Ko Tun Min." 
 
 " It must have been the same saya as looked into 
 my future and saw that it synchronized with Shway 
 Goung's appearance, but he also said nothing of 
 Minkale. There is a delicacy in these matters even 
 with coarse-minded sayas, but never mind fortune- 
 telling. It is with fortune-making that we are con- 
 cerned. Supposing I tell the Wundauk that those 
 Pali scriptures in the glass case are a great curiosity 
 he'll be sure to want to see them." 
 
 " Gracious ! you must be crazy. I simply couldn't 
 interpret them to him if my life depended on it. I'm 
 terrified." 
 
 " Be calm. It is he that will unfold their meaning, 
 or, as you say in the kyoung, ' unlock their treasures ';
 
 56 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 but to me it is little more than any other book. Tell 
 me, then does to-morrow suit ?" 
 
 " It must," said Minkale with resignation ; but 
 she was far from happy at the turn things had taken, 
 and did not persuade Tun Min to linger when he 
 professed to have urgent business in the bazaar to 
 attend to in the Wundauk's interest.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " THEY gazetted me to undergo the usual training," 
 said Walworth Bubbles, as he stood in Captain 
 Cruncher's front veranda sipping his gin and bitters 
 before dinner was announced, " and it's been the most 
 entertaining time of my life. I shall never go out of 
 training." 
 
 Cruncher was his Deputy-Commissioner, and had 
 had an adventurous career of many colours before 
 he found a pew in the front rows of imperialism as 
 a member of the Burma Commission. He was a 
 soldier by profession, an insolvent by caste, and had 
 once been a military policeman purely for the purpose 
 of pay. All his ancestors within legal memory had 
 died loaded sometimes with honours, but always 
 with debts, and he himself was born in an atmosphere 
 that was saturated with indebtedness. As a child, 
 he had slept in a borrowed bed, and had dropped in 
 for meals at a friendly neighbour's, but by the time 
 he got to Sandhurst he had fully mastered the secrets 
 that lay in the three great bureaus of Loan, Gift, and 
 Annexation, and was able to flavour his life with 
 luxuries that were never dreamt of in the domestic 
 budget. He at length came to regarding himself with 
 pride, but the probationary period he had to pass 
 with a British regiment was in a chilly temperature 
 
 57
 
 58 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 unsuited to any cherished delusions. They knew the 
 type, and as they did not cultivate it themselves, they, 
 for the twelfth time, by methods that were both 
 summary and firm, surrendered the warrior to the 
 warmer embraces of the Staff Corps. There among 
 his caste fellows he found that economy was unknown, 
 but that there was the same generous and inspiring 
 outlook on life as a playground, and that his own 
 views on finance had a wide acceptance. His first 
 season had been full of enchantment. He had enjoyed 
 polo and pigsticking, and with a cutcha honeymoon 
 or two at Mussoorie, he had passed the time swiftly, 
 till quite a roseate future spread itself before his 
 critical eyes. Just then, however, the brutal bill 
 was presented, and, being followed by an equally callous 
 summons, the wretched man's pay was devastated by 
 the locust of attachment. Had he taken it sitting, 
 there was nothing but a yawning grave before him, 
 but he took it riding. In the social code of the East 
 it is correct to go from bad to worse, and to go quickly. 
 A racing stable took the place of polo, and a book- 
 maker that of the sowcar. It was a perfectly natural 
 process in the evolution of a military policeman, and 
 no susceptibilities were wounded. In fact, Cruncher's 
 was a carefully graduated course British regiment, 
 Staff Corps, Small Cause Court, racing, High Court, 
 Military Police that the thoughtful alumni of Hailey- 
 bury, in their paternal wisdom, had prescribed for 
 their indigent sons and grandsons. " The boys will 
 fall," said the prophetic ancestor, " but they must 
 fall lightly." By universal consent, there is nothing 
 softer than the Indian Turf on which financial decrepi-
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 59 
 
 tude can fall with the hope of a cheery resurrection ; 
 but there was, however, a luckless monotony about 
 Cruncher's falling, and the bankrupt subaltern arrested 
 his last descent on the rugged slopes of our Burmese 
 frontier, where he nimbly alighted as Warden of the 
 Marches, or, as he was officially yclept, an Assistant 
 Commandant of Military Police. There, on the con- 
 fines of Barbary, he was truly impregnable, for he 
 controlled the channels of communication, and neither 
 writ nor writter could pollute the sanctity of his person 
 or deflect the energies of his pay, and the military 
 policeman kept his vigils among the top peaks, watch- 
 ing the sun rise and set, while callous laws of limita- 
 tion put to a slow but certain death the numerous 
 offspring of his reckless extravagance. His life, how- 
 ever, was not without excitement, for there were raids 
 and counter-raids, and the pursuit of Chins and 
 Kachins had nasty surprises for the unwary, while 
 there was always the hope that distinguished military 
 service on a pittance would be rewarded with honour- 
 able civil employment on a living wage. And Cruncher 
 was not disappointed, for his toilsome years of guerilla 
 warfare, in which he never had a superior, were fittingly 
 recognized by his selection for an executive office of 
 humdrum regularity, in which he never had an inferior. 
 
 " Only yesterday," said Cruncher, leading the way 
 to the dining-room, " you wished you'd never come 
 out." 
 
 " I'm sure I shall wish it again. It's just a question 
 whether my conscience is at home or abroad." 
 
 " What's conscience got to do with it ?" 
 
 " I've begun fishing in virgin waters," said Wai-
 
 6o THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 worth with a merry twinkle, " and sometimes I feel 
 I'm compromising both the service and the maiden." 
 
 " We've all done it, and compromised nothing 
 and nobody. What might have made you a bit 
 squeamish, though, was your trespass on Croppit's 
 compound." 
 
 " I only borrowed her." 
 
 " My dear Walworth, in the world of love ' 
 
 " All's fair." 
 
 " I'm damned if it is !" said Cruncher, with energy. 
 " It isn't the girl I'm thinking of ; she's black, and you 
 can have as much or as little of her as you like and 
 in ways that are dark or fair, according to your tastes. 
 But never dacoit another fellow's harem. Rob him, 
 work his ponies to death, eat and drink him out of 
 house and home, wear his best clothes to shreds and 
 tatters, but, damn it ! be a saheb, and leave his girl 
 alone." 
 
 " He'll never know." 
 
 " No ; because he's dead. He fell overboard, and 
 Yoma is now yours." 
 
 The two men could talk to one another without 
 restraint, as " Mrs." Cruncher had had a hint to dine 
 out. As a matter of fact, she was then on her way 
 home, hoping to see something of the " darling Wundauk 
 Min " before he left. 
 
 " Thank God," said Walworth, " I shan't have to 
 marry Yoma !" 
 
 " Marriage with a lady of the country ? How 
 awful !" 
 
 " Why not ?" 
 
 " Love," said Cruncher quite seriously, "is an essen-
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 61 
 
 tially Western product, and there is no exact Eastern 
 equivalent for it. At home they bracket love with 
 milk." 
 
 Walworth laughed uproariously, seeing suggestions 
 that did not occur to Cruncher's denser mind. 
 
 " It's got to be pure," said Cruncher, continuing, 
 " or they call it by damned nasty names ; but here, 
 like the gold and silver of commerce, it's a little 
 alloyed." 
 
 " Still, you use it." 
 
 " Liberally," said Cruncher ; " but not for life, Wal- 
 worth. And if that's your policy with Yoma or Min- 
 kale, then you're earmarked for ruin. Look around 
 you, and you'll see the most pathetic wrecks." 
 
 " Wrecked on what ?" 
 
 " On the rock of conjugal fidelity. They married 
 their girls it was quite unnecessary it was damned 
 foUy !" 
 
 " Did Society disapprove ?" 
 
 " Naturally. It blasted them, for they'd struck at 
 the roots of empire." 
 
 " How ?" 
 
 " It was teaching a subject race the lesson of 
 equality. A fatal thing !" 
 
 " And the moral lesson ?" asked Walworth, who was 
 enjoying himself. 
 
 " There are no morals in my imperial philosophy." 
 
 " Never heard of it," said Walworth, sipping a tepid 
 peg. " What does it suggest ?" 
 
 " A full stomach, a double bed, and a large bank 
 balance, Walworth. I'm eating, drinking, and sleeping 
 imperially. Aren't you ?"
 
 62 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Wait a bit ! Isn't there such a thing as ' Double 
 Imperial,' Cruncher ?" 
 
 " The ' Double/ " said Cruncher, " is redundant. 
 Imperialism duplicates everything. It doubled my 
 pay, my appetite, my capacity for sleep." 
 
 " And your sorrows ?" 
 
 " Those, too, when I was serving under a swine who 
 was qualifying for secretariat honours ; but our present 
 Commissioner is a saheb. By the way, when he walks 
 round I have to send Zeta away. Don't you let Yoma 
 show her nose." 
 
 " Zeta ?" 
 
 " Yes. I got into the way of labelling everything 
 as an exhibit. I began with Alpha." 
 
 " Did she die ?" 
 
 " God forbid ! She takes her turn like a Cathedral 
 Canon, and comes into residence next month. But, 
 as I was saying, when the Commissioner comes there 
 are a few things his wife should never see." 
 
 " She does the inspection ?" 
 
 " No. But if she saw Zeta, she might ask awkward 
 questions about her own predecessors." 
 
 " What an infernal ass the fellow was to marry !" 
 
 " So you'd think, Walworth. But sooner or later 
 you're overtaken by a wave that lifts you right out of 
 the sea of curries and concubines, and you're thrown 
 up on your native soil, breathing your native air." 
 
 " In your native air, Cruncher, you'd succumb to 
 moral and spiritual pneumonia in a week. You're a 
 jungle bird, and you'd much better stick to your jungle 
 habits in the paddy-fields of Burma." 
 
 " Damn the paddy-fields ! Do you think that I can
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 63 
 
 never live the life of a saheb in Belgravia or Mayfair ? 
 I've done it, but doubtless with the noble assistance 
 of a " 
 
 " Music-haU star ?" 
 
 " Yesh." 
 
 And then there was a crash, for Cruncher, with his 
 usual regularity in attempting to rise from the table 
 after dinner, lost his balance, and in falling made a 
 clean sweep of the glass within reach. His habits 
 were so well known that his servants were waiting at 
 the door to pick him up and put him to bed. 
 
 Walworth was annoyed at what looked like an early 
 termination of what had promised to be quite an 
 entertaining evening, but Zeta had heard the familiar 
 sound of breakage, and was actually standing in the 
 hall as Walworth emerged from the dining-room. 
 
 ' You're not going surely ?" she asked in a tone 
 of complaint. 
 
 " Not if you'll let me stay ; but, you know, I do so 
 want to have a chat with you." 
 
 " I hope you won't find me very dull, but I've just 
 left Minkale, and she was so depressing." 
 
 " She's supposed to be very good, isn't she ?" 
 
 " I've no patience," said Zeta, who was in the secret, 
 and had promised to play her part in the improvised 
 drama as wanted, " with women who take their eyes 
 off the joys they can have, and fix them on others 
 for which their natures were never intended." 
 
 " She wants to be a nun, doesn't she ?" 
 
 " When she was made to be a wife ! It's the mango 
 wanting to be a mangosteen." 
 
 " Is she very nice ?"
 
 64 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Cruncher says she's strawberry and cream." 
 
 " And there's no better judge. But tell me, Mrs. 
 Cruncher " 
 
 " Call me Zeta everybody does who's nice." 
 
 To show his appreciation of the compliment, Wai- 
 worth moved his chair near enough to hold her hand, 
 and he thought it a very pretty hand. 
 
 " You're just the dearest girls in the world," said 
 Walworth ; " but sometimes I feel that we do you a 
 great wrong." 
 
 " Doubtless. But which particular one are you 
 referring to ?" 
 
 " We offer you a Burmese, not an English, mar- 
 riage." 
 
 " We have the sense," said Zeta, amused at Wai- 
 worth's prickings of conscience, " to take what we 
 can get, and make the most of it. It's good enough 
 while it lasts." 
 
 " Better than marriage with a Burman ?" 
 
 " Is the dorian better than the maryan ? Look at 
 me. I'm the queen of the district, though I'm not 
 really married, and the myook's wife is nobody." 
 
 " But which makes the better husband ?" 
 
 " The one we get," said Zeta, laughing. 
 
 " That's only natural ; but do you mean to say that 
 you make no differences between valid and invalid 
 marriages ?" 
 
 " I personally don't. Love's a much older family 
 than Law, and ever so much nicer company." 
 
 " So the Law is a low-caste pariah," said Walworth, 
 wondering whether he would ever see things in the 
 light that entered the Burman's eye.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 65 
 
 " We men and women," said Zeta, " were made for 
 love, and the Law is a blighter that tries to chill us off ! 
 Do you think I respect it ? Not I !" 
 
 " I wish that were Minkale's view." 
 
 " Ko Walworth has only to persevere, and her eyes 
 will be opened to the silly step she contemplates." 
 
 " Then you think there's a chance ?" 
 
 " I've put my money on you, and if you lose her I 
 lose my bet ; there'd be no Naikban for Ma Minkale 
 not till she had paid bets all round." 
 
 Just then Cruncher awoke, and, finding Zeta missing, 
 called to his boy to go and look for her as though she 
 were a dog. 
 
 " I'm afraid I must go," said Walworth ; " but may 
 we resume the conversation ?" 
 
 " Any evening. Good-night."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 MINKALE', as she stood before the looking-glass finishing 
 her toilet, dropped herself a pretty little curtsey, with 
 a feeling of satisfaction that she was now both adorned 
 in body and equipped in mind to receive the august 
 Wundauk Min, whose advent was not, however, 
 immediately expected by her loving parents ; for, 
 with their characteristic devotion to business, they 
 had left the house for the market-place soon after 
 the monks on their mental visiting-list had been 
 furnished with their daily sustenance. Minkale was 
 alone with her suspicion that the destined hour had 
 struck whereafter her daily life and womanly ambi- 
 tion were to run in unfamiliar put pleasanter grooves, 
 and she felt more than a gentle glow of excitement as 
 she descended the stairs and took up her usual seat 
 on the carpet near the front door. She was fully alive 
 to the potentialities of the part she was called upon 
 to play, much more so than on the previous day, when 
 nothing more than a simple little drama in which 
 Bubbles was to be fooled and preyed on for Tun Min's 
 benefit had been suggested by her unsophisticated 
 and confiding sweetheart. Was she, she asked herself 
 with a quickening pulse, going to be a pawn in Tun 
 Min's game or a queen in her own ? Such a question, 
 and at such a time, when she was only just betrothed, 
 
 66
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 67 
 
 awoke no slumbering conscience, and received no 
 moral chastisement ; for even the attenuated notions 
 of fair play that find a chilly corner in Eastern ethics 
 are without a place in the narrower business codes 
 of the Mongolian. He is not without religion. On 
 the contrary, he will, at the smallest glimpse of a 
 distant pagoda, contemplate the cardinal virtues on 
 bended knees ; he will, with clasped hands and a 
 reverential mien, recite long strings of words expressing 
 virtuous hopes and convictions, and he will endow 
 with medieval liberality such real and living charities 
 as are closest to hand. But he cherishes no delusions 
 about the proper place for religion, and in business 
 he will not tolerate it at all. His commercial mind 
 is a hereditary gift from an ancient past when religion 
 and business were divorced ; and in all mundane 
 matters the one ruling and guiding principle is self- 
 interest. Minkal was therefore not ashamed of her 
 thoughts, and her cheeks were not suffused with the 
 faint blush of self-reproach. Ko Tun Min, she thought, 
 was a really nice boy who deserved to get on, and 
 she would certainly do her utmost to facilitate the 
 realization of his official ambition. So far she was 
 certainly resolved, and it pleased her to look into his 
 future, and see him prospering as an overworked and 
 highly-respected Judge. But the moment she pic- 
 tured his home life, and herself as the myook's wife 
 bringing up the myook's children and attending to 
 the myook's daily wants, she thought there was a 
 want of colour in the landscape, which was immediately 
 supplied when she looked out on the Wundauk Min's 
 garden, with its imperial bowers and lawns and drives.
 
 68 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 She was fascinated, but were there no dangers ahead ? 
 she wondered. She thought there were when she 
 remembered the pathetic case of Mrs. Dibbs and the 
 soul-shaking tragedy of Mrs. Pumps, who were ruined 
 and then basely deserted ; but, on consideration, she 
 decided that those ladies had been greatly to blame 
 for letting the flame of love that had once burnt brightly 
 in the bosoms of their respective spouses go out. It 
 was true she had heard that Englishmen, as they grew 
 older, exhibited a preference for the ladies of their 
 own race, and discarded their Burmese concubines 
 without compunction, but not without incumbrances ; 
 but again she decided, with the magnanimity of her 
 sex, that the man was not alone to blame. " He," 
 she said to herself, " is the spoilt darling of nature, 
 and if I cease to spoil him he will be sure to go where 
 he is spoilt." But the thought came quick as lightning 
 that she also was fond of more than a little spoiling, 
 and was she sure how much of her own way she 
 would get with the passionate white man ? In a 
 Burmese home the wife is supreme, but she had a 
 shrewd notion that the Englishman was cock of his 
 roost, and that he was reputed to have many un- 
 pleasant ways of asserting his authority. 
 
 " It is indeed a problem," she said to herself, seizing 
 the betel-box, " but there is a worse. Perhaps I shall 
 get so fond of both Ko Tun Min and the Wundauk 
 that I shall like to be parted from neither. What 
 then ?" 
 
 Then, when the full meaning of such a situation 
 beat on her girlish mind, she blushed to think how 
 depraved she was.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 69 
 
 " Anyhow," she comforted herself, " Ko Tun Min 
 is a nice soothing sort of boy to be engaged to. He 
 will leave me a broad margin. Wasn't it the Mother 
 Superior who suggested the wisdom of always writing 
 with half margin so as to leave her room for sage 
 corrections ? It must be the same in the foolscap of 
 life. Just fancy the hardship of marrying a man who 
 left you no margin at all. What a deadly and appalling 
 catastrophe my mother ! Our thoughts of to-day, 
 our plans for to-morrow, are just like our thameins, in 
 that they want frequent readjustment. And no 
 margin ! Well, what blots and smudges there would 
 be if the corrections were made between the lines ! 
 The Mother Superior was right. I will and must have 
 a margin, and, just as an experiment, we'll make it 
 three-quarters." 
 
 She was a brave girl, but the very next moment 
 she experienced more than a gentle shock when she 
 heard a bluff Englishman asking a wayfarer which was 
 Moung Ba Shin's house. 
 
 " This, my lord," said the wood-cutter, as Walworth 
 Bubbles threw him the reins of his pony, and, jumping 
 off, stood at the door of the house rapping his cane 
 on the doorstep, and calling impatiently for the absent 
 house-owner. 
 
 " Where the hell are you ?" said Walworth, putting 
 his head in. 
 
 "I'm afraid both father and mother are out," said 
 Minkale softly and nervously, perhaps a little afraid 
 that the announcement would suggest to the Wundauk 
 the impropriety of his presence in a Burmese house ; 
 but his brain was not a soil hi which such notions
 
 70 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 grew, and, walking boldly in, he held out his hand to 
 Minkale", and, apologizing for the warmth of his in- 
 quiries, explained that he was there on duty. 
 
 " We began taking a census," he said, falling into 
 a chair, " quite a long time ago." 
 
 " It was William the Conqueror's patent," said 
 Minkale, resuming her seat on the floor. 
 
 "Go up top ! And we liked it so much that we 
 want to introduce you to it. The Government is 
 very particular that we should explain its entire 
 innocence and popularize the scheme ; it's quite all 
 right." 
 
 "What would you like to ask?" said Minkale, 
 amused at the thinness of the excuse, but charmed 
 at such an agreeable beginning. " I've nothing to be 
 ashamed of." 
 
 " What ! no highly infectious vices ?" 
 
 " But King William never catalogued those. Neither 
 did the Jews, who merely counted heads not what 
 was in them." 
 
 Walworth looked surprised, for he was not prepared 
 for the impression that the girl's bonhommie, combined 
 with her elegant manner, made upon his wholly un- 
 suspecting mind. Like most Englishmen, he thought 
 Burmese girls were toothsome morsels intended to be 
 chewed and spat out when done with ; but here, 
 forsooth, was a lady who could hold her own in the 
 gentle art of conversation with the cultured product 
 of western scholarship. His curiosity was thoroughly 
 roused. 
 
 " What did they teach you in the Rangoon Con- 
 vent ?" he asked brusquely.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 71 
 
 "To be sweet," said Minkale" ; " but they didn't 
 succeed very well. In England girls are " 
 
 " Don't say we're taught other things, though 
 doubtless our manners often suggest it." 
 
 ' You've got so into the habit of conquering 
 haven't you ? Conquests must be inspiring achieve- 
 ments. Don't you, when you're alone and bored by 
 the peace and quiet of British rule, wish you were 
 Alexander, or Clive, or Napoleon ?" 
 
 For a few moments Bubbles was absolutely non- 
 plussed and speechless. He had indeed come to 
 conquer, but did not like being told that he had the 
 manners of a conqueror, and he began to feel a sus- 
 picion that Minkale was making a fool of him. But 
 in the past he had never suffered defeat in any of 
 his projects, and he saw no reason why he should 
 attune his mind to failure in either the present or the 
 future. 
 
 " Really," said Walworth, when he had regained 
 his usual equilibrium, " I have the most profound 
 contempt for the men you've mentioned ; they were 
 for ever committing the deadly sin of moving a neigh- 
 bour's boundaries, or making widows of royal wives, 
 and homeless orphans of myriads of helpless infants. 
 Those were the godless days of godless men. Thank 
 God, we make no widows and orphans !" 
 
 " I feel the rebuke," said Minkale, without in the 
 least looking it. " What a lot of merit you must have 
 accumulated ! Your Naikban must be near." 
 
 " Upon my honour ! I've neither made widow nor 
 orphan, but we never think of merit while we can still 
 season our lives with sage and onions."
 
 72 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " I know onions, but who's sage ? Is she very 
 nice ?" asked Minkale in a childlike tone of innocent 
 inquiry. 
 
 Walworth's nature was immediately sensitive to 
 the gentlest impressions from without, and he re- 
 garded such a query as making just the very opening 
 his blundering methods had failed to discover. 
 
 " Sage is of course a goddess," he whispered. "Has 
 it struck you that it might be yourself ?" 
 
 A pathetic smile spread on Minkale's face, and she 
 shook her head. 
 
 " Poor me !" she said. " I have renounced " 
 
 " Before you're old enough to know and choose." 
 
 " I know the life of a nun inside and out don't 
 tell me you do ! and it is just the essence of roses 
 no vexations no worries there's the aroma of a 
 saintly and " 
 
 " Purposeless life." 
 
 " It keeps one out of mischief, and even you Chris- 
 tians like to give that a wide berth, don't you ?" 
 
 " Like to ? No ! Certainly not ! Who stuffed you 
 up ? English girls and boys are never out of mischief, 
 and never want to be. Don't you believe all those 
 nuns tell you, Minkale." 
 
 " We Burmans are very different. And we find 
 great comfort in a life removed from the world. You 
 ask your interpreter." 
 
 " Do you mean Moung Tun Min ?" 
 
 " The same. His long years as a monk have com- 
 pletely changed the current of his life." 
 
 " The scoundrel has himself chucked the cloister for 
 the forum, and he dares to preach monasticism !"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 73 
 
 " He speaks with knowledge, and his return to the 
 world is only temporary. When his purposes are 
 accomplished he will resume his robes." 
 
 " The damned villain ! I'm awfully sorry," said 
 Walworth, immediately apologizing for the coarseness 
 of his rhetoric. " But if ever I thought there was 
 an open book that a child might read, it was Ko Tun 
 Min a mere boy with a soaring ambition, but unlikely 
 to play more than a very subordinate part in official 
 life, and now I find you unlocking a sealed mystery. 
 What on earth is he ?" 
 
 " An evangel." 
 
 Walworth laughed uproariously. 
 
 " Do tell me what you're laughing at," said Minkale 
 persuasively, " as I haven't renounced the world of 
 fun as yet." 
 
 " I was just thinking of some of the weird thoughts, 
 Minkale", that used to course through my imaginative 
 brain in college chapel it's the cathedral church of 
 the dicoese, with lovely stained windows; you could 
 see picturesque saints and sinners of any variety and 
 I often wished I was the owner " 
 
 " Of a madonna ? Quite natural." 
 
 " Sometimes," said Walworth, with just a suspicion 
 of a blush. " But there was one disciple in particular 
 that I should have liked for a valet halo and all 
 but I never fancied I should have St. John the Baptist 
 for an interpreter and bench clerk." 
 
 " Buddhist saints are never re-incarnated ; are the 
 Christian ?" 
 
 " Upon my soul, I've forgotten ! But, just to 
 Jiark back to Ko Tun Min is he sincere ?"
 
 74 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 " But he wants to be a myook." 
 
 " It would add tons to his influence. Father re- 
 members a missionary-wundauk who used to preach 
 in Fytche Square. He became a secretary " 
 
 " With a beautiful wife. They always become 
 secretaries when the Chief is a bachelor ; it is the 
 orthodox channel of rapid promotion." 
 
 " Ko Tun Min's eyes are not set on beautiful wives 
 and secretariat pleasaunces ; his only humble desire 
 is to earn merit." 
 
 Walworth noticed a merry twinkle in Minkale's 
 eyes, and he guessed that she understood very well 
 the meritorious aspect of feminine beauty ; but he 
 was disgusted to think that the instrument he had 
 chosen wherewith to accomplish his selfish purpose 
 was just the very agent who was engaged in spoiling 
 his plans. 
 
 " Do you know," he said, more as if he were thinking 
 aloud than trying to communicate his thoughts, " I 
 shall kill Ko Tun Min for preaching that damned old 
 played-out heresy, celibacy !" 
 
 " Male !" exclaimed Minkal6, pretending to be 
 greatly agitated. 
 
 " I didn't meant that, of course," said Walworth, 
 reassuring her ; " but it occurred to me that Tun Min's 
 evangelism might improve with a little change of air. 
 He wants, not a garden, but a wilderness to train a 
 missionary lung in." 
 
 " They've just dismissed the myook of Nyaun- 
 glebin," said Minkale, hoping that the hint would not 
 he lost on the influential Wundauk,
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 75 
 
 " That myook has fulfilled his destiny at a very 
 opportune moment damned good of him ! I'm really 
 very sorry but, you see, I wasn't brought up in the 
 cool shades of a Christian convent." 
 
 Burmese ladies have delightful manners, and Wai- 
 worth was forgiven with just a nod and a smile.' 
 
 " Well," said Walworth, with some determination, 
 " I shall abate the missionary nuisance somehow ; 
 but Nyaunglebin is rather near, and I have a suspicion 
 that they want a more experienced officer for that 
 charge. Cruncher, however, will know, and is doubt- 
 less racking his great mind to know how to get a 
 competent man when they've all been lent to pacify 
 the upper province. We can assist his fatigued 
 imagination, can't we ? But, God in heaven ! there's 
 Moung Ba Shin sitting outside like a Gautama under 
 that tree." 
 
 " And it's my sweet mother by his side." 
 
 " But why don't they come in ?" 
 
 " They are afraid, and wish to salute you reveren- 
 tially at the gate when you pass out. Believe me, 
 they don't mean to be rude." 
 
 " Come along in, Moung Ba Shin," said Walworth 
 in a tone of encouragement. " I'm glad to have had 
 the chance of meeting you and explaining what a 
 census is, and that you're not to be frightened when 
 I ask you to fill in a paper stating how many wives 
 and children you're blessed with." 
 
 Minkale" smiled at the resurrection of a shallow 
 excuse for a very agreeable invasion, but Ma May was 
 visibly annoyed at the suggestion that her husband 
 might be revelling in more wives than one. She,
 
 75 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 however, discreetly held her tongue for, as Minkale 
 rightly guessed, the first and only time in her long 
 life. 
 
 " The akhunwun, my lord," said Ba Shin, shikoing, 
 " did mention the imposition of a few new taxes." 
 
 " Damn him ! His neck was made to be wrung ! 
 Doubtless he's putting a few on of his own invention. 
 But it's the census I'm talking about. We don't want 
 any trouble, and you must use your great influence 
 to popularize the idea. You will, of course, want 
 to have it explained to you in detail, and as it is a 
 novelty, you'll be sure to misunderstand much that 
 is of importance unless I give the matter my personal 
 attention. Moung Ba Shin's house must be the local 
 centre from which all illuminating information on the 
 subject must radiate. This will be my headquarters. 
 Good-bye for the present, but I shall soon be back, 
 and hope I shan't forget to bring the prescribed forms 
 with me. It was silly of me to forget them." 
 
 Walworth mounted his pony, and, waving his hand 
 to Minkale, soon passed from view. 
 
 " He must be a wild beast," said the indignant 
 Ma May, " to have stayed when he knew we were 
 out." 
 
 "He is the most delightfully frank and simple- 
 minded fool that I ever knew," said Minkale ; " and 
 when you hear in the course of the day that Ko Tun 
 Min has been recommended for a myookship, you'll 
 marvel " 
 
 " At the impression my daughter has made ? I 
 gave up marvelling when they sent Theebaw down to 
 the river in a bullock-cart confusion to them ! He
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 77 
 
 will send his bed in next, and you may be sure it's a 
 double one. In the days of our own King of blessed 
 memory when we lived at Sagaing, we knew all the 
 Englishmen in the residency ; they didn't charm us, 
 but they were never rude." 
 
 ' You wear a conqueror's head on your lovely 
 shoulders, and it'll fall off if you bow and shiko and 
 scrape. The heads of conquest must always be 
 erect." 
 
 " And the conqueror's tongue ?" 
 
 " Like his heart," said Minkale, " it has a tropical 
 temperature. But I like it none the less for that." 
 
 " That," said her father, after expectorating freely 
 into a majolica spittoon, "is no criterion. Hungry 
 men have keen appetites strong men use strong 
 language. Besides, the saya will tell you that swearing 
 is good for the liver. When he runs out of mercury 
 and podophyllin, he prescribes a moral and spiritual 
 irritant, and the copious flow of bad language that 
 ensues clears the liver of its humours for weeks." 
 
 " Bother the saya ! and at Ko Ba Shin's age he 
 should be off with flippancy," said Ma May in a tone 
 of great annoyance. " But let us hear about this 
 myookship. It must be nonsense, for the newborn 
 interpreter hasn't even had the time to give the 
 Wundauk Min his first Burmese lesson." 
 
 " Oh yes, he has !" said Minkale", with a merry 
 laugh. " My introduction to his majesty was the 
 first lesson, and I verily believe the last, for Shway 
 Goung will see no more of him." 
 
 " How's that ?" 
 
 " I've left an indelible impression that it's on Ko
 
 78 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Tun Min's advice that I'm renouncing what the 
 Mother Superior used to call 'the World, the Flesh, 
 and the Devil.' I can assure you Shway Goung is in 
 a perfect fever to get my merry monk transferred to 
 the uttermost parts of the earth and he'll succeed." 
 
 " That, the silly idiot thinks, will clear the way for 
 him. Well, you can tell him, with my compliments, 
 that it won't," said her mother, with characteristic 
 energy.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 " HULLO !" shouted Cruncher, as he heard Walworth's 
 deep voice coming up the drive, inquiring whether he 
 was in. 
 
 " I hear," said Walworth, blowing a kiss to Zeta as 
 she cut round the corner, " that Nyaunglebin's in the 
 grip of a scoundrel ?" 
 
 " The grip's been relaxed ; the rascal's been sacked, 
 and is now in gaol. Do you know, they'll never get 
 the Upper Province straight. They've taken our best 
 myooks, but they are all the same, whether they're 
 chevying dacoits or the revenue." 
 
 " I can fill the vacancy all right without making a 
 fuss," said Walworth, opening Cruncher's capacious 
 cigar-case and helping himself to a weed that had the 
 right aroma. 
 
 " Will you really go to Nyaunglebin ?" 
 
 " On my next honeymoon. But meanwhile I have 
 quite a promising candidate in my bench clerk. Only 
 I know nothing of the principle on which myooks are 
 appointed. Do you ?" 
 
 " Do I ? I have many gifts, but the talent for 
 making and marring myooks is never allowed to rust. 
 Making, did you say ? Everybody has his pet theory. 
 For instance, there's the myook of legend whose judicial 
 
 79
 
 8o THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 capacity was inferred from the devotion with which he 
 fed the secretary's ducks. You don't believe it, but 
 I do ; and, what's more, I've made that principle of 
 selection my own." 
 
 " Did you ever own a duck that was worth a 
 damn ?" 
 
 " You don't grasp the principle. I mean that I 
 recommend a man I like never one that I dis- 
 like." 
 
 " And his fitness ?" 
 
 " That I leave to him to cultivate." 
 
 " Well, if you haven't a passion for a syce or a 
 sweeper of your own, do you think you could take a 
 liking to a nominee of mine ?" 
 
 " Who ?" 
 
 " My bench clerk a damned clever boy ! Passed 
 the patmabyan at eighteen. He has hereditary claims, 
 as his father piloted many a column pacifying Meiktila 
 and Yamethin or was it Taungdwingyi ? The Bishop 
 vouches for him." 
 
 " We don't care a damn for Bishops, black or white, 
 on this side of Suez ! But what do you know of the 
 boy that I don't ?" 
 
 " I've only had him a day." 
 
 " And with your instinct for failures and fools " 
 
 " Failure be blowed ! He's a genius monk, scholar, 
 missionary. He's a sort of double incarnation of the 
 Evangelist and the Baptist rolled up in one bursting 
 with character. Just the man for you !" 
 
 " He's the kind of man," said Cruncher coldly, 
 " that we put in gaol. A sort of Christ, you mean ? 
 The Romans crucified them, but we are less brusque,
 
 8i 
 
 if equally intolerant we send them to the Anda- 
 mans." 
 
 " He's no fanatic who turns temples upside down, 
 but he's death on marriage." 
 
 " Now, Walworth dear," said Cruncher, with a 
 wicked smile, " I begin to see the light. There isn't 
 much room for you in his philosophy." 
 " Room ?" 
 
 " Bedroom, if you like it better. But you've boned 
 his girl, and look to Imperialism to compensate 
 him." 
 
 " Blow your persiflage ! Services are rewarded, 
 aren't they ?" 
 
 " With judgment and generosity." 
 " Always ?" 
 " Always." 
 
 " Must the service be public or private ?" 
 " Private, certainly and the more private the 
 better. Don't mention it, but both Zeta's brothers 
 are swelling the ranks of Imperial myooks." 
 
 " I expect you started making myooks quite early 
 in life." 
 
 "I'm not a bit ashamed, Walworth. It's, more- 
 over, a game in which you've snatched a blue." 
 
 " Thanks. That means you'll nominate Tun 
 Min ?" 
 
 " Immediately. Spring will wire, appointing him. 
 He can pack his portmanteau. But this is the quickest 
 acknowledgment of a private service I've ever known. 
 Is the service a dead secret ?" 
 
 " Not in the least. I gave him an order that Min- 
 kale was to be at home when I called." 
 
 6
 
 82 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " The order was obeyed ?" 
 
 " In the most liberal spirit. I was alone with 
 Minkal6 while her parents camped out under a 
 tamarind-tree in an attitude of adoration. Is that 
 good manners when a white man visits a daughter 
 of the house with the intention of appropriating 
 her ?" 
 
 " I never studied their manners. I was content to 
 impose my own." 
 
 " That's Imperial," said Walworth, picking up his 
 hat to go. " But I think it is perfectly useless for us 
 to expect them to change their fashions not that I 
 want them to, God bless my soul ! But that's our 
 raison d'etre, isn't it ?" 
 
 " When I'm feeling very dull, Walworth " 
 
 " You send your messengers out to scour the earth 
 for Walworth Bubbles, your favourite clown ?" 
 
 " I do nothing so damned foolish ! I trot out instead 
 all our pet Imperial theories of sacred trusts, of up- 
 lifting Western civilization, of touching the great heart 
 and lively imagination of the Orient with the wand of 
 Western erudition, and I simply " 
 
 " Shake with savage laughter ?" 
 
 " No ; I then affect the secretariat smile of con- 
 tempt." 
 
 " That becomes neither your beauty nor the 
 great heart and lively imagination of the virtuous 
 Zeta. But the tin kettle for gratitude is certainly 
 yours you say you receive benefits, but confer 
 none ?" 
 
 " Not directly unless I'm in church, and the Com- 
 missioner is handing the hat round. But I'm blaming
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 83 
 
 nobody. On the contrary, there's nothing that makes 
 my democratic blood circulate so freely as to see the 
 lever India's been in raising our lower-middle class to 
 the proud and dizzy heights of an Imperial aristo- 
 cracy." 
 
 " I'm a shopkeeper's son," said Walworth, with 
 becoming humility. 
 
 " And here you are a grand duke with quite a com- 
 fortable number of grand duchesses." 
 
 " Yes, but I have a suspicion that my ducal status 
 is the child of business, and not of pleasure ; and, 
 what's more, that it was made by a long series of high- 
 minded soldiers who were earnestly regenerating the 
 East. Do you reap where neither they nor you have 
 sown ?" 
 
 " I am content to reap without inquiring who 
 has sown," said Cruncher, showing signs of weari- 
 ness. 
 
 It is certain that there is no quarter of the civilized 
 world that is as well ruled as India, and it is equally 
 certain, were British control withdrawn, that the 
 Indian sun would immediately blaze on an ocean of 
 blood and anarchy ; but, still, there are those who, in 
 season and out, maintain that we are here solely for 
 our own benefit, as though such a political anomaly 
 v/ere possible. 
 
 " You've been drinking ginger-beer ?" 
 
 " I have ; but what makes you ask ?" 
 
 " That's exactly where you get your mawkish 
 political philosophy from. But, Cruncher, I've 
 wasted a lot of time, and have none to spare. We 
 have finished with Tun Min, but may I see Zeta
 
 84 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 for a moment ? Just a simple little bit of busi- 
 ness." 
 
 " Zeta has no business but what I approve." 
 
 " I think you'll approve ; it's a perfectly proper 
 scheme." 
 
 " I'm not so sure." 
 
 " I want Zeta to ask Minkale and myself to lunch. 
 You go to office, and Zeta she goes shopping. Quite 
 simple." 
 
 " Really, Walworth, you make me doubt my identity. 
 When I've had the smallest dose of you, I feel as if 
 a brutal and unskilled surgeon had had my liver and 
 lights out, and had spat on them and put them back 
 upside down." 
 
 " Does your practical mind," said Walworth, quite 
 unperturbed, " suggest a better idea ?" 
 
 " Your proposals are the very height of indeli- 
 cacy " 
 
 " Or Minkale could go on a visit to your Alpha, Beta, 
 or Gamma and I could get just a little casual leave, 
 couldn't I ?" 
 
 " Worse and worse ! Violence, whether it be moral 
 or muscular, will not mix with the kingdom of 
 heaven " 
 
 " I know nothing of the kingdom of heaven ; but the 
 Crown of England's been in scrum often enough, and 
 that's a lesson we don't forget." 
 
 " Well, well, Walworth, you were sent to me for 
 training, and I must be loyal to the best traditions of 
 the service. I confess I don't like it." 
 
 " Then get out of the way, as I suggested ! Leave 
 it to Zeta and me,"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 85 
 
 " Thank you, no. I'm in no hurry to look out 
 for Theta. But I shall abet you myself, as the 
 criminal law says. Do you know the Goanese lady 
 who mixes confectionery with lacemaking hard by 
 Algie's Bridge ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I'll speak to her. She was my confederate, and 
 I saw Zeta when I liked. She is a most obliging 
 person." 
 
 " Name ?" 
 
 " Something like D'Bug, or D'Cockroach, or D'Stink 
 she didn't mind which you called her. But her 
 parlour was quite a nice place for a brief court- 
 ship." 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Walworth, taking up his hat for 
 the twelfth time, " it's the D'Bugs and the D'Stinks 
 that inspire loyalty to service traditions ! Good-bye, 
 Cruncher. When I've seen Tun Min and packed and 
 labelled him for Nyaunglebin " 
 
 " That would be fatuous." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " It is not an appropriate setting for an uncut 
 stone. Your own corners are being rounded off in 
 Pegu. The finished article will be sent to Nyaung- 
 lebin." 
 
 " The sample we put in gaol ?" 
 
 " Exactly ! Moung Tun Min may be sent to me 
 for training." 
 
 " Then I should kill him. The damned ruffian's 
 spoiling all my plans, stuffing the young women up 
 with the saintliness of celibacy ! No, no 
 
 " I find one pupil fatiguing enough, Walworth ;
 
 86 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 don't be afraid. But that Tun Min will want 
 watching, and I don't altogether like the character 
 you give him. Those boys get to the gallows in 
 time." 
 
 " Don't care a damn, provided I get Minkale and 
 I certainly shan't while he preaches." 
 
 ' You need never be afraid of preachers in 
 Burma. Look around you, and be comforted. What 
 way has Christianity made with the discriminating 
 Burman ?" 
 
 " I expect the Burman likes the missionary well 
 enough. His children are well taught, and for 
 nothing." 
 
 " But what he likes much better are the arms and am- 
 munition that the apostles are not above doing a little 
 trade in. For his religion, however, he has no respect 
 whatever." 
 
 " Because he feels he has a better ?" 
 
 " No. It is the white saheb that sets the fashion, 
 whether it's Bass's beer or brown boots, and " 
 
 " And, Cruncher, you mean that our gay lives don't 
 altogether advertise apostolic precepts ? But there 
 are the women and children." 
 
 " A religion that's adapted to the tastes of 
 English women, and to the necessities of Eurasian 
 children " 
 
 " Bastards ?" 
 
 ' Yes. Well, what's the good of talking about it ? 
 You and I don't live religious lives, and you and I 
 alone stand for Imperialism in Pegu. We are the copy- 
 book precepts that the young Burman is taught to 
 copy, and "
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 87 
 
 " By God ! he does it well. Then why be afraid of 
 Moung Tun Min ?" 
 
 " They get a little more English than the English." 
 " That's what Cambridge men say of the Babu 
 who is seen with Rahab at Ditton corner; but Tun 
 Min's exactly the reverse." 
 
 " He has originality, and influence like our- 
 selves and ambition. All dangerous qualities 
 in a subject race. And more than all, he has 
 brains. If Spring knew that, it would be fatal to 
 his chances." 
 
 " How do you know that ?" said Walworth, rising 
 to go. 
 
 " He practically told me that I owed my promotion 
 to the fact that I was a ' safe ' man ; later on he told 
 me I was a damned fool! I'm sure to be a Com- 
 missioner if I live. But Tun Min's not the right sort 
 to recommend to Spring." 
 
 " I'm blowed if I'm going till it's been done ! 
 What's worse for you, I'll go upstairs and talk to 
 
 Zeta for a bit " 
 
 " I'd rather write to Spring. But the responsi- 
 bility is yours. If Tun Min begins to dream dreams 
 that he is invulnerable, and raises the standard of 
 rebellion, remember you're his sponsor. Good- 
 bye." 
 
 Rebellion is seriously viewed and sternly sup- 
 pressed, but still there is no adventure on which the 
 Burman will embark more light-heartedly than the 
 capture of a fortified city with a few useless match- 
 locks and dahs, and all because the leader, or Boh, 
 was blessed with a dream in which his invulner-
 
 88 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 ability was revealed. Samples of these psychological 
 puzzles are by no means rare in either province, and 
 Cruncher was more than a little apprehensive that 
 Tun Min was an embryo Boh ; but on reflection he 
 decided to take the risk, and the nomination was 
 posted.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SEVERAL days after Cruncher's nomination of Moung 
 Tun Min had been sent in, the latter received, much 
 to his surprise, a letter from the owner of a house at 
 Shwegyn, offering to let it to him at the moderate 
 rental of twenty rupees a month, and was puzzled to 
 know what to think of it. 
 
 " That," said his father, after a critical examina- 
 tion of the address, " is the very first letter in English 
 that you have ever received, and I regard it as a lucky 
 omen that it offers you a house." 
 
 " I wish," said Tun Min, puckering up his mouth, 
 " that I were sure it was intended for me. Anyhow, 
 whoever wrote the address went out of his way to 
 indicate the addressee, for he says ' Tun Min, Esq., 
 Son of Ko Moung, 127, Riverside,' and I am your son, 
 am I not ?" 
 
 " No man, woman, or child, Burmese or Kala, sane 
 or insane, will claim to inherit my fortune as against 
 you when my funeral pyre has ceased to smoke. And 
 that letter was meant for none but you. Moreover, it 
 is good news." 
 
 " Was it revealed to you in a dream ?" 
 
 " My intelligence works better when I am fully 
 awake, and it has a vast store of experience to draw 
 
 89
 
 90 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 upon. You don't believe it, but my detective skill 
 was highly valued by Mindoon Min's Yazo Woons. 
 Not that I wanted to bring criminals to justice, but 
 success tickled my vanity, and practice kept the faculty 
 from rusting." 
 
 " This," said Tun Min, with equal impatience and 
 disrespect, "is no time for autobiography. Why 
 should you think that the letter is genuine ? Why 
 should you think it lucky ?" 
 
 " Rinse your mouth with ice- water and be calm. 
 That rascal of a house-owner has a friend hi the 
 factory where a myook's commission is made, and in 
 this country, if you pay for it, there is no secret that 
 you cannot buy." 
 
 " But has the great Government no confidential 
 clerks ?" 
 
 " They have ; and don't I know their little tricks ! 
 It was examination time, and I saw them going into 
 the printing-press one day with lovely white trousers 
 on and long coats Babu fashion. I can see, taste, 
 and smell a fraud with the quickness of lightning, and 
 I arrested those printers." 
 
 " What did you find ?" 
 
 " Just this : they had pulled up their coats and 
 sat on the type, and then let their coat-tails down 
 again. As a myook, it may be of use to know that 
 the cleverest frauds are, without exception, the 
 simplest." 
 
 " I see, that's why the Government made you a 
 K.S.M. ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What did you do with the decoration ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 91 
 
 " There was a clown who amused me greatly ; in 
 fact, my recollection of his jokes makes me laugh 
 even now when I wake up in the middle of the night. 
 I am never really alone when I think of him. Well, 
 he just wanted to include the chain amongst his stage 
 properties, and it did me good to see him pirouetting 
 about in it." 
 
 " You treated an honour with contempt. The 
 Sayadaw would call it sacrilege." 
 
 " He's not such a fool. Do you think he doesn't 
 know the difference between twelve and twenty-two 
 carat gold ? You try that game on with him when he's 
 engaged in gilding the Pagoda, and you'll be nearer 
 Naikban than you think. Well, I've told you my 
 views, and now that I have to be off to a meeting of the 
 loogyis,* you'd better go and see Minkale. Perhaps 
 she has the gift of second sight." 
 
 Moung Tun Min was restless, and his first impulse was 
 to show the letter to the Wundauk Min ; but on second 
 thought he decided that Minkale had the prior right, 
 though her powers of interpreting the letter were 
 doubtless inferior. He put it in his pocket, and, 
 hastily rolling himself a betel-chew, started for Moung 
 Ba Shin's house, which was only a couple of hundred 
 yards away. Minkale was certainly at home, but 
 both her parents were out, and it would therefore not 
 have been correct for Tun Min to enter, so he sat on 
 the step outside, from where he could both see and hear 
 his lady-love. She was elegantly dressed, and her 
 head and ears simply shone with diamonds. Tun Min 
 guessed she was got up to receive the Wundauk Min, 
 
 * Elders.
 
 92 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 and was delighted, feeling the most supreme confidence 
 in her attachment to himself and in her talents for 
 befooling importunate suitors. 
 
 " I hope nothing has ruffled Ko Tun Min," said 
 Minkale", when they had exchanged greetings, showing 
 that she had noted his troubled look and serious 
 tones. 
 
 " Not ruffled, but puzzled," said Tun Min, with- 
 drawing the letter from his pocket and tossing it to 
 her. " What does Minkale make of this ?" 
 
 " This is simply lovely !" she cried in ecstasy. " Of 
 course, it can mean but one thing." 
 " What ?" 
 
 " That you are appointed and posted to Shwegyn. 
 How dense you are !" 
 " I don't believe it." 
 
 " It isn't because you don't want to," said Minkale, 
 with a smile. " It's some little superstition. You 
 were born on a Sunday, whereas to-day is Saturday, 
 and you think it's the wrong day for good news. 
 Don't be silly ! I've had the most valuable presents 
 on every day of the week, and to me all days that the 
 sun shines are alike joyous." 
 
 " Well, Ko Moung agrees with Minkale," said Tun 
 Min, shaking his head dolefully. 
 
 " And he knows how to put life into a dead secret." 
 " He must have kept bad company as a boy, but 
 he's making up for it now." 
 
 " Ko Moung," said Minkale, shaking her bejewelled 
 head, " is a man of the world, who knows the human 
 type inside and out by heart. He arrives by instinct 
 in a single instant at conclusions that you and I only
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 93 
 
 reach after hours of brain worry and doubt. You 
 may be sure he has guessed correctly. I think we 
 ought to be very thankful." 
 " Does Ma Minkale think she will like Shwegyn ?" 
 
 " Its approaches as you go down the river are lovely. 
 How the lights and shades on the background of hills 
 vary as the bends of the river take you here and there 
 and show you every side of a pretty picture ! I myself 
 ike the roseate hues of early morn best, but I can recall 
 ' ne evening, as we drew near in a sampan : there was 
 
 > the hills just the weird and mystic light of a Bur- 
 mei sunset that mixed and emphasized the most 
 pleasing colours. My imagination was touched, 
 and I thought of enchanted castles and dragons 
 but it was all a delusion. When you once arrive 
 at Shwegyn, those pictures are no more, and you 
 feel they've been stolen. But, still, it is a pretty 
 place to live in, and Ko Tun Min will be very busy 
 furnishing." 
 
 " We are assuming too much," said Tun Min, who 
 was half afraid that destiny took a malignant pleasure 
 in disappointing castle-builders ; but it struck him that 
 he might really be going away in a few days, and that 
 a reference to the time when he might claim Minkale 
 was not altogether inappropriate. 
 
 " When will Minkale," he asked, " want to see the 
 gold and purple patches on those hills again ? The 
 boat and its rower .will be waiting at Poozonmyoung 
 for her ladyship at any time. Shall we say when the 
 royal Padouk has flowered, and Shwegyn is really 
 golden ?" 
 
 " My mother ! Next March or April ? Oh, no !"
 
 94 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Why not ?" 
 
 " We can get much more out of Ko Walworth if we 
 wait. Zeta was telling me that Captain Cruncher 
 thought him far and away the cleverest man in the 
 country one who was sure to be caught up and en- 
 throned in the secretariat." 
 
 " What, really !" 
 
 " Yes. And then oh, the joy of it ! He is a 
 mental prodigy, and in a few months will have the 
 making and unmaking of Wundauks in his hands ; 
 and if I can only impress it upon him in the moments 
 he wastes upon poor me that Ko Tun Min is a star 
 that shines better the higher he rises, he might give 
 it a loftier berth in heaven." 
 
 " Delay," said Tun Min, remembering one of the 
 Bishop's maxims, " is a tree that bears fruit which 
 sometimes is sweet." 
 
 " It is always sweet if the plant is well watered and 
 manured." 
 
 " And your tall and sturdy plant has a skilful 
 gardener. But tell me, what impression has he made 
 on you ? Opinions of him vary so much." 
 
 " Do they ?" 
 
 " Tradesmen love him. He buys largely and pays 
 promptly. And his cook simply swears by him as the 
 finest judge of good cookery in a white skin. But 
 ask Bindasery the peon what he thinks of his master. 
 The poor man is afflicted with the ninety-six sicknesses 
 all brought on by Waunduk's warm and picturesque 
 rhetoric." 
 
 " Rhetoric, do you call it ? You mean a horny 
 hand and a hefty foot. And a Kala peon was made
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 95 
 
 to be beaten. Don't you waste any sympathy on him. 
 But how do you like Ko Walworth ?" 
 
 " He's the most gullible man I know. He swallowed 
 that fib about your renunciation of the world all right ; 
 but he did give me an uncomfortable time after he 
 got back. He held me with both hands out of the 
 top window till I promised to preach marriage to 
 every woman, young and old, that I ever met. I 
 should have been killed if I hadn't." 
 
 Minkale laughed merrily as she pictured him strug- 
 gling and gibbering in Walworth's grip on the brink 
 of eternity, and Tun Min was visibly annoyed at her 
 mirth. 
 
 " I'm sure it was nothing to laugh at," he said 
 reprovingly. 
 
 " We'll make him pay for that," said Minkale, 
 taking no notice of the rebuke. " Such treatment has 
 a large equivalent in Imperial compensation. Leave it 
 to me to work." 
 
 " My mother ! He'd kill me outright if he thought 
 I'd told you !" 
 
 " I can say a pleader told me." 
 
 " He's simply lovely on the subject of pleaders. 
 He has sworn on the Christian kyanza that he'll have 
 the entire Pegu Bar in penal servitude before his next 
 birthday. And if he hears they've been spying on 
 his house, he'll have them in quod before tiffin. 
 But tell me, who was Ananias ?" 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " According to Ko Walworth, it was he that bred a 
 sturdy race of liars and settled them on our fertile 
 Burmese soil."
 
 96 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " He was a myth. The Jews attribute their love 
 for the truth to the awful fate of their masculine liars, 
 of whom Ananias was quite a paltry type." 
 
 " I see. The term is mere abuse. He's a master 
 in that art. Have you heard him swear ?" 
 
 " Rather ! And, to tell you the truth, his naughty 
 words don't sound a bit wicked when he speaks them ; 
 but he must be a bit daft !" 
 
 Minkale said this, and the colour mounted to her 
 cheeks till Tun Min thought she must be recalling some 
 blazing indiscretion of her own, but it was only the 
 memory of some of Walworth's characteristic pleasant- 
 ries, of which good taste was not usually a distinctive 
 feature. 
 
 " He isn't mad," said Tun Min, with assurance ; 
 " but he's a strange compound of storms and 
 lulls. Only he keeps his stormy side for the world of 
 men." 
 
 " He has many sides, some passionate and some 
 funny. He does say the drollest things, and I often 
 wonder whether he regards us as being without any 
 sense of humour." 
 
 " But he's seen you laugh ?" 
 
 " Uproariously ! And he wondered why. But what 
 do you think he said ?" 
 
 " I expect it was something hot." 
 
 " No ; but it was full of seasoning. He said that 
 curries, when cooked, should be eaten, and that if he 
 didn't eat me somebody else would." 
 
 " That young man has curry on the brain," said Tun 
 Min, covering a smile with his hand. 
 
 " But he wants it in his mouth, and it puzzles him
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 97 
 
 to know how to get it from the one place to the 
 other." 
 
 " Well, he's keeping the goldsmith fully employed. 
 I expect he'll be laying diamonds and emeralds in new 
 and lovely settings at your feet. What then ? Ko 
 Tun Min, the overworked and ill-used drudge, will 
 soon be forgotten." 
 
 " What do they say ? That we forgot our joys, but 
 never our sorrows." 
 
 " Where do I come in ?" asked Tun Min, wondering 
 whether he would ever see Minkale serious. 
 
 " Where Ko Walworth goes out, of course," said 
 Minkale, quite at her best when fencing with awkward 
 questions. 
 
 Just as Minkale said this, a hurricane swept 
 down the road and pulled up at Ba Shin's door. 
 It was a score of boys, who had been playing outside 
 Ko Moung's house, when he put his head out 
 of the window, and promised a rupee to the first 
 of them who could find Tun Min, and tell him that 
 the postman had just left an official cover for him. 
 They knew where he was with the omniscience that 
 characterizes the Asiatic, and it was a race for Ba 
 Shin's house, but it was a shrieking chorus that an- 
 nounced the news, and not the winner of the race 
 alone. 
 
 " There it is," said Minkale, clapping her hands with 
 delight. " Run and read." 
 
 But it was unnecessary to suggest haste to the 
 impatient Tun Min, who left without ceremony the 
 instant he grasped the full purport of the news. But 
 as he ran, with his long black hair hanging down his 
 
 7
 
 9& THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 back, and holding his silk putsoe with both hands, he 
 half doubted whether some acute disappointment were 
 not in store for him. 
 
 " If," he solemnly vowed, " it has come, then I shall 
 build a Pagoda, and distribute new robes among the 
 old monks. But it is too good to be true."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 So great was the augmentation of the myooks' cadre 
 necessitated by the annexation of the Upper Province, 
 that practically any respectable Burman with a know- 
 ledge of English who chose to ask for a myookship was 
 hastily equipped and given a charge of a more or less 
 mixed character, in which judicial and executive func- 
 tions were blended as they then were throughout the 
 subordinate services. Sometimes there were failures, 
 but far more often the nature of the man responded to 
 the nature of his task, and officers shone in adminis- 
 trative posts simply by coming within the magical 
 influence of an honourable administration. It was in 
 these emergent conditions that Tun Min received his 
 first commission, and was, much to his delight, posted 
 to Shwegyn for his first training. That it was a 
 decaying district about to be dismembered did not 
 concern him. It was enough that he was a star, 
 though still a very pale and watery one, in the Imperial 
 firmament ; but he was a rising star, and in that know- 
 ledge both he and his friends rejoiced. The occasion 
 was, indeed, celebrated with pwes, and in the im- 
 promptu performances both Walworth and Tun Min 
 were represented as garlanded heroes enjoying a 
 triumph on their victorious return irom a war of 
 
 99
 
 loo THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 conquest. The romantic soul of the Burman, in fact, 
 ran riot, while Ko Moung gladly paid the bill, till at 
 last the time came for Tun Min to say good-bye, and 
 Pegu gave him a send-off of which a Commissioner 
 might have been proud. But as the train steamed 
 out, Tun Min thought he detected just a little less 
 of the familiar warmth in Ba Shin's usually affectionate 
 manner ; but he was not accustomed to brood over the 
 temperature of his friends, and he dismissed the sub- 
 ject from his mind to think of the official greatness 
 that now lay before him. 
 
 Moung Ba Shin, too, as he wended his way home, 
 excluded Tun Min from his thoughts with a sigh of 
 relief, for he thought the way was now cleared for the 
 progress of the Wundauk Min, who was taking a very 
 thorough census indeed of the family into which Minkale 
 had had the good fortune to be born. Moung Ba Shin 
 had been a confirmed intrigant most of his life, and 
 having first abetted the suit of Tun Min, was now 
 equally at home in seconding the ambition of the 
 amorous Assistant Commissioner. Wai worth had, in 
 fact, become a daily visitor, and as Moung Ba Shin 
 approached his house he saw the familiar spectacle of 
 the Wundauk's pony tied to a tree outside, while the 
 poor beast stood on three legs and gazed at the door, 
 as if he were wondering what on earth his august 
 master found so engrossing in a humble Burmese 
 dwelling. 
 
 " Has he gone ?" asked Walworth, as Ba Shin 
 shikoed, and sat down at the door with his hands up- 
 lifted in adoration before him. 
 
 " He has, my lord."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 101 
 
 " Thank God ! It was those maudlin monks who 
 put these mischievous ideas into his immature mind. 
 Did they put a lump of ice on your heart, Moung Ba 
 Shin, when you were a monk conning your sacred 
 scriptures ?" 
 
 " I ran away on the third day, my lord." 
 
 " Who with ? Ma May ?" 
 
 " Indeed, then, Ma May was not even born," said 
 his hostess, in an acid whisper, while she leant over 
 her betel-box and looked into it to see whether it 
 needed replenishing. 
 
 " You Burmans are gay dogs quite young," said 
 Walworth, without in the least suspecting that his 
 levity would strike the Oriental mind of his audience 
 as most undignified. " But why did you run away ?" 
 
 " I was sick." 
 
 " Of prayer and fasting ?" 
 
 " Sick of having to think for myself, and do nothing 
 but think, whereas I had been accustomed to do 
 nothing but play." 
 
 " At what age does a Burman begin to think ?" 
 asked Walworth, turning towards Minkale, as if he 
 intended her to enlighten him. 
 
 " Why, of course," said Minkale, with a smile, 
 " when he becomes a monk." 
 
 " Does he go on thinking when he's chucked his 
 robes and kyoungs, and all the melancholy para- 
 phernalia of monasticism ? Or does he unselfishly 
 delegate the arduous duty ?" 
 
 " If he's married," said Minkale, " the duty devolves 
 on his wife." 
 
 " And if he is unmarried ?"
 
 102 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " His mother." 
 
 " I see," said Walworth, without meaning to be 
 rude, " that Burmans regard the theory and practice 
 of thinking with contempt, which accounts for the 
 milk in the cocoanut." 
 
 " Whose cocoanut ?" 
 
 " I mean that explains the supremacy of women in 
 Burma." 
 
 " Is it otherwise hi England ? I thought it delightful 
 to see the respect the Chief Commissioner paid his 
 wife when they came to give away the prizes to the 
 convent girls. It was she who actually gave them, 
 while he stood behind, looking the picture of pleasure. 
 He did admire her, and we him." 
 
 " I was sure you hadn't got the impression from 
 Mrs. Cruncher," said Walworth, afraid to commit 
 himself to any particular view on English domestic 
 relations, but glad to be able to mention the Crunchers, 
 and note whether Minkal's ambition had never been 
 stirred by the heights to which Mrs. Cruncher had 
 climbed. 
 
 " He might call her by worse names than he does," 
 said Minkal6 pityingly. 
 
 " Good Lord ! He doesn't abuse the poor child, 
 I hope !" 
 
 " He calls her by a Greek letter," said Minkale; and 
 then both she and Walworth burst out laughing, 
 while Ma May left the room in disgust at what she 
 regarded as quite unbecoming familiarity between the 
 boy and the girl. Moreover, she doubted whether it 
 was good for the fable that Minkale had turned serious 
 with the intention of renouncing the world. But Ba
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 103 
 
 Shin was delighted, and his manly bosom swelled with 
 pride as he looked at Walworth and wondered how 
 soon the plot would thicken. 
 
 " As a rule," said Walworth, " they put Greek 
 letters to prosaic uses in the sciences, but Cruncher has 
 made ample atonement by conferring one on the 
 beautiful Zeta." 
 
 " Oh, do you think her so very beautiful ?" said 
 Minkale, affecting surprise. 
 
 " Perhaps 1 should have said bewitching. But 
 Cruncher regards her as a pearl, and is fearfully 
 jealous. He was saying he lived in dread that one or 
 more of your loobyos would run off with her." 
 
 " This is Captain Cruncher's first incarnation." 
 ' You mean to say he's a fool ?" 
 
 " The same thing." 
 
 In Burma, and more particularly among the Shans 
 on our borders, mental weakness is regarded as symp- 
 tomatic of a first incarnation, in which the accumu- 
 lated experience of a previous existence, or what is 
 called instinct, never enters, and for this reason fools 
 and idiots are good-naturedly received with a large 
 measure of indulgence. 
 
 " You don't like Zeta, then ?" said Walworth, 
 anxious to know whether his selection of the Deputy 
 Commissioner's bungalow for his courtship had been 
 unfortunate. 
 
 " On the contrary, I'm very fond of her ; but she's 
 a frivolous woman, who was made for love and she 
 fulfils her destiny. In our old convent days she was 
 most unsuccessful in examinations, but she was our 
 most amusing wit."
 
 104 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Do I see a lady graduate before me ?" asked 
 Walworth, noting the feline infelicity of the reference 
 to Zeta's failures. 
 
 " No, unless your vision is very oblique ; but we 
 were never allowed to get as far. You see, the good 
 nuns were thinking much more of the next life than 
 of this, so we skipped such earthly interests as trigono- 
 metry. By the way, did you hear that heaven had been 
 triangulated ?" 
 
 " The heaven they mentioned at Oxford was musical 
 but never mind that. I was thinking how nice it 
 would be if we could meet under Zeta's roof ; my work 
 takes me there every day." 
 
 " Ma Le ! Then how is it that we've never met ? 
 It's pure pleasure that takes me there, and I'm there 
 every evening. Your eyes were on your work, or 
 you'd have seen me." 
 
 " What !" exclaimed Walworth, shocked to think 
 that Cruncher, knowing his leanings, had never put 
 opportunity in his way. 
 
 " Well, perhaps not every evening ; but Zeta and I 
 manage to meet somewhere every day, and really it isn't 
 very difficult in a small place like Pegu, where every- 
 body is interested in everybody else." 
 
 " And what do you do when you meet ?" said Wal- 
 worth, feeling uneasy as though circumstances had 
 only pretended to be ruled by him, whereas they had 
 been gently pulling his leg. 
 
 " We put our tongues to several more or less natural 
 uses. Zeta is quite a good talker, with a lively 
 imagination and a delightful sense of humour, and she 
 does make me laugh till my sides ache when she mimics
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 105 
 
 Captain Cruncher's after-dinner manner. You know, 
 he rises from the dinner- table " 
 
 " He never rises from it ; he falls, and is picked up. 
 There's nothing very funny about that." 
 
 " I'm not so sure," said Minkale, disagreeing. " I 
 once saw David Garrick at the Rangoon Assembly 
 Rooms, and there was an A.D.C. in the drunken part 
 well, I needn't say more than that it suited his genius 
 and our coarse tastes, as you would call them." 
 
 " What does Zeta say about the world of love ? 
 And doesn't she think your judgment at fault when you 
 talk of taking the veil ?" 
 
 " She simply doesn't believe me. And as for the 
 kingdom of love, she is a queen in it, and is that not 
 enough ?" 
 
 " But she's only one queen of many, isn't she ?" 
 
 " They never meet. She doesn't mind. You see, 
 he's much older than she, and so he began to practise 
 the art of crowning long before she had the right to 
 put a limit to it. But, you know, there would be 
 awful ructions if they did meet." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " Well, you see, we have a very antiquated custom. 
 The senior queen has the legal right to slipper all 
 junior queens once a year." 
 
 Walworth laughed to think what would happen to 
 Minkale if Yoma, who was now on his " staff," took 
 it into her Burmese head to vindicate her supremacy. 
 
 " But, joking aside, Minkale, doesn't Zeta try to 
 convert you ?" 
 
 " She is a good Buddhist, and it would be a sin for 
 her to interfere. The demerit of the deed would be
 
 106 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 dreadful, and who knows ? she might be born a 
 snake the next time she appeared on earth. The Nats 
 never forgive." 
 
 " Rot !" said Walworth, forgetting that he was 
 addressing an orthodox Burman. " She can't be such 
 a fool. But, tell me, there are more ways than one of 
 accumulating merit, surely ! For instance " 
 
 " Your recommendation of Ko Tun Min now will 
 bring you as much merit as Ko Moung has achieved 
 by the erection of a fresh-water fountain for the 
 thirsty ; and if you only got him made a Tsitkay " 
 
 " Then you mean that I should be ripe for Naikban ! 
 No, thank you! To be obliterated in my youth, just 
 when the plums of life are beginning to fall into my 
 open mouth ! If I'm seriously threatened, I'll sponge 
 out that good mark at once by killing somebody. But, 
 Minkale, we are constantly straying from a point I 
 want to get you to. Doesn't a good wife stand the 
 same chance of Naikban as a good nun ?" 
 
 " Naikban never wants a wife," said Minkale, with a 
 merry laugh, in which Walworth joined. " She's too 
 well known to have lived a life in which the cares of a 
 family have precluded all hope of preparation for the 
 hereafter. Ask mother when you get the chance 
 whether she doesn't pray every day of her life that she 
 may be a man next time she's born and it's the same 
 with all wives." 
 
 " There's no doubt about it," said Walworth, in a 
 tone of admiration, " that Burmese women have a lot 
 of sense. I know no better prayer, and, mind you, I 
 was brought up in the holy of holies of quite as good 
 a religion as yours. I shall still hope to convince you
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 107 
 
 some day. It's late now, but shall I call on Zeta 
 this evening about the time you're there ?" 
 
 " Do ! Good-bye !" 
 
 Several days had gone by since Walworth's intro- 
 duction to Minkale, and he was disappointed to find 
 that his powers of persuasion had lost some of their 
 potency. But the more he saw of Minkale, the more 
 convinced was he that she was game worth going for, 
 and that if he could only bring her under the influence 
 of some gay but superior spirit like Zeta's, he would 
 yet find her pulse keeping time with his own. That 
 they were out of step now he was inclined to attribute 
 to Tun Min's silly meddling, but that at any rate 
 showed that Minkale was impressionable, and he hoped, 
 with Zeta's co-operation, to make the right impression. 
 Unfortunately, he was going into camp for a lesson in 
 the " inquiry into " of crime, and would be away a few 
 days, as it was very improbable that the dacoits would 
 surrender without being tracked to their lairs ; but he 
 hoped on his return to prosecute his suit with vigour, 
 and take no answer from the misguided lady but com- 
 pliance with his Imperial command. 
 
 Minkale, on the other hand, as she saw him ride 
 home, laughed inwardly at his gawkish simplicity, and 
 wondered whether she would have to abduct him in 
 order to live up to the heights of her feminine ambi- 
 tion. 
 
 " A Burman," she said to herself, " would have 
 carried me off in his arms or in a ticca, or, better still, 
 in a boat, as we are so near the river. But these 
 Englishmen have lived in colder climes, and have the 
 power of self-control. He is a nice fellow, though a
 
 io8 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 gaiety about him that Ko Tun Min, with his solemn 
 face, never suggested. Still, they both have their 
 drawbacks." 
 
 " You made a wry face then, Minkale," said Ma 
 May, coming into the room. " I hope it was at the 
 mental picture of your own unladylike behaviour." 
 
 " I wasn't thinking of myself, and, curiously enough, 
 I wasn't thinking of you, either. But it was of Ko 
 Tun Min and Ko Walworth, and the flavour they left 
 in my mouth was not of chocolate creams." 
 
 " Hullo ! But how's that ?" said Moung Ba Shin, 
 shocked by the suggestion that the Wundauk Min was 
 an unsweetened morsel. 
 
 " Women are no scarcer than they were in my day," 
 said Ma May, raising her finger to suit the tone of 
 admonition, " and unless you're a fool you won't be 
 too fastidious. Princes are not as plentiful as pine- 
 apples. Besides, such as there are, are either fugitives 
 in the sunny south or prisoners in the rotting dungeons 
 of Ratnagiri." 
 
 " I have no wish to be a princess," said Minkale, 
 coldly readjusting her thamlin as she turned her back 
 on her parents and went outside to send a message to 
 Zeta by the postman, who was just then passing. 
 
 " I think the girl's all right," said Moung Ba Shin, 
 soothing his wife's fears. " You were just like that 
 when you had the world at your feet, and till your 
 eyes were opened by my wealth. Come, come ! 
 Don't shake your head as though you had the palsy !" 
 
 " Don't you tell me that my judgment was ever 
 cloudy or wavering ! My head was screwed on straight 
 enough, and never did I cause my sweet parents any
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 109 
 
 anxiety. But then I was brought up as a Burmese 
 girl should be." 
 
 " And Minkale received the education that the 
 daughter of a Burmese gentleman should get. My 
 mother ! To hear you talk like that one would think 
 that the convent was a patent for unmaking or un- 
 hinging the girlish mind. How about Zeta ?" 
 
 " When Zeta met her destiny," said Ma May, " she 
 took it with both hands hugged it never dallied 
 with it for a moment." 
 
 " No more will Minkale. Wait and see !"
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 " TELL me, Gerald," said Zeta, addressing Cruncher, 
 who was in a communicative and amiable mood, as he 
 had just heard of his promotion to the next grade, 
 " what is the matter with Walworth. Sometimes I 
 love him dearly " 
 
 " But you must never do that !" 
 
 " And at other times he strikes me as being either 
 mad or bad, or both." 
 
 " He is neither ; but he would certainly like to be 
 bad if he dared." 
 
 " And why doesn't he dare ?" said Zeta. " It's so 
 simple." 
 
 " He had a bad bringing up." 
 
 " That's all the more reason for being bad." 
 
 " Not with Englishmen," said Cruncher. " And I 
 can soon show you why." 
 
 " Go on, then." 
 
 " People of his class go to Sunday-schools, where 
 they find a conscience ; then they go to Oxford, where 
 they find it's no use." 
 
 " But how's that ?" 
 
 " At Oxford he met the real saheb for the first time 
 in his life, and saw that in the upper circles they 
 labelled conscience a smug and a bounder. Every- 
 
 IIO
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY in 
 
 body, in fact, who could afford it had a damned good 
 time. Mind you, there are few naughtier cities in the 
 world than Oxford, and what Walworth saw was 
 inspiring. It touched his imagination and made his 
 blood gallop, but he can't quite shake off the contamina- 
 tion of his early associations. Every now and again 
 he wants to be good just to set his conscience at 
 rest." 
 
 " And when he has lulled it to sleep ?" 
 
 " Then he's as sane as you and I usually are." 
 
 " I've been seeing a lot of Minkale recently, and I 
 think she begins to regard her future with some 
 misgiving." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " Because of his moods. She never knows whether 
 she's going to be christened or ravished, and his con- 
 versation begins to get more and more disfigured by 
 swear words." 
 
 " Swearing," said Cruncher, " is a gentleman's 
 birthright. Well-bred people pay no attention to it. 
 But what of Wai worth's moods ?" 
 
 " Don't repeat it, but he told Minkale that he would 
 send her home to be polished up, and then marry her 
 in your Church." 
 
 " She was charmed, of course." 
 
 " Only for a moment or two, for in the next breath 
 he began to buck about the honour of his service, and 
 the great position he held." 
 
 " Bunkum I" 
 
 " And finally would insist that Burmese girls should 
 only be known by night. That is, when the eyes of 
 the Government were closed in sleep."
 
 ii2 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " But you've never told me yet that Minkale had 
 agreed to many him." 
 
 " Once poor Ko Tun Min's back was turned she aban- 
 doned all further pretences, and appeared as the real 
 Minkale ; not a moment too soon, either, for he had 
 heard from Beta that she could introduce him to 
 Mona." 
 
 " Mona ?" 
 
 " Mona of the half-blood. Her father was Colonel 
 Sketch. She was willing to go to Walworth on 
 his own terms which means that she was willing 
 to live at Tawa and be visited. But before the 
 introduction Minkale made a clean breast of the 
 fraud." 
 
 " Gave Tun Min away ?" 
 
 " Wholesale." 
 
 " Wasn't he annoyed ?" 
 
 " With Ko Tun Min, certainly," said Zeta. " But it 
 seemed to attract him still closer to Minkale, for he 
 immediately kissed her, and slipped a ring on her 
 finger that he had carried about with him for weeks, 
 and asked if she would go and inspect Dabein with 
 him." 
 
 " He's a damned young rip !" 
 
 " That's what I think ; and if I'm right, then the 
 morals he affects at times must be put on for some 
 wicked purpose, or he may be crazy !" 
 
 " He has no principles." 
 
 " I don't mind that, if a man has spirits, even if 
 he got them at the bottom of a bottle of brandy ; 
 but what I do mind is the hypocrisy." 
 
 " Why ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 113 
 
 " Then he isn't a saheb, and no Burmese girl cares 
 a flip of the fingers for a white man unless he is a 
 saheb. Naturally, when he's had his fun he'll go, 
 and he'll take with him more than he brought. Do 
 you remember Ma Hmon's necklace ? Mrs. Shotover 
 is wearing it now." 
 
 " You're insulting Walworth, my dear. He's not 
 that type of man at all. If he hangs back a bit, it's 
 partly his old conscience that's to blame, and his new 
 fears that he might botch his future ; but Minkale will 
 do jolly well if she goes to him." 
 
 " He won't if he disappoints her." 
 
 " Men who are disappointments get on quite well 
 in the public service." 
 
 " But not in private life," said Zeta, " when there's 
 a wronged Burmese girl lurking in dark places. Min- 
 kale' never forgives, and Walworth, mad or sane, would 
 rather he'd stayed at Oxford." 
 
 " But there's Moung Tun Min waiting for Minkale, 
 the widow. Surely she'd be content with her first 
 love ?" 
 
 " Never !" said Zeta, with emphasis. " As your 
 memsaheb I'm a lady, but as a myook's wife, who 
 should I be ?" 
 
 " Just the myook's wife." 
 
 " Without any delusions without any courtesy 
 title without any respect. No, thank you !" 
 
 " So you regard Minkale as a dangerous character 
 when driven to desperation. But have Burmese girls 
 the demon of revenge in their bosoms ?" 
 
 " They keep their bosoms for love, but it's their 
 hands and their teeth that they keep for revenge.
 
 H4 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Surely in your nineteen years' service you've known 
 of some interesting cases ?" 
 
 " Of avarice where the victims were bejewelled 
 babes yes ! But of revengeful women no ! I can't 
 recall any." 
 
 " How about Ma Hline, of Payagalay, who poisoned 
 a whole family in order to be sure of bagging her false 
 and traitorous sweetheart ?" 
 
 " Did she swing cheerfully ?" 
 
 " Quite, after the Governor of the gaol had promised 
 her her freedom when she was born again." 
 
 There is no criminal in the wide world who goes 
 up to be hanged with quicker pulse or with better 
 grace than the Burman, provided he is promised his 
 pardon, and therefore his freedom, at the moment of 
 death. Such a promise is, of course, freely given, and 
 has apparently the effect of completely annihilating 
 all terrors that death inspires. 
 
 " Well, you can take it from me that Minkale will 
 never swing for the murder of Walworth Bubbles. 
 It is much more likely that Moung Tun Min will drink 
 both Walworth's blood and Minkale's, and then take 
 to dacoity on a large scale." 
 
 " You may break Ko Tun Min's heart, but you will 
 never sully his hands." 
 
 " But what are you leading up to, Zeta ?" 
 
 " Just this ask Ko Walworth if his intentions are 
 honourable. If not, then bundle him out of the 
 district." 
 
 " It would be bad manners. But what do you 
 regard as honourable ?" 
 
 " As you and I live openly. If that's his game
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 115 
 
 well and good. But if he's going to keep Minkale at 
 Tawa or at Payagyi, and just ride over for supper and 
 chota hazri, then there'll be trouble." 
 
 " But we can't prevent it." 
 
 " I can," said Zeta, " by a little scheme of my own. 
 In fact, I think I shall go and see Ko Tun Min ; but I'll 
 wait till things develop a bit." 
 
 Zeta meant what she said, notwithstanding the 
 danger that, in Burmese society, such a visit would 
 occasion far from innocent merriment.
 
 PART II
 
 TUN MIN was now a myook indeed, but far from the 
 summit of his ambition. There were higher grades 
 and more responsible offices to which he could attain, 
 and he resolved that he would spare himself no effort 
 in the attempt to reach the highest honours -then open 
 to Burmese competition ; but he had an uneasy feeling 
 that private conscience would require a lot of training 
 before it consented to consort with public duty. On 
 his arrival he had reported himself to Spicer, the 
 distinguished Deputy Commissioner, and had received 
 the usual formula with which the latter officer exhorted 
 griffins sent to him for training. 
 
 " You will," Spicer had said coldly, while Tun Min 
 squatted on a mat at the door of the former's study, 
 " if you desire to rise and shine, regard every prisoner as 
 a criminal ripe for conviction and sentence, every pleader 
 as vermin demanding extinction, every policeman as an 
 Imperial bulwark, every Deputy Commissioner as a god, 
 and your own as the mightiest in the Imperial hierarchy. 
 You will be offered bribes. Don't shake your head. 
 Bribery is the most ancient of all Burmese customs, 
 and the most damnable. If you're caught and you're 
 sure to be in my district it's certain death. Be clean 
 in mind and body and begone !" 
 
 119
 
 120 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Tun Min remembered every word of the exhorta- 
 tion, and not a day had passed but he had been able 
 on going to bed to say with equal truth and satisfaction 
 that his Deputy Commissioner's precepts had been 
 obeyed. Indeed, litigants were amazed, and the pro- 
 fession annoyed, for such probity was without a pre- 
 cedent. But it was the pleader in particular who was 
 most unhappy. 
 
 As known to the Alompras, the lawyer was a mis- 
 cellaneous collection of odds and ends a patchwork 
 of stained morals, of low cunning that did duty for 
 business capacity, and of soiled rags of experience in 
 the shady walks of life. He was expected to lie with 
 fluency and fortitude, and never did he send a client 
 away disappointed. But of legal knowledge he was 
 innocent, and was forgiven. There was, indeed, law, 
 but, being customary, it was fluid, which in the lan- 
 guage of commerce means that it was bought and sold. 
 Such, said tradition, was the law and its prophet 
 from years so remote that they exceed in number the 
 drops of rain that fell in a dozen seasons. Now, when 
 the horn of Eastern tradition is exalted, it is to the 
 accompaniment of barbaric music and boastful 
 challenge, and the Alompran tradition was no excep- 
 tion to the rule. "We alone live in the light!" 
 shouted the Shanays* of Arracan. " And the Kala 
 Kwes are children of darkness !" But just about that 
 time John Company had been living in the purest of 
 lights, and was intensely annoyed at the taunt of the 
 farthing dip in the pineapple jungle, and out went the 
 whole Burmese constellation of Shanays, great and small. 
 * Pleaders.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 121 
 
 But the Burman would not be comforted with the 
 barristers and solicitors of the West. These had an 
 impossible moral standard, spoke a harsh and incom- 
 prehensible language, and derived their inspiration 
 from musty books instead of from glittering gold- 
 mohurs. He would have none of the new legal system, 
 and it was a critical moment for Imperialism in the 
 pineapple jungle. But the little band of statesmen 
 who sat at Lord Amherst's round table in Calcutta 
 were equal to any emergency, and at an inspired 
 moment the pleader of Bengal was engrafted on the 
 still delicate and anaemic plant of Burmese justice. 
 Few would have supposed it, but the actual genesis of 
 the " goosal-khana " lawyer, as he was christened for 
 the perfume of his moral and spiritual nature, lay in 
 the desire to conciliate Burmese national feeling, and 
 compensate it for the extinction of its own juridical 
 school. 
 
 The pleader himself made no mistake as to his 
 origin. He felt he was a brilliant invention, and that 
 he had to live up to it, or, in other words, that inven- 
 tion should be equally the label of his origin and the 
 purpose of his life. His success was not only phe- 
 nomenal, but it was dangerous, and in those days 
 there was hardly a Deputy Commissioner but he rose 
 from his bed in the morning with a fixed determina- 
 tion to exterminate the brood. That, however, was 
 found to be impossible, for the pleader had burrowed 
 deep in the myook's bosom, and no Imperial operation 
 could extract him. To have abolished the myook 
 was to have uprooted national life, so the pleader 
 was allowed to live. He did live, and he grew, and
 
 122 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 he flourished till Tun Min was incontinently posted to 
 Shwegyn. That was a blow under which the pleader 
 reeled, but he pulled himself together with the highly 
 popular stimulant of " pen-and-ink," and thereafter 
 Spicer's daily post-bag was filled with anonymous but 
 libellous reflections on the myook's integrity. 
 
 " That," said Spicer to himself in the solitude of his 
 study, " is a good sign. Tun Min is sweeping clean. 
 We shall enlarge his powers, and make him a first- 
 class magistrate. In this sink of corruption no one 
 is blamed for feathering his nest, unless he does it 
 nervously and in retail. If Tun Min's accused, it's 
 because he's honest." 
 
 Convinced of Tun Mun's purity, Spicer immediately 
 increased the burden of the myook's work, much to 
 the mortification of the legal profession ; but Tun Min 
 himself was far from gratified, except hi the know- 
 ledge that he was appreciated by a rising and in- 
 fluential officer. He had expected the appreciation 
 to be marked by promotion, by improved social 
 intercourse with the European element, and by the 
 increased respect of all the lower official strata for 
 a capable magistrate. But gazettes did not mention 
 him ; Spicer never noticed his salutes, and in the living 
 world of fraud and falsehood he was regarded as dead 
 to the dictates of intelligence and self-interest alike, 
 and men and women smiled when they shikoed to him 
 on the road. 
 
 " This is intolerable," he reflected. " And Minkale 
 has repeatedly promised that my career would soon 
 mature. She sees the Wundauk every day, and has 
 his assurance that my name has been brought to the
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 123 
 
 notice of the Kinwoon Mingyi but still nothing 
 comes of it." 
 
 He was both puzzled and mortified, and was for tele- 
 graphing immediately to stimulate Minkale's zeal, when 
 his only friend Subramunyan Chetty called to warn 
 him that he was in danger, as the legal profession, dis- 
 appointed at his honesty, had conspired to destroy him. 
 
 " Were it only the pleader," said the Chetty, rubbing 
 his large round naked stomach with a greasy hand, 
 " you could deal with him single-handed, and nobody 
 would blame you. But the policeman with the base 
 ingratitude of his nature has also turned against you 
 and he controls many engines of destruction." 
 
 " Why ?" asked Tun Min coldly. 
 
 " It was this way," said the Chetty in a whisper. 
 " When you came you fluttered a co-operative judg- 
 ment society. Please wait and I'll explain. Your 
 predecessor could not bear the sight of the Penal Code, 
 but he was not a fool." 
 
 " How was that ?". 
 
 " Sitting on his rickety dealwood perch, the lone 
 man saw nothing in the Penal Code but an unkindly 
 epitome of his own past life pleasant if you like, and 
 successful too, but in the legal light his life had a 
 crimson hue. He made a rapid mental calculation, 
 and when it suggested a future of ages and ages in 
 an Imperial prison, he flung the obnoxious volume out 
 of the nearest window it was an unclean and dan- 
 gerous thing." 
 
 " Then what did he administer ?" 
 
 " A patent of his own," said the Chetty, drawing 
 even nearer as his whispers got softer. " He found
 
 124 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 that the policeman was a discoverer of fact, while the 
 pleader was a past professor of law. What was more 
 natural ? They prepared his judgments but he alone 
 signed them." 
 
 " Impossible ! Their interests are hostile." 
 " Give me time. The cases were numbered, and 
 in those that were odd the prisoner was doomed, but 
 in those that were even he was permitted again to 
 abuse his liberty. Now, as a moneylender, I can 
 assure your honour that fifty per cent, will satisfy not 
 only the hungry heart of man, but the large-mouthed 
 official doctrine of averages." 
 
 " I expect there was some competition to be on the 
 even list." 
 
 " It was a brilliant idea. It commercialized criminal 
 justice. Men and women could buy it in the bazaar 
 and nobody complained least of all the myook, the 
 pleader, and the policeman who either bought old 
 houses or built new ones." 
 
 " So that was the dovecote I fluttered. But what 
 a curious thing that the public for whom justice was 
 carefully elaborated, should despise it and prefer the 
 other thing." 
 
 " Thinking like a monk, and feeling like a man," 
 said the Chetty in his natural voice, now that he was 
 merely philosophizing, " are two very different things. 
 British justice suits my book very well, but I'm in a 
 small minority. To the criminally disposed world it 
 means that rich and poor are bracketed. That money 
 is sterilized. That a man who can pay for what he 
 wants mustn't have his wants satisfied. The thing 
 in the East is ludicrous. Paralyze the Burman's leg
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 125 
 
 and he will never complain, but not his gold. What 
 your honour administers has the scent of roses to 
 my nostrils, but the stink of rotten meat to the Babu 
 and the Burman." 
 
 " I shall never change," said Tun Min. " The rain 
 of falsehood and calumny can beat their hardest on 
 my character, but the tempest will pass, and I shall 
 be left unhurt to rise and shine." 
 
 " But your honour is unbathed." 
 
 " Whatever do you mean ?" asked Tun Min in a 
 tone of indignation, failing to recognize in the Chetty's 
 speech his own fondness for metaphor. 
 
 " The Hindu," said the Chetty, drawing his legs 
 under him as he squatted on the floor, " bathes in the 
 Ganges and is forgiven." 
 
 " I am not a Hindu, and will never bathe in the 
 Ganges." 
 
 " You have not caught my meaning. East and 
 West don't often agree, but they both regard the bath 
 with reverence. The Hindu's next existence is puri- 
 fied by an immersion in the Ganges, but his present 
 life is honoured according as whether or not he has 
 bathed in the river of London." 
 
 " Physically ?" 
 
 " No. He must have graduated in its schools." 
 
 " But what does that mean ?" 
 
 " That he has thrown off one civilization without 
 acquiring another he goes braced by the tenets of 
 Hinduism." 
 
 " And returns ?" 
 
 " Addicted to brandy and brown boots, having left 
 a bastard baby or two behind."
 
 126 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 "Oh, it's quits then ! The Indian lives the same 
 life in London as the Englishman does in Burma. 
 But, Chetty saheb, there's a flaw somewhere in that 
 argument. You are applying to the Burman a rule 
 that the Government only reserves for Hindus and 
 Mohammedans we are sturdier stuff, and they recog- 
 nize our superiority." 
 
 " Hindu, or Buddhist, or Mohammedan," said the 
 Chetty, " it is the same thing. We are all black, and 
 the Imperial prescription is administered full strength, 
 whether we hail from Trichinopoly, or Madura, or 
 from Mandalay." 
 
 " You damp my ardour," said Tun Min, beginning 
 to feel that the cakes and ale of office looked less 
 satisfying than they had promised. 
 
 " Your honour has been very good to me," said the 
 Chetty, " and I thought I could prevent disappoint- 
 ment from embittering your cup before it was too 
 late." 
 
 " Then what do you advise ?" 
 
 " A lower seat." 
 
 " In the contaminating circle of pleaders and police- 
 men ? Thank you no. You mean well, and I shall 
 try not to be annoyed. But what of the conspiracy ? 
 In whose fertile brain has the plot been hatching that 
 is to annihilate me ?" 
 
 " You will have to walk very warily, and to take 
 the Deputy Commissioner into your confidence. He 
 will give you his help ungrudgingly. There is no 
 more loyal friend to a faithful servant than the Civil 
 Service man. He will be your shield, and with his 
 sword shall your enemies be smitten."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 127 
 
 " Go on with the story." 
 
 " They haven't the brain for anything deep, but still 
 the plot is deep enough. You take dying declara- 
 tions in the dilapidated hospital ?" 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " You will be called out to-night for that purpose 
 there may be a real case, or it may be a false alarm. 
 You must go, and while you are away, your enemies 
 will enter your house there is room under your bed 
 for a strangled baby." 
 
 " Ma Le !" 
 
 " Or hi your cupboard for opium, or in your clothes 
 for stolen currency notes, or hi your closet for arms 
 and ammunition." 
 
 Tun Min shuddered and was speechless for many 
 moments. 
 
 " Go and see Spicer saheb, and he will comfort you. 
 He doesn't talk much, but when he takes to hunting 
 down a budmash, he comes back with the scalp all 
 right." 
 
 " Shall I mention you ?" 
 
 " That would be a mistake, for it would put you to 
 confusion. He would send for me, and my memory 
 has one curious feature that in the presence of a 
 Deputy Commissioner it is invariably a blank. Say 
 you heard it in the bazaar, and that your informer 
 bolted he'll swallow it." 
 
 When the Chetty had gone, the myook was in great 
 distress, and wished he had never left the kyoung, but 
 he looked to Spicer for protection, and immediately 
 made for the latter's house. 
 
 " I wanted to see you," said Spicer as Tun Min
 
 128 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 crawled into his presence. " So your enemies want 
 to break you." 
 
 " Yes, my lord." 
 
 " Who told you ?" 
 
 " I heard a bazaar rumour." 
 
 " That," said Spicer, slowly and emphatically, " is 
 a damned lie ! But it's only natural you should wish 
 to screen the informer. Never mind that. I know all 
 I want to. Now listen to me, and if you miss a 
 word, you'll be dead before morning. Send your boy 
 away without exciting his suspicion. Send him to 
 Pegu with a chit to your father. He's your only 
 servant ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " The Yazo Woon and I will come to your house dis- 
 guised as monks some time after dark. You will 
 ignore us. Don't look out for us as if you were ex- 
 pecting somebody. Possibly we may be concealed 
 in your compound, which I know by heart. When 
 called out go, leaving the house open just as it always 
 is, with the lamp only just turned down. Do you 
 understand me ?" 
 
 " Yes, my lord." 
 
 " Go !" 
 
 Tun Min returned to his bungalow with slower steps, 
 and far less agitated as Spicer's manner had inspired 
 confidence ; and when he got home, awaited the issue 
 of the closing day calmly gathering his scattered papers, 
 and in tidying up his sparsely-furnished house before 
 his guests arrived. 
 
 " I never thought it possible," he reflected, " that 
 an honourable man doing his duty could become a
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 129 
 
 target for the musketry of the world he is set over ; 
 but here it is." 
 
 Tun Min's experience did not include the higher 
 walks of life, or a knowledge of Western ways, or he 
 would have known that the malignant whispers of 
 club life accomplish much more safely and success- 
 fully what his local enemies were boldly trying to 
 achieve by less ingenious methods.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SHWEGYN was then, and is now, an old and decrepit 
 town, whose former glory has faded, and whose normal 
 appearance is that of deep and well-deserved slumber. 
 It had been explored for gold in the past, and was in 
 its outlying fields sown for paddy in the present ; 
 but there was a blight on its destiny, for there were 
 neither roads nor railroads, and the river for much 
 the greater part of the year lay a long way off as a 
 shrunken and shallow stream, useless alike for either 
 business or pleasure. But though languishing com- 
 mercially, it had jealously preserved its criminal 
 character, and, indeed, accentuated it by the impor- 
 tation of pleaders and police from the highly-trained 
 schools of Bengal and the Punjaub. Hardly a morning 
 dawned, but there came a report from one or more 
 of the scattered villages of some ghastly tragedy in 
 which the Burman's brutality was equalled only by 
 his contempt for human life, or by his genius for 
 plunder. The Chief Commissioner at Rangoon howled, 
 and practised sundry other Imperial arts that had 
 been known to succeed on the banks of the Nerbudda, 
 but the Sittang was another river altogether un- 
 hampered by religious associations, and unaccustomed 
 to the control of alien forces. The Deputy Com- 
 
 130
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 131 
 
 missioner, and the District Superintendent of Police, 
 who is known as the Yazo Woon, were held up to 
 public obloquy, but crime continued to flourish, and 
 both pleader and native policeman battened on it till 
 Tun Min's advent and the assumption by him of a 
 higher jurisdiction than that usually vested in the 
 budding magistrate. 
 
 " We shall simply eat him up," said Bungoo the 
 pleader, whose recent want of success in the courts 
 had depleted pockets long used to being full. 
 
 " We shall make him a warning to his fraternity 
 for all time," said Hirnam Sing, the Police Prose- 
 cutor. 
 
 " Everything, my brother," said Bungoo, beginning 
 to undress, " is ready. Do you go and dine, for why 
 should nature wait ?" 
 
 " I never dine when I have a dirty job on hand," 
 said Hirnam Sing, " till it is finished. But you Ben- 
 galis do nothing on an empty stomach, unless it is 
 accounts or finance. Take your time, but don't 
 gorge, or you'll be as torpid as a python ; but a little 
 brandy-and-water won't do you any harm." 
 
 " That would be a sin against my god and against 
 yours also, so why suggest pollution on the threshold 
 of a dangerous enterprise ? I am superstitious." 
 
 " Bother you and your long words." 
 
 Hirnam Sing left after promising to be back at ten ; 
 but as if to reconnoitre the myook's position, he took 
 the road past the latter's house on his way to the police 
 station. There was nothing he thought to excite 
 his suspicion. He did, when a long way off, see two 
 monks in their yellow robes slouch lazily in at the
 
 132 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 gate, but that was nothing unusual for Moung Tun 
 Min, with his professed monkish tastes. 
 
 The time wore on, and Tun Min, who lay excited 
 and expectant in his narrow bed, was, as he had been 
 warned, called up by a messenger to visit a desperate 
 case in the hospital, and record, if possible, the dying 
 statement of a patient as to his injuries. He hastily 
 dressed and left the house, after turning down the 
 light that burned in his tiny front veranda, but no 
 sooner was he gone than did the conspirators Bungoo 
 and Hirnam Sing emerge stealthily from a deep ditch 
 from which laterite had been quarried, and crawl on 
 all fours into the veranda, where they took a hasty look 
 all round, and feeling they were unobserved, crept 
 into the dining-room, and thence up the stairs to 
 the myook's bedroom. Here his coats hung from 
 nails driven into the timber walls, but after consulta- 
 tion, the intruders agreed upon the drawers of the 
 toilet table as the likeliest place for concealing the 
 incriminatory currency-notes. 
 
 " Kali be praised !" said Bungoo. " The myook's 
 blood will have the sweet savour and warmth of 
 youth. Now let the whole hierarchy of magistrates 
 and policemen appear and find the stolen notes. Their 
 cherished delusions as to the boy myook's foolish" 
 integrity will vanish like thin air." 
 
 " Your courage is better than your English," said 
 Hirnam Sing ; " but let the D.C. come by all means, 
 and the Yazo Woon too the feast is ready " 
 
 " We have come," said Spicer, with electric 
 effect. 
 
 Spicer, and Mortlock the Yazo Woon, had, after
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 133 
 
 much doubt and discussion, selected some low clumps 
 of bamboos for their concealment. These were situ- 
 ated quite near the ditch that was afterwards occupied 
 by the conspirators, and for a moment or two the 
 detectives experienced the most excruciating anxiety, 
 for it was almost within arm's length of them 
 that the would-be destroyers of Tun Min passed 
 on their noiseless way to an insanitary but well- 
 chosen place from where they could see without being 
 seen. 
 
 Neither Spicer nor Mortlock spoke, nor did they 
 dare to scratch their mosquito bites with their quarry 
 in such dangerous proximity, but then: blood was aglow 
 with the joys of the chase, and willingly would they 
 have watched another hour ; only, much to their dis- 
 appointment, Bungoo was in haste to be done with 
 a dangerous job, and actually gave the policeman 
 a lead in the latter's game. 
 
 From where they lay, Spicer commanded a perfect 
 view of both the veranda and the dining-room, just 
 sufficiently lit for him to distinguish the figures 
 creeping upstairs. That was the moment he tapped 
 Mortlock on the shoulder, and both men walked 
 quietly but quickly in, and noiselessly bolted the 
 door behind them. As they ascended the stairs, they 
 feared their presence would be made known by the 
 creaking of old and badly joined timber, but the con- 
 federates were too deeply interested in encompassing 
 the myook's ruin to be alarmed by the usual noises 
 that are heard in wooden houses where the tuctoo, 
 the bat, the lizard, and the beetle are tenants in 
 perpetuity.
 
 134 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " We have come," said Spicer, and he looked at the 
 trembling and gibbering Babu pleader with mingled 
 amusement and satisfaction, much as a cat does a 
 captive mouse ; but before Mortlock could address 
 himself to Hirnam Sing, the latter, with his athletic 
 build and Afridi instinct for escape, was out of the 
 window and away safe, at any rate for a day or 
 two. 
 
 " O my god, my lord !" whimpered the Babu. " I 
 have burnt my behind." 
 
 " What do you mean ?" said Spicer, taking him 
 literally and turning him round to improve the 
 view. 
 
 " That's the Babu's indelicate way," said Mortlock, 
 laughing, " for saying he'd burnt his boats, or that 
 his retreat was cut off." 
 
 " Now then," said Spicer, in his usual tone, " tell 
 me exactly what you've done and why." 
 
 " I, my lord," said the Babu, kneeling on both knees, 
 " have done nothing. It was that base Punjaubi 
 policeman who coerced and abducted me. It is he 
 that has put this shame upon me." 
 
 " Let's lock him up for the night," said Mortlock, 
 " and I dare say by morning the station atmosphere 
 will have induced repentance." 
 
 That, Mortlock knew, was a primitive but highly 
 efficient means of discovering important secrets. Not 
 that torture was employed, but the blandishments of 
 the guard-writer had the effect of stimulating a desire 
 to confess in the hope that the penitent t would be lightly 
 punished. 
 
 " I apply for bail, my lord," said the Babu, per-
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 135 
 
 spiring copiously at the thought of the guard-writer's 
 soothing attentions. 
 
 " We don't give bail after dark," said Spicer coldly. 
 " Besides, yours is a bit of non-bailable black- 
 guardism. Put your head out, Mortlock, and blow 
 your whistle." 
 
 The Yazo Woon did as he was told, and on the 
 appearance of a constable, the Babu was given in 
 charge, while Spicer diligently searched both clothes 
 and furniture, till he happened on the secreted stolen 
 notes which were intended to be the myook's ruin. 
 Tun Min, who just then returned, was told uncere- 
 moniously that he would hear more about it in the 
 morning, but was meanwhile left to infer from the 
 disorder of his room and from the custody of the 
 pleader that a crime had both been committed and 
 detected in his house. Spicer and Mortlock returned 
 to a belated dinner after seeing Bungoo placed under 
 lock and key. 
 
 " It worked out very simply," said Mortlock, going 
 into dinner after finishing a pint of beer that he had 
 badly needed. 
 
 " My informer was a woman," said Spicer, beginning 
 to attack his soup with a spoon held threateningly 
 over it, " and no man will ever approach her, not 
 only in the art of communicating what's true, but 
 in the higher art of making you believe what she 
 says." 
 
 " Who is she ?" 
 
 " Zeta. Cruncher's latest addition to his Imperial 
 family. But she's on furlo', and being a Kyaikto girl 
 looked me ujp in token of an old friendship."
 
 136 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " But how should she know ?" 
 " She's from Pegu, and all Pegu's interested in Tun 
 Min, so she thought she'd find out how he was getting 
 on. The best index is the Chetty's ledger. Zeta 
 has two brothers, and she knows all right. So she 
 went and saw Subramunyan Chetty, with whom she 
 has her own little account, and was amazed to hear 
 that Tun Min had saved nothing." 
 
 " He's really straight." 
 
 " Yes. That terrified Zeta, for she knows there's 
 no more unpopular man than an honest Burman, 
 and worming her way into the Chetty's confidences 
 she quickly learned of this little plot." 
 
 " Then the Chetty's in the soup, too ?" 
 
 " Not Subramunyan, but Vyraven. The latter 
 apparently does a large business in stolen notes, and 
 it struck the ingenious pleader that if he could stow 
 away a few of those on the Comptroller's black list 
 in Tun Min's house there would, on information, be 
 a search and discovery, followed by the myook's ruin. 
 The plan is well conceived." 
 
 " In part." 
 
 " Vyraven got it in confidence what he meant to 
 do with the notes from the pleader and Chetty- 
 like communicated his secret to Subramunyan, giving 
 him at the same time the numbers, lest the Babu 
 might try and pass the notes off on him." 
 
 " Subramunyan thought he'd save the myook." 
 
 " And grind his own little axe as well." 
 
 " How ?" 
 
 " It's the end of Vyraven, and he'll now be without 
 a rival."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 137 
 
 They sat over their pipes after dinner till the small 
 hours, recalling case after case which, by the exercise 
 of their analytical skill, had been shown to be false, 
 and still thanked God it was Burma and not Bengal, 
 for they both remembered the historic case in which, 
 with diabolical ingenuity, a Hindu had committed 
 suicide under such circumstances that his enemy 
 might be charged with his murder. 
 
 While his superiors made merry over their reminis- 
 cences, Tun Min was passing the hours weeping and 
 wondering whether he would ever be happy and 
 contented again. His father rarely wrote, and Min- 
 kale's letters had no longer the warm sentiment with 
 which the correspondence had opened when he first 
 left Pegu. But what had struck deeper down than 
 anything else into his young and tender heart was 
 what he regarded as Spicer's outrageous demeanour 
 to his Burmese subordinates. 
 
 " He turns my house topsy-turvy, and leaves without 
 a word of explanation," he reflected, " flinging me a 
 prophecy that I should hear more in the morning. 
 We Burmans are just morally and spiritually spat 
 on if in the Government service. Why should we 
 be treated as dirt ?" 
 
 Tun Min's complaint was reasonably and fully 
 justified by the brutal mannerisms of his Deputy 
 Commissioner, who had no regard for anybody's feelings 
 but his own. But with Spicer the fault was only 
 superficial, for in common with all his colleagues 
 he had the country's interests at heart, and wherever 
 he went the good name of England shone brightly. 
 His Chief had remonstrated with him for his un-
 
 138 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 diplomatic methods and rugged tones, but without 
 success. 
 
 " Eton," said Spicer, " may have won the Empire 
 on its playing fields, but, by God ! it's ruled by the 
 sixth form from Cheltenham. It's we that keep the 
 Empire !"
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The following day the only ticca gharry in Shwegyn 
 drove up to Tun Min's door, and, much to his surprise, 
 Zeta immediately jumped out and held his hand before 
 he had time to say " Ma Le !" which really means 
 " My mother !" but is the Burmese equivalent for 
 " My God !" It was a bold step for Zeta to have 
 taken, and one that was certain to occasion a lively 
 controversy in her own circle when it came to be 
 known, but for scandal and gossip and fault-finding 
 she cared not a snap of the fingers, and, having made 
 up her mind to do Tun Min a service, she did it without 
 thinking of the consequences to herself. 
 
 " You're still alive, I see," she said, taking a chair 
 that was one of three or four ugly specimens of 
 locally made furniture in a practically unfurnished 
 room. 
 
 " Oh ! How did you come to hear of it ?" 
 
 " A myook is such a distinguished man," said Zeta, 
 smiling and looking her sweetest, " that even when he 
 sneezes or spits they put it in the papers." 
 
 " I wonder how many there were in the plot, and 
 why they should all have conspired against me." 
 
 " I had a long talk," said Zeta, preparing to tell a 
 story, " with the Yazo Woon this morning, and he
 
 140 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 was delighted to have the Babu's partial confession 
 in the ruffian's own handwriting. Tell me, who do you 
 think the hospital messenger was ? and you actually 
 failed to recognize him." 
 
 " It was dark." 
 
 " He was your own Bench clerk. When your 
 character was established his private income ceased, 
 and it was he, according to the Babu, that was the 
 arch plotter." 
 
 " No doubt the Babu pretends that he played quite 
 a subordinate part." 
 
 " That Babu," said Zeta, playing with her lovely 
 gold bangles, " is a champion liar and a worthy son 
 of Bengal. How do you think he explains his presence 
 in your house ? Don't smile. I swear it's true. He 
 declares that his sole intention was to protect and 
 befriend you. In the pathetic little story he has 
 written for the entertainment of the Sessions Judge 
 he says his only thought was to circumvent the plotters, 
 and that he could think of none better than to be 
 an eyewitness of their infamy here and a crown witness 
 of it there in the Sessions Court. But I shall be a 
 witness, too." 
 
 " You ?" 
 
 " Oh yes. You wouldn't think that I was an ama- 
 teur detective, would you ? But, Ko Tun Min, it was 
 Zeta's blundering mind that stumbled on the whole 
 diabolical plot, and now she's going to make a little 
 fortune out of it." 
 
 " You are not." 
 
 " There's nothing wrong in it in our code, nor in the 
 myook's. You see, it was Vyraven Chetty that pro- 
 
 .
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 141 
 
 vided the stolen notes, and Subramunyan Chetty 
 that told me of their little game. If Subramunyan 
 will only give me a lovely three-string pearl necklace 
 that he has acquired by unfair means, then it will be 
 my pleasant duty to suggest that I was his emissary, 
 that it was he who sent me to Spicer with the Babu's 
 plans unfolded. If he doesn't, he will go to the 
 Andamans with the rest of them." 
 
 " I'm shocked ! So it was you that told Spicer ?" 
 
 " You'll be much more shocked when I tell you the 
 Pegu news, and, my friend, that's what I'm really 
 here for." 
 
 " I hope Captain Cruncher hasn't gone home ill," 
 said Tun Min nervously. 
 
 " He's nursing one of his first loves," said Zeta 
 quite calmly, " and I wish her joy of him with his 
 drunken habits. Ugh ! No. I wasn't thinking of 
 him. It was of you and Minkale 1 and Ko Walworth, 
 and really I've been greatly distressed " 
 
 " You needn't worry about Minkale," said Tun Min. 
 " I thought she'd let you into our wild scheme, and 
 that you could see she was only fooling the Wundauk 
 Min, in the hope that he might study and promote my 
 interests." 
 
 " That was the beginning, and a very worthy be- 
 ginning. But there's often a perversity about begin- 
 nings their endings are quite another and uglier 
 family." 
 
 " Surely nothing terrible has happened ? I should 
 have heard of it there is Ko Moung and the Sayadaw, 
 who still takes an interest in me, and from whom I 
 have had the most encouraging letters. Then there's
 
 142 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 the bazaar-goung, and little of interest escapes him 
 though he wears tinted glasses and walks with a 
 drooping head." 
 
 " They've got him in gaol all right, and you won't 
 hear from him just yet. But, tell me, do you often 
 hear from Minkale ?" 
 
 " Two or three times a week." 
 
 " Does she tell you of Ko Wai worth's visits ?" 
 
 " Every time. She conceals nothing. His manner 
 to her is most caressing, sometimes most embarrassing ; 
 but the dear girl puts up with it all, as it's to benefit 
 me. He's promised her that my name is before the 
 Kinwoon Mingyi, and that I shall soon be a Wundauk 
 Min myself but I admit it's been a bit slow in coming. 
 In fact, at times I feel greatly depressed, and wish 
 Minkale could put a little ' juldy '* into it." 
 
 Zeta watched his features most intently as he spoke, 
 and wondered whether he was also acting a part or 
 whether he really believed the nonsense Minkale had 
 heartlessly stuffed him up with. 
 
 " I shouldn't look for immediate promotion if I 
 were you though, of course, it will come. But tell 
 me when you are to be married ?" 
 
 " I suggested the late spring, when the paths are 
 golden with padouk and when the air is laden with 
 scent, but she thought it was premature." 
 
 " Minkale didn't say she was too young to marry ?" 
 asked Zeta acidly. 
 
 " I see you're not in the plot. Let me enlighten 
 you. Walworth, the moment he saw Minkale, wanted 
 to marry her out of hand, but the dear girl was per- 
 * Quickness.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 143 
 
 fectly loyal to me. It, however, occurred to us that 
 with a little skill we could use the Wundauk as a lever 
 to raise me to this and even more exalted offices. 
 Walworth was told that Minkale was not for love 
 why ? Because I was the great force propelling her 
 towards monasticism. Obviously it was necessary to 
 get me out of the way. A criminal would have been 
 deported under some musty old regulation, but an 
 obstruction on a Wundauk's matrimonial path is 
 lifted into an Imperial siding." 
 
 " Where you'll be left." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 ' You've ceased to be an obstruction. Surely that 
 must have occurred to you ! You have nothing more 
 to hope for." 
 
 " Oh, but Minkale is believed to be still an adherent 
 to my doctrines." 
 
 " That notion was exploded almost the day you left." 
 
 " Who by ?" 
 
 " By Minkale, of course. Who else ? You don't like 
 to hear it, but it's the solid truth. And I'm just 
 going to tell you the whole thing. You began by being 
 an obstruction, as you call it, in the Wundauk's way, 
 but you ended by being an equally big obstruction in 
 Minkale's way. Did that occur to you ?" 
 
 " I can't sit here and listen " 
 
 " You shall ! You only have to exercise the great 
 intellect concealed, and apparently asleep in your 
 little head, to know that Zeta is not talking nonsense. 
 Tell me, have women no ambition ?" 
 
 " The most sacred : To be enshrined in the hearts 
 of husbands and children."
 
 144 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Do come off that saintly pedestal ! Open the 
 windows of your mind. I put it to you straight 
 which do you think Minkale would rather be, a myook's 
 wife or a Deputy Commissioner's mistress ? He isn't 
 a D.C. yet, but he will be shortly, and you'll be a 
 myook for ever." 
 
 Tun Min was deeply moved by Zeta's sacrilegious 
 talk, and looked at the ticca gharry much as to suggest 
 that it was desirable to close the interview; but Zeta 
 was a wilful woman, and now that she was wound up 
 simply had to wind out in the only natural way. 
 
 " Don't look at the gharry. I'm not half done. The 
 fable that Minkale was enamoured of nunnery under 
 your monkish guidance was exposed by Minkale 
 herself, in a moment of confidence, when Ko Walworth 
 was beginning to think her impregnable." 
 
 " What authority have you for a libel like that ? I 
 warn you, Zeta, that Minkal6 will have you up for 
 that." 
 
 " My authority is as high as heaven. It is Ko 
 Walworth himself." 
 
 " Never !" 
 
 " Give me a ' kyanza ' and I'll swear it now. He 
 came in one morning, shaking with laughter and making 
 a hideous noise. Captain Cruncher was annoyed at 
 first, but after a bit he laughed the louder of the two. 
 Now, you know it's bad manners in a D.C. to laugh, 
 and I guessed something was very much amiss. I 
 had guessed right, and what do you think it was ?" 
 
 " What ?" 
 
 " Walworth, chewing the end of a cigar, said : ' It 
 was all a damned trap. I fell into it headlong. All
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 145 
 
 Pegu laughed when they saw Moung Tun Min go off 
 to Shwegyn as a myook, and now they've got us 
 in a pwe. Tun Min's represented as running off 
 with my gown and bands, while I've bolted with his 
 
 girl/ " 
 
 " Ko Walworth was tight," said Tun Min, declining 
 to believe a word against his sweetheart. 
 
 " You do him an injustice," said Zeta quickly. 
 " He takes very little, and in his amusing way ex- 
 plains that what's made a practical teetotaller of him 
 was his Commissioner's whisky his head still aches 
 at the recollection of it." 
 
 " And his tongue?" 
 
 " You know the symptoms quite well. To go on I 
 was lugged into their merry circle." 
 
 " And you thoroughly enjoyed the ribald references 
 to Minkale and myself." 
 
 " I confess I was amused who isn't by Ko Wai- 
 worth's spirits ? But left to think it all out alone, it 
 occurred to me that you at any rate ought to be told, 
 and there was nobody but me to tell you." 
 
 " But the Wundauk Min harbours no ill-will. He 
 told Minkale that my name had gone in for promo- 
 tion." 
 
 " That is fiction undilute." 
 
 " He lied to Minkale ?" 
 
 " Minkale 1 lied to you," said Zeta, now fully wound 
 up. " I've spoken to her about the disgraceful business, 
 and while she professes to be very sorry for you she 
 says frankly enough that her first duty is to herself 
 and she is comforted by the thought that Burma is rich 
 in feminine beauty." 
 
 10
 
 146 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 ' You dare say that Minkal6 suggested that I should 
 take another comforter ?" 
 
 Moung Tun Min was now greatly agitated, and, 
 Burman-like, was for immediately taking an ample 
 revenge, but the distance between Pegu and Shwegyn 
 was sufficiently great to give his heated blood time to 
 cool. Zeta, however, was near, and, much to the 
 young lady's astonishment, she unpleasantly dis- 
 covered that she had roused a sleeping lion who had 
 no more respect for her sex or for her feelings than if 
 she had been an unclean pariah dog. But Zeta was 
 also a Burman, and as the contest was colloquial, she 
 was equipped by Nature to hold her own. 
 
 " I once pitied you," said Tun Min in a paroxysm 
 of wrath, " but now I loathe you, and unless you get 
 out of my sight at once you'll be pitched out !" 
 
 " I shall not go till I want," said Zeta, blazing up 
 in an instant, " and no one shall pitch me out. I 
 came here to tell you the truth, and that means the 
 whole truth. You shall hear it, so don't put your 
 hands up to your silly little ears. I came here to 
 tell you " 
 
 " A lie !" said Tun Min, standing up and tightening 
 his putsoe. 
 
 " To tell you that Minkale will be ' Mrs.' Bubbles 
 the day after to-morrow !" 
 
 " Ma Le !" 
 
 " It is true, and, if you doubt me, read that !" she 
 said, tossing him a letter she had just received from 
 Cruncher, who had agreed to take the part of one of 
 Walworth's elders or trustees of the settlement that is 
 usually made at a Burmese wedding that is to say,
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 147 
 
 wedding in the purely Burmese sense; but when the 
 solemnization is between an Englishman and a Bur- 
 mese woman it is not by English law a valid marriage. 
 
 Moung Tun Min literally fell upon the letter and 
 devoured it, and when he came to the words, " I'm 
 devilish sorry for Moung Tun Min, who will be heart- 
 broken," he wept. Zeta was likewise stirred at the 
 sight of the myook's tears, but she was older and had 
 greater self-control. 
 
 " My brother," she said, with infinite tenderness in 
 her tone, " forget Minkale." 
 
 " I shall never give her up without a struggle," 
 sobbed Tun Min. " She's a mere child whose head 
 has been turned by the solicitations of a man of rank. 
 The fact of it is, you know, it's all your malign influ- 
 ence " 
 
 " You're mad ! I never influenced her !" 
 
 " I meant your example. She saw you receive the 
 adoration of a queen, and that upset her judgment. 
 But when I've talked with her, she'll admit her mis- 
 take. You didn't say her parents had sent out ' let- 
 pet ' to their friends." 
 
 It is an old Burmese custom to distribute tea, or 
 let-pet, as the leaves are called, as an invitation to a 
 wedding, but its origin is completely shrouded in 
 obscurity. 
 
 " No; the preparations have been the most secret. 
 When the water festival was on, Ko Moung saw Wai- 
 worth Bubbles sprinkle Minkale till her clothes simply 
 clung to her; but he only thought it a lark, and has 
 never guessed that there was anything on." 
 
 " And here have I been living in a fool's paradise !
 
 148 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 I did hear, though, that for the full moon of Taboung 
 he had accompanied Ko Ba Shin's family to the Shwe 
 Dagon; but I thought nothing of that, as Ko Wai- 
 worth would like to see Rangoon. Anyhow, Ma Zeta, 
 I recall everything I said when I was raving, and am 
 grateful for the timely warning. I shall get a few 
 days' leave " 
 
 " Go now and ask for them. Believe me, you have 
 not a moment to lose." 
 
 Moung Tun Min saw Zeta to her gharry, where she 
 wished him good luck; but she left with a heavy 
 heart, and on her way home wept for Moung Tun Min's 
 cruel fate. 
 
 " He," she reflected, " is one of those few men who 
 never recover from a disappointment. It simply eats 
 up their hearts in a night, and after that it sits down 
 to chew their minds slowly but certainly, till they go 
 raving mad. Now, if Cruncher were to hear that I 
 had run off with Treble Bloo, he'd merely sing out 
 for Loo Tyouk, and send him out to reconnoitre the 
 world of beauty. His pulse would beat neither faster 
 nor slower. These Englishmen are nice fellows to live 
 with, but they haven't much heart unless it's the 
 heart of a rabbit."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 TUN MIN'S request for leave was curtly granted, and, 
 without making any preparations for the journey, he 
 immediately crossed the river in a country boat to an 
 orchard, where a bullock-cart for Pyuntaza was 
 generally available. But he was out of luck, and there 
 was nothing before him but a dreary tramp through 
 baked paddy-fields at a time when even the Burman 
 seeks shelter from the scorching rays of a midday sun. 
 But neither the temperature of the sun nor the rough- 
 and-tumble of the road made the least impression upon 
 him. He was solving a problem in which the known 
 and unknown quantities were disproportionately mixed, 
 and, moreover, it was a problem in practical biology. 
 Not the biology of the schools, where the path of the 
 earnest worker is lit with the lamps of recent discovery, 
 but the biology of Anglo-Burman Imperialism, in which 
 the destiny of a Burmese man was apparently deter- 
 mined by the lust of an Englishman for a Burmese 
 woman. 
 
 " What Imperialism means for me," he reflected, 
 " is a bamboo mat at the threshold of the D.C.'s office; 
 but what it means for Minkale and Zeta and the 
 flower of Burmese womanhood is a bed in the D.C.'s 
 bungalow !" 
 
 149
 
 150 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Sometimes he stifled his thoughts, and at others he 
 spoke aloud; but with every step he took the prospect 
 of improving his relations with Minkale and Bubbles 
 seemed to grow darker and darker. Once he wished 
 he had not been told of the approaching tragedy till 
 it was all over, and was annoyed with Zeta, whose 
 interference, however, now turned the current of his 
 thoughts from one problem to another. 
 
 " What made her chip in ?" he asked. " It was no 
 business of hers." 
 
 And then he laughed a hoarse laugh, as he thought 
 his penetrating mind had guessed her selfish plans. 
 
 " I know it," he said, loud enough to be heard. 
 " Zeta is in love with Wai worth herself, but he prefers 
 Minkale. Not that he would disappoint Zeta by send- 
 ing her away, but she would have a smaller corner of 
 his muddy mind and heart. So that is her game ! 
 I'm to reclaim Minkale in order that hungry and thirsty 
 Walworth might be content to soothe his animal wants 
 with Zeta !" 
 
 But after a little reflection he thought his conclusion 
 was a gross injustice to the girl's character, as he had 
 known it since a child, and he abandoned the theory, 
 for what was beyond doubt the true explanation, which 
 was no other than that Zeta was sufficiently fond of 
 him to wish him to be happy. 
 
 " She was always a good friend," he decided, " and 
 was really revolted by the flirtation carried on under 
 her very nose; and now that it has culminated in a 
 base and treacherous renunciation of me, the poor girl 
 is both shocked and grieved for my sake. Still, I must 
 see for myself. I must hear it with my own ears and
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 151 
 
 from Minkale" herself that she has abandoned me. If 
 she has, then may the missionary's hills and mountains 
 fall upon me and bury me with my sorrow and humilia- 
 tion." 
 
 Taking the train at Pyuntaza, the weary and foot- 
 sore myook was soon at Pegu, and once more in the 
 home he had so recently left. Not a stick of furniture 
 had been changed in his absence. They were all there 
 the rude chairs and dust-covered tables, the gaudy 
 chromo-lithographs, and even the goblet of water with 
 a dirty rag tied at the mouth to act as a strainer but 
 Tun Min felt very far from being at home in the familiar 
 surroundings. 
 
 " I expected my son," said Ko Moung, embracing 
 him, and speaking in a tremulous tone. 
 
 " Then you knew of the woman's treachery ?" 
 
 " I foretold it. They did their best to conceal the 
 coming nuptials, but Ko Moung, asleep or awake, 
 keeps his finger on the pulse of Pegu. The goldsmith 
 told me hi detail of the Wundauk's orders. They are 
 on a sumptuous scale." 
 
 " But why did you not tell me before it was too 
 late ?" 
 
 " Because I saw in the light of age and experi- 
 ence " 
 
 " What was it you saw ?" asked Tun Min, almost in 
 a white passion with his philosophical father. 
 
 " That marriage was a deep subject. You can both 
 swim and drown in its waters the latter is the easier 
 of the two. You marry Minkale, and you both drown. 
 Ko Walworth will hold the pair of you down till you 
 are both dead. But if she goes to him, then you can
 
 152 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 all swim. In her moments of remorse Minkale" will 
 try to sweeten your disappointed life, and as she has 
 the Wundauk under her thumb, you and they can all 
 rise and shine." 
 
 " Then Ko Moung puts worldly success above domes- 
 tic happiness," said Tun Min scornfully. 
 
 " I always put the cause before the effect." 
 
 " I call that a soulless doctrine," said Tun Min 
 contemptuously. 
 
 "It is the only key to domestic happiness. You 
 prosper, and your wife is steeped in happiness. You 
 fail, and if her youth and beauty have lost little of 
 their freshness, she readjusts her married life. I know 
 a General who lost a battle well, his wife now is the 
 spouse of a successful civilian. You boys grow up in 
 the pernicious idea that love and affection sail the sea 
 of life without either rudder or compass. There are 
 men and women who do. Adventurers there must be, 
 but they are sooner or later wrecked and it must 
 be so." 
 
 " Did mother really love you ?" 
 
 " She adored me, and though it's I as says it, it was 
 in all the circumstances a very natural sentiment. 
 Do you think there was a man between Mogoung and 
 Meiktila who was more respected by the minions of 
 the King or more feared by the thief and the robber ? 
 And as for the ladies I had only to wink, and they 
 followed me like lambs." 
 
 " We have different standards now." 
 
 " Standards vary a good deal in theory," said Ko 
 Moung, taking a long pull at a plantain-leaf-bound 
 cigar, " but not in practice. Human nature is the
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 153 
 
 same contemptible thing, whether it's rolled in a black 
 or a white skin. On a Pagoda day you recite a pre- 
 cept the recital costs you nothing but on your way 
 home you meet an enemy and slay him it costs you 
 a lot. But which gives you the greater pleasure ? 
 Standards, indeed ! How about the Wundauk's 
 standards ? And isn't he the latest importation ? 
 the latest fashion in Imperial measure ? Don't smile. 
 It was you who suggested the beacon of standards; 
 Ko Walworth and I, who were brought up the poles 
 asunder, prefer the lamp of common-sense." 
 
 " What does that mean ?" asked Tun Min, now a 
 little calmer, as he followed his father's preaching, 
 though by no means disposed to abandon Minkale to 
 Walworth without an effort, even if it should blast his 
 own future. 
 
 " His principles and mine are as limpid as filtered 
 water. We have a shrewd idea as to what is good for 
 us and what isn't. We take the former with both 
 hands, the others we jettison it may be with emotion, 
 but a tear or two matters little. Ko Walworth thinks, 
 and thinks rightly, that Minkale can do him no harm. 
 In a strange land he wants some soothing syrup, and 
 with Minkale he will get an inexhaustible supply of 
 the most tasty type. Do you think he's going to 
 rummage about in the corners of his mind for a con- 
 science to spank him for stealing your bottle ? Not 
 he!" 
 
 " And with all your philosophy," said Tun Min 
 smilingly, " you have remained Ko Moung of Pegu, 
 living and dying in a timber hut, squatting on bamboo 
 mats, walking barefooted, shikoing even to a constable
 
 154 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 min. I own I have a little more ambition than 
 that." 
 
 " Ambition," said Ko Moung, mouthing his words, 
 as he always did when coining a maxim, " is like dead 
 meat it has a tendency to be high. I shall die, as I 
 look back on my past life, a contented and happy 
 man. Will you, with hopes dashed and ambition 
 unsatisfied ? Never ! But Ko Tun Min is still a 
 child, and that is why I have spoken. Abandon the 
 impossible." 
 
 " I shall see Minkale first. Perhaps she has been 
 coerced. You never had any respect for Ko Ba Shin, 
 I know." 
 
 " He is a common type of man that worships the 
 rising sun. He worshipped you till a greater light 
 appeared on the horizon. If that light went out, he 
 would take you on as a god again." 
 
 " Then you think she might have been coerced ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Anyhow, it's the least I can do. Women have 
 many moods and minds, just as the skies have. She 
 mightn't want to shine on Ko Walworth any more." 
 
 " Well, well; go and see. But tell me something of 
 Shwegyn and its pleasaunces." 
 
 " Pleasaunces ? You mean Courts and gaols and 
 death-chambers !" 
 
 Ko Moung smiled, and, noting the reawakening of 
 Tun Min's sense of humour, began at once to take a 
 cheery view of the future. 
 
 " I know of dacoits, and pleaders, and touts, and 
 Chetties," said Tun Min, continuing; "but, by the 
 way, what is a Chetty ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 155 
 
 " He is a necessity. You see, the Burman is by 
 religion a beggar, by heredity a pauper, and by habit 
 a borrower. The forces of Nature, having thought- 
 lessly produced within him a taste for borrowing, had 
 to provide for its gratification. It was a new idea. 
 Nature had never before had such an exacting call on 
 her resources, so she set to work in a nervous experi- 
 mental way, and " 
 
 " And produced the Chetty ?" 
 
 " After she had got and mixed the right propor- 
 tions of patience and intelligence, and of energy and 
 vigilance, which she baked till the whole shone like 
 ebony " 
 
 " And then ?" 
 
 " Then she went out to find a kindly spirit to ani- 
 mate it. But " 
 
 " Well !" 
 
 " Unfortunately, she left the office babu in charge. 
 Of course, he slept, and the restless soul of a Wood- 
 sucker saw his chance." 
 
 " He just crept in," laughed Tun Min, " and made 
 off with the elaborate system of book-keeping that lay 
 hard by." 
 
 " Wherever there is a borrower, Tun Min, you will 
 now find a Chetty sitting by ready to get his teeth in 
 the moment the meat is exposed." 
 
 " He's learnt a few more games," said Tun Min, 
 " since his first incarnation. He's not above doing a 
 little trading in stolen currency notes." 
 
 " His finance has a catholic foundation, like the 
 saya's church at Mandalay. But what has reminded 
 Ko Tun Min of stolen notes in particular ?"
 
 156 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Tun Min told his father the story as simply as he 
 could, as Ko Moung had a certain nose for embroidery, 
 and would have detected the least exaggeration. 
 When Tun Min had finished, Ko Moung took a long 
 breath, and helped himself to some lime sherbet. He 
 thought it had a pleasanter flavour, and that it would 
 cool his blood, heated as it had become by listening to 
 a tale of downright villainy that might have engulfed 
 his only son. 
 
 " That, Ko Tun Min, was a formidable conspiracy," 
 he said, after a few mouthfuls of the draught had 
 lubricated his speech. " The Bench Clerk, the pleader, 
 the policemen, and the Chetty ! But it is Imperial to 
 choke the great intestine of jurisprudence, and these 
 obstructions will never really be cast out. But Zeta ! 
 My word ! With my own hand will I present a 
 petition to the Throne asking for that brave girl to be 
 rewarded. Let a public fountain be built, and called 
 the ' Zeta/ where the righteous that thirst in the Im- 
 perial courts may drink." 
 
 " Never mind Zeta. Do you really think the con- 
 spirators will get off ?" 
 
 " They'll go to the Andamans all right. When I said 
 the administration of justice would never be purified, 
 I meant it couldn't be. I defy you or anybody else 
 to invent a judicial organism that won't decompose 
 and generate the most awful plague germs and stinks 
 what else are touts, pleaders, process-servers, Bench 
 Clerks, and interpreters ?" 
 
 " Oh, I would like the Babu to hear," said Moung 
 Tun Min with one eye on the clock as it was approach- 
 ing the hour for Minkale to be in, " that you regard
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 157 
 
 him as a plague-germ and a stink. But meanwhile 
 he's got enough to put in his hooka and smoke before 
 the Sessions Judge pays us a visit." 
 
 " Don't you, my son, look forward to the Judge's 
 visit." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " He's a sportsman, and is accustomed to mention 
 the results of his judicial labours in sporting terms: 
 he talks of scalps, and snipe, and heads, and couples 
 when he tots up the convictions at the end of a busy 
 day. Give a shikari like that a wide berth, or he may 
 shoot at sight, and drop you for the fun of the thing." 
 
 " The bar wouldn't tolerate a Judge like that; he'd 
 be fired out!" said Tun Min, feeling that Ko Moung 
 must be getting old indeed to be turning out wishy- 
 washy stuff like that. 
 
 " The Bar ? Hasn't Spicer told you to spit on it ?" 
 
 " On the native Bar ? Yes." 
 
 " I mean the white Bar. The full-blown Woolone 
 Dawya Min. I've told you the story of Colonel Bizzy- 
 Buster, haven't I ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " It was at Meiktila, and one of your gownsmen 
 appeared full of importance till the Colonel explained 
 his policy, which was to convict either the accused or 
 his counsel. That barrister was outside the jurisdic- 
 tion in the quickest possible time, while his client 
 was sent to the gallows all right." 
 
 " Did a grateful Government reward the Judge ?" 
 
 " They made him a C.S.I." 
 
 " Was there much competition for it ?" 
 
 " I tell you there was. Cruncher's second wife had
 
 158 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 had triplicates, but Spring had eaten two dorians in less 
 time than it took the Chief Commissioner to shave. 
 They were held to have tied, but as they couldn't run 
 that heat off again, they gave the medal to Bizzy- 
 Buster, and closed the controversy. The clown in 
 Aung Zay's pwe has made great fun of it." 
 
 " He's a liar of liars, and I've got my eye on him. 
 He'll be in gaol yet. Well, I feel much better for Ko 
 Moung's cheery talk. I must go and change. I wish 
 I could hope for something from the coming interview." 
 
 " Promise me one thing before you go." 
 
 " And what is that ?" 
 
 " That you count five every time you are tempted 
 to say anything venomous. It is a certain Christian 
 tip for the next world." 
 
 " But you and I are still in this world, and we don't 
 model our lives on tips. Are we waiters in a railway 
 restaurant ?"
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Ko MOUNG was very well known not only to Burmans, 
 but to Englishmen, as a gifted conversationalist, and 
 when Tun Min left him for his interview with Minkale, 
 it was as a man braced to cope with a difficult situation. 
 Moung Ba Shin was, however, in a very different 
 frame of mind, and seeing Tun Min approach from his 
 bedroom balcony, hastily let himself out at a back 
 door, and hiring a native boat, left for a cruise in the 
 muddy waters of the Pegu River. Ma May had been 
 busy all day arranging for the feeding and robing of 
 a hundred monks to celebrate her daughter's " nup- 
 tials," and had not returned, so Minkale was left alone 
 to face the disappointed and contentious Tun Min. 
 But a Burmese woman never recoils from the in- 
 evitable, and Minkale descended the stairs to receive 
 Tun Min, not willingly perhaps, but still, without any 
 fear as to the issue. 
 
 " Is Ma Minkale alone ?" he asked, as he stood at 
 the door. 
 
 " She is. But stay. I feel highly honoured by 
 your timely arrival for my wedding. Did Ma Zeta give 
 you the packet of let-pet I packed for you in a highly 
 aromatic envelope ? Surely !" 
 
 " Zeta is never cruel," said Tun Min, looking very 
 pale and amazed at Minkale's brutal coolness. 
 
 159
 
 160 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " It is our national custom, and a very pretty one," 
 said Minkale, admiring her engagement ring and hold- 
 ing her hand so that the diamonds shone in Tun Min's 
 face. 
 
 " Minkale", it will never be our national custom for 
 a girl to jilt a man and then ask him to her wedding, 
 and this hypocritical levity on your part is perfectly 
 detestable " 
 
 ' You've come to let yourself go, haven't you ?" 
 said Minkale, calmly smelling a rose she had removed 
 from her hair. 
 
 Just for a moment Tun Min was dazzled by her 
 beauty, and all his old love for her reasserted itself ; 
 but it was only for a moment. Her calm and self- 
 possession in the presence of the man she had deceived 
 and betrayed annoyed and disgusted him, and he 
 began to be aware of a loathing that ousted his love. 
 The Burman is inflammable, and in his country's 
 annals there is no commoner crime than murder in 
 circumstances such as these; but Minkale's carefully 
 rehearsed demeanour, while it cut him to the quick, 
 had the effect of inducing him to present an equaDy 
 calm exterior. 
 
 " She wishes to show," he reflected, " that she 
 doesn't care an Englishman's damn for me, and it will 
 be more dignified if I merely show that I think even 
 less of her." 
 
 But it was his long training and discipline as a monk 
 that came to his assistance, and the passion in Tun 
 Min's soul was extinguished. 
 
 " Why did you do it ?" he asked softly, when the 
 storm had passed.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 161 
 
 " Do what ?" 
 
 " Throw me over for Walworth." 
 
 " Because he asked me to." 
 
 " Was that enough ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But supposing I asked you to give him up for me, 
 would that be enough ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because I'm not a fool." 
 
 " There is a great deal in woman," said Tun Min, 
 thinking aloud, " that is an open book to man, but 
 not her mind." 
 
 " That," said Minkale, with just a trace of warmth, 
 " is what men say and think with the fatuousness 
 of their sex. A woman's mind is simplicity itself : 
 she can discriminate between a good offer and 
 a better just as a man can, but she chooses the 
 better." 
 
 " And a man ?" 
 
 " With his rudderless heart I'm afraid his affections 
 are not always very well steered." 
 
 " Is that Walworth or me ?" 
 
 " You." 
 
 " But you kept me on the string for quite a long 
 time." 
 
 "Oh, certainly ! I was breaking part of my contract 
 with you, but it wasn't necessary that I should break 
 the whole of it. In fact, it greatly consoled me to 
 think that I could still sweeten your destiny " 
 
 " You don't expect me to swallow that ?" 
 
 " Doubt me now, but when the next gazette comes 
 
 ii
 
 162 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 out and you're posted to Prome as an Extra-Assistant 
 Commissioner, you'll, I hope, think a little more kindly 
 of Minkale the jilt." 
 
 The news just broken to Tun Min was perfectly true, 
 but the suggestion that Minkale had had any share 
 in contributing to Tun Min's appreciation at head- 
 quarters was wholly and absolutely false. Spicer's 
 opinion of a subordinate was received and acted on 
 in the secretariat with promptitude, and the credit 
 for the step was Spicer's alone. But Minkale had 
 heard from Cruncher that it was coming, and she at 
 once decided that she would be the first to impart the 
 information, and leave it to Tun Min to think that 
 he owed it to her; in fact, she had wired the news to 
 Shwegyn, but the myook had left ere the telegram 
 was received. 
 
 Tun Min was silent. 
 
 " You wanted to rise and shine, didn't you ?" asked 
 Minkale, to whom the silence was oppressive. 
 
 " Not alone." 
 
 " It is not necessary for you to live alone." 
 
 " Having decided what's best for yourself, you might 
 in pity leave me to choose for myself." 
 
 There was another pause in which Minkale devoutly 
 wished that Tun Min, who was subject to waves of 
 passion, would abruptly get up and go, but she was 
 disappointed. There were other questions that he 
 had to ask, and quite another light to throw on 
 Minkale's approaching " marriage " from the bright 
 and dazzling one in which she had been accustomed 
 to view it. 
 
 " You said rise and shine just now, Ma Minkale."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 163 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " Are you rising and shining too ?" 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " For how long ? Has it occurred to you that there 
 is a possible eclipse awaiting you just when you least 
 either want or expect it ?" 
 
 "I'm deeply interested in astrology," said Minkale 
 with a yawn, " but won't it keep for another time ?" 
 
 " It can't, for I shall never see you again." 
 
 " Don't say that." 
 
 "It is said. But how long do you hope to 
 reign ?" 
 
 " I asked Ko Walworth that, and he said ' Till death 
 do us part,' and I'm sure he meant it. You know 
 the giddy, frivolous side of his nature, and you think 
 that he regards me as his plaything, and as children 
 grow out of toys that I shall be discarded for one or 
 more that appeal to maturer tastes. But you can 
 never judge one man by another. I know exactly 
 what you have in your mind you're thinking of Dibbs 
 and Dobbs, or Bobs; but they were depraved men with 
 no lofty ideals, and, believe me, Ko Walworth has. 
 Captain Cruncher has the greatest regard for him, and 
 is never tired of foretelling big things of him as he rises 
 and shines." 
 
 " You can tell one man from another," said Tun Min 
 quietly and without apparent emotion. 
 
 " When ?" 
 
 " When it is his national instinct his natural law 
 that he is obeying." 
 
 " Is marriage a national instinct ?" asked Minkale", 
 thinking she had Tun Min on velvet.
 
 164 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Did you mean concubinage ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " But you are not marrying Walworth in Church, 
 are you ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Then you won't be his wife in law. What I wish 
 to impress upon you is that marriage is a national 
 instinct, and that a man follows a natural law when 
 he marries a woman of his own race, and in the end 
 the instinct and the law will prevail." 
 
 " I can point to many cases to the contrary." 
 
 " And in everyone of them the man was ruined. 
 Ask the Sayadaw, and he will tell you their promotion 
 was stopped, and that in Society they were shunned. 
 Walworth is no fool. He has made up his mind to 
 rise and shine, and, believe me, he has no intention 
 of being a falling star." 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 " When his first furlough is due he'll assemble a 
 committee of lugyis, much as the Government does a 
 veterinary board when they are casting a commissariat 
 bullock. Minkale will be cast, but the board will be 
 her trustees, administering, it may be, a few thou- 
 sand rupees, so as to keep her and her babies from 
 want." 
 
 " You do him an injustice," said Minkale coldly. 
 
 Such a thought had repeatedly invaded her mind 
 whether she was alone or in company, but she had 
 ruthlessly evicted it and shut the chambers of her 
 mind on what she considered were impossibilities. 
 
 " You'll admit there's nothing commoner." 
 
 " I do," said Minkale; " but what's commoner than
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 165 
 
 bad language. Do you tell me that there's none that's 
 good ?" 
 
 " The time for honeyed words comes and goes. It 
 slips away unobserved," said Tun Min, shedding a 
 tear. 
 
 " I am satisfied," said Minkale", without noticing 
 Tun Min's distress. 
 
 What had made the deepest impression on Tun Min 
 throughout the interview was Minkale's failure to 
 express the least regret for the disappointment she 
 had occasioned him, or to ask his pardon for the wrong 
 she had done. He had read a good many novels at 
 Shwegyn which showed what English women would 
 have done in the circumstances, and had expected an 
 affecting scene in which his forgiveness was wrung 
 from him on bended knee. But Minkale" recalled no 
 English character either good or bad, and he concluded 
 that she must have lost her reason. 
 
 " Minkale," he said, in a tone of commiseration, 
 " is obsessed. It is the glamour of his Imperial 
 rank " 
 
 " It was that that put you in the myook's 
 chair." 
 
 " It was," said Tun Min dolefully, " and it is the 
 same will-o'-the-wisp that puts you in the Wundauk's 
 bed." 
 
 There was no indelicacy in such a remark as made 
 by a young Burman to a young Burmese lady. There 
 are still spacious compounds on this planet where 
 perfectly natural sexual relations are permitted to 
 be mentioned without unnatural blushes. 
 
 " Don't begin to move. Stay just a minute or
 
 i66 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 two. I also have a little to say. I won't say that 
 you've had most of the talk, but you've directed it 
 into a channel that I should have kept it out of if 
 I could. But that's past, and I'm not blaming Ko 
 Tun Min. But I don't want him to go without just 
 one word of explanation " 
 
 " One wouldn't be enough." 
 
 Minkale" repressed a smile. 
 
 "Well," continued Minkale", "we shall in all 
 probability, as Burma is a big place, never meet 
 again " 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " I'm not going in the conventional manner of girls 
 to ask you to think kindly of me. That is impossible, 
 isn't it ?" 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 " But there are just one or two impressions I'd like, 
 for both our sakes, to correct. You thought me very 
 heartless ?" 
 
 " I do still." 
 
 " Because I have expressed no regret and have shed 
 no tears. Supposing I had told you that I was very 
 sorry " 
 
 " I shouldn't have believed you, but it would have 
 been good form." 
 
 " I see," said Minkale, feeling quite unreproved, 
 and, indeed, rather merry at the suggestion, " good 
 breeding requires one to convey the impression that 
 one is a born liar well, then, I'm glad I didn't." 
 
 " But you can't pretend that you ever did feel sorry 
 for me." 
 
 " Not really. You see a woman about to be married
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 167 
 
 thinks she's the pivot on which the world revolves. 
 She's dead to the world is sorrow, worldly or other- 
 wise ? Unless it is some blood-curdling tragedy 
 nothing will direct her heart and mind to other things 
 than her trousseau, her new home, and her equally 
 new husband." 
 
 " Not husband." 
 
 " That is unkind of you. The other idea is that I 
 have not asked you to forgive me. Was such a thing 
 possible ?" 
 
 " No. But that also would have been good 
 form." 
 
 " So that I was to tell a lie for myself, and ask you 
 to perform a miracle for yourself. Anyhow, we can 
 part in peace. Good-bye." 
 
 Minkale rose, and with a nod of her pretty head, 
 turned her back on Tun Min, who stood on the step 
 for a moment, and then sprang off from it as though 
 some necessity for haste had suddenly occurred to him. 
 
 " It was a drawn battle," he said to his father on 
 his return, " in which neither of us behaved like men 
 and women." 
 
 " Then like what ?" 
 
 " Like a pair of actors who were not in love with 
 their parts." 
 
 " It is well." 
 
 " Why ?" asked Tun Min puzzled. 
 
 " Had you behaved like a Burman you'd have killed 
 her. Had she behaved like a Burmese woman, she'd 
 have yelled for police, and have given you in charge 
 for an attempted liberty; and, mind you, she's an 
 appetizing morsel. You'd be convicted."
 
 168 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 "I'm thankful it's all over, and yet I'm not," said 
 Tun Min, throwing himself down on the carpet and 
 shading his eyes with his hand. 
 
 " That is natural," said the philosopher, " for the 
 currents of love and hate, when heated by passion, 
 get into the wrong arteries; but when you've had a 
 cold bath you'll be all right. She told you her choice 
 was irrevocable ?" 
 
 " In the most callous way." 
 
 " She's chilled you off for good ? That shows 
 character. I'm sure she's convinced you that she has 
 acted for your benefit." 
 
 " Oh yes, and successfully !" 
 
 " We mean different things." 
 
 " She meant that she'd been instrumental hi getting 
 me promotion. According to her I'm promoted 
 Wundauk and posted to Prome." 
 
 " So that was the secret Zeta called round to 
 communicate, but finding you out, went off in a 
 huff, as if an old father's feelings were quite imponder- 
 able." 
 
 " Zeta here ?" 
 
 " Yes. Cruncher is transferred to Prome as D.C., 
 and as Alpha was quite incapable of superintending 
 the move, Zeta was wired for. Well, you've scored 
 whoever was the author; but it might have been 
 Minkal6." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " The Commissioner was here without his wife, and 
 Minkal6 was invited to dine. He was charmed, and 
 the bangles she wears are his gift." 
 
 " Bother the Mingyis and Minkales !" said Tun Min,
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 169 
 
 raising himself. " It's Zeta that I want to see. She 
 is a brick." 
 
 " Here she is," said Zeta, smiling sweetly and 
 shikoing to the aged Ko Moung as he went to the 
 door to receive her. 
 
 " You are the light," said Ko Moung, " and in our 
 darkness we need you."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WITH the fondness of Burmans for pet names, Zeta 
 had been known in her childhood as " Sunlight," but 
 later, as she grew up and the breezy side of her character 
 developed, her friends called her " Fresh air," for 
 from the moment she entered a Burmese dwelling till 
 she left, the atmosphere was thoroughly ventilated by 
 her cheery good-nature and bonhommie. She could, 
 of course, bite what woman can't ? but it was her 
 ready gift of sympathy that touched and healed more 
 often than her talent for amusing that constantly 
 widened the circle of her friends. 
 
 " Does Cruncher know you're here ?" asked Tun 
 Min, suggesting a comfortable corner on a Donabyu 
 mat, near which lay a cushion in a brown-holland 
 cover, in case she might like to rest a weary elbow 
 on it. 
 
 " All Cruncher knows is that I'm a wild bird, and 
 that the scissors were never made that would clip 
 my wings. I roam where I like, and at present I like 
 to be here. Has the good news reached Ko Tun 
 Min ?" 
 
 " Is Walworth dead ?" asked Tun Min, making 
 a grimace as if he wanted the spittoon a little 
 nearer. 
 
 170
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 171 
 
 " Walworth pleases nobody but himself, and just at 
 present it won't be his own hand that gathers him to 
 his fathers, as the nuns used to say. No. But 
 surely you've heard that you're going to Prome, and 
 we too ? Isn't it lovely ?" 
 
 " Minkale told me of my promotion and transfer, 
 and suggested " 
 
 " That they were her wedding gift to you," said 
 Zeta with her merry laugh resounding through the 
 house. " She has an extraordinary imagination 
 always did at the convent, too, where the Mother 
 Superior called her a dreamer. But I never call a 
 daub a picture." 
 
 " You called her a liar ?" said Tun Min, beginning 
 to be amused. 
 
 "With all my heart, and more than once; but the 
 curious part of it is that she never believed me, and 
 thought my judgment was at fault." 
 
 Ko Moung said nothing, but, like an old man, was 
 intensely amused by such childish prattle, and while 
 he listened, employed his hands in rolling betel chews 
 for his delightful guest as well as for himself and his 
 son. 
 
 " I saw her an hour ago, and sometimes wish it was 
 for the last time," said Tun Min, recalling an inter- 
 view of which he had a dull conviction that it had 
 on the whole brought him less credit than it did 
 Minkale. 
 
 " The fire of love," said Ko Moung, tendering the 
 chews with a shaky hand, " is not immediately ex- 
 tinguished by the water of disappointment." 
 
 " That," said Zeta, " is because Ko Tun Min's love
 
 172 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 is pure and burns with a white heat. But Ma L6 ! 
 Do you think that Walworth's and Cruncher's love 
 would take a lot to put out ?" 
 
 " What sort of a love is theirs ?" 
 
 " Sheer brute sensuality," said Zeta, who always 
 spoke her mind. 
 
 " Then why did you go to him ?" 
 
 " We girls get the credit of knowing a lot before 
 we're married, but there are no accounts with more 
 false entries. Take it from me that we don't. Didn't 
 I have it from my mother that connubial slumbers 
 were the most soothing ? Well, I've had a rude 
 awakening." 
 
 " Still you go back to Cruncher." 
 
 " And shall continue to do so. Why not ?" 
 
 " Unless the future is in tune with the past," said 
 Ko Moung, showing a disposition to take part in the 
 conversation, " there will be no happiness." 
 
 " Exactly. My life can never flow in the old 
 channel," said Zeta, " and as I want it to go on flowing, 
 it must be in the one I've fallen into." 
 
 " Then there are compensations," said Tun Min, 
 who guessed that Zeta might be without a bed of 
 roses, and still have a path that was strewn with 
 flowers. 
 
 "Many," said Zeta perfectly frankly. "There's 
 the intoxication of feeling that I'm the senior lady 
 in the district: policeman salute, municipal lugyis 
 shiko, my diamonds dazzle, and I still have the hope 
 of a white baby or two." 
 
 The casual observer has often wondered at the 
 readiness with which the Burmese girl walks into
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 173 
 
 concubinage with the young European, but there is 
 no simpler and yet truer explanation of the sad re- 
 lationship than in the Burmese desire to have fair 
 children. 
 
 " But," said Tun Min, who wanted much more 
 light, " aren't you often depressed by the fear that 
 Cruncher may possibly wish to live his English life 
 again ?" 
 
 " And I be discarded ? No." 
 
 " Why not ?" 
 
 " Cards and dice are a woman's invention. All 
 women are born gamblers some of us, like your friend 
 Minkale, desperate and unscrupulous gamblers. Don't 
 be shocked. And our capital to gamble with is in 
 our youth and beauty, in our sensuous figures and 
 aromatic natures. And they're all liable to speedy 
 decay " 
 
 " Except the last," said Tun Min, who loved the 
 aroma in Zeta's nature. 
 
 " And curiously enough," said Zeta smilingly, " that 
 is the least valuable of our assets." 
 
 " And yet," said Ko Moung, as if his opinion were 
 not likely to change, " we men are not altogether 
 contemptible." 
 
 " People gamble with death," said Zeta, taking 
 little notice of Ko Moung, " why not with destiny ? 
 You think the time will come when some white lily 
 will evict me. Let her. But we have a new stream 
 of amorous English youth every cold season, and Zeta, 
 the household drudge, would get another billet. 
 That's unless some young man of her own race touched 
 her giddy mind."
 
 174 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Which," said Ko Moung with knowledge, "is an 
 impossibility." 
 
 " Oh, Ko Tun Min needn't fear that Minkale 
 will look to him for a refuge when Walworth 
 begins to substitute beefsteaks for curries. She is 
 already thinking of the Commissioner in the next 
 division, who actually tossed for her with Walworth, 
 and having lost, said he was young enough to 
 wait." 
 
 " What's his name ?" 
 
 " Treble Bloo. He is to be our Commissioner very 
 shortly, and when Minkale heard it, her eyes shone like 
 jewelled stars. She's made up her mind to rise and 
 shine in the woman's heaven." 
 
 " You're all terribly heartless people." 
 
 " That is so. You touch my interests, and I at once 
 put my heart and my honour on one side. There 
 are no rules in our games. But, my dear Ko Tun 
 Min, some of us do consider the interests of others. 
 I'm miserable unless those around me are happy, and 
 thinking of you made me a lonely woman while I was 
 still surrounded by " 
 
 " A host of admirers ?" 
 
 " Friends, if you please. I simply told Cruncher, 
 when I heard of his transfer, that you must come too, 
 or I should take a house at Shwegyn for a month or 
 so, to be near you, lest you did something rash. Not 
 only you." 
 
 " Then who ?" 
 
 " Ma Le. Look at the enemies you've made. Spicer 
 said they were a record. And I made up my mind 
 that I must get you out of that slaughter-house. But
 
 tell me, why does Ko Tun Min set up these unpalatable 
 standards ?" 
 
 " They are white." 
 
 " That means they become white people who, after 
 all, live in exalted places, and it is only in the bigger 
 things that their purer principles come into play. 
 But they don't interfere in the daily round " 
 
 " Is that why they have Burmans in the lower 
 walks ?" 
 
 " So Cruncher says. He says the national life is 
 corrupt and can be sustained on nothing but corrupt 
 myooks and tsit-kays. He winks at it till that life 
 gets a little too robust and uppish, and then sits down 
 on it hard. His Imperial destiny is to sit hard. Isn't 
 it funny ?" said Zeta, pretending that she had made 
 a joke. 
 
 " That Deputy Commissioner," said Ko Moung, " is 
 a statesman. Burmese appetites will never be ex- 
 tinguished by English standards, but they can be 
 controlled. Ko Tun Min is a controller." 
 
 " In borrowed plumes. In a white man's jacket. 
 And that's why they first mocked him and then put 
 poison in his food or, rather, stolen notes in his 
 drawer the same thing." 
 
 " There's just one question," said Ko Moung, trying 
 to chip in. 
 
 " Don't say I talk too fast." 
 
 " Supposing Cruncher were to catch Tun Min taking 
 a bribe ?" 
 
 " It would be death to my dear friend, unless I 
 happened to be there," said Zeta, who felt what she 
 said.
 
 176 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Then/' said Ko Moung with a smile, " Cruncher 
 thakin's theory and practice are at civil war." 
 
 " Theory and practice ? Ullayga ! ' Don't be 
 found out ' is his only doctrine of any value. Some- 
 times Cruncher is very communicative, and he talks 
 of the rice-millers whose business is a swindle from 
 beginning to end, of the import dealers, who pass 
 hours every morning in the bazaar looking at and 
 copying each other's trade marks, and of barristers, 
 who coach witnesses freely. He says it's all right till 
 somebody is found out." 
 
 " Then," said Tun Min, " what happens ?" 
 
 " They bury the culprit in dirt and spit on his grave," 
 said Ko Moung, who knew all about it. 
 
 " Now at Prome I shall be near Ko Tun Min, and 
 what lovely times we shall have. I've written and 
 told the bazaar goung that you are my younger 
 brother. He will sedulously circulate that falsehood, 
 and there will be no scandal if I visit you. Don't 
 shake your bullet head. I shall, and though I shall 
 not direct unholy goldmohurs into your tiny pockets, 
 I can bring you outside opinion as to who is on the 
 winning side in the cases you try. Upon my honour, 
 I often tell my husband you see, I'm quite English 
 now, and say my husband instead of Captain Cruncher 
 that so and so must get off." 
 
 " And does he get off ?" 
 
 " Cruncher's between two stools then the Com- 
 missioner is one and I'm the other. But, you see, 
 he doesn't go to bed with the Commissioner, so I 
 always win. I shall do the same with Ko Tun 
 Min "
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 177 
 
 " Do what with Ko Tun Min ?" said Ko Moung with 
 a broad grin on his ugly face. 
 
 Ko Moung's humour was coarse, but it was Burmese, 
 and the joke was appreciated. 
 
 " There," said Zeta, blowing a kiss to Ko Moung 
 in a manner that was eminently un-Burmese, " take 
 that. It's what Ko Walworth does when I make him 
 laugh." 
 
 That, Ko Moung simply regarded as bad manners, 
 than which there is no greater sin in the Burmese 
 social code, but she had mixed so long and so in- 
 timately with Englishmen that the solecism was con- 
 doned. 
 
 "Ma Zeta must never speak to me of my cases," said 
 Tun Min, not liking to oppose the wilful lady, but 
 thinking it wise to put his foot down at once on a germ 
 that might grow dangerous and destroy him. 
 
 "Ma Zeta means no harm," said Ko Moung, thinking 
 there might be a difference which the impulsive natures 
 of the young people might easily widen. 
 
 " Remember," said Zeta, looking at Tun Min 
 coquettishly, " that without Walworth to cheer me 
 I shall be desperately dull, and I shall look to you to 
 enliven me." 
 
 " Walworth ?" 
 
 " Yes, Walworth. Why not ?" 
 
 " He had no time to spare from Minkale, had 
 he?" 
 
 " Oh, but I made lovely inroads on that time, and 
 Minkale" was simply consumed with jealousy. They 
 had to pack her in ice once, and as it got serious, I 
 took a back seat only for the time." 
 
 12
 
 178 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 ' Then you like Walworth ?" 
 
 " He's the best of good company. Utterly de- 
 praved, if you like, where women are concerned, but 
 we never object to men for that. It's only men who 
 object to each other for being what they'd all like 
 to be." 
 
 " Cynicism," said Ko Moung, putting down his 
 cigar and blowing out a cloud of smoke, " is the child 
 of common sense, but, Zeta, where did you get yours 
 from ?" 
 
 " Not from Walworth or Cruncher. They're not 
 cynics but epicures. I knew Spicer at Kyaikto. He 
 was known by all sorts of unholy names at Oxford 
 for what they called his ' downright damnable 
 cynicism,' but he charmed me. He said he, too, had 
 frolicked about in the garden of life till his eyes were 
 opened " 
 
 " By what ?" 
 
 " By a treacherous female who jilted him; and he's 
 such a darling you wouldn't think it possible." 
 
 " It's a withering experience," said Tun Min, " and 
 presents life in a sickly yellow light. But, never mind 
 Spicer. How do you think Walworth and Minkale 
 will get on ?" 
 
 " Minkale," said Zeta, putting on her cold, critical 
 manner, and talking measuredly, " has a pretty wit, 
 but it has a point. And, mind you, Walworth presents 
 a large surface to that point, for he's very human. 
 Once out of office, and he's on for any lark. Those 
 little vagaries have more than little consequences 
 sometimes. He's repeatedly asked me to picnic out 
 with him in his launch once when he was going to
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 179 
 
 be away the night. Who do you think will come to a 
 bad end he or she ?" 
 
 " Both," said Ko Moung. " And they will come 
 down together." 
 
 " I'm not so sure about him," said Zeta, taking a 
 cigarette from Tun Min's case. " Minkale has no 
 reserve to fall back upon in a crisis, and hers is the 
 average Burmese mind that thinks of revenge when 
 ruffled, which means steering the ship on the rocks. 
 But Ko Wai worth never even scratches a mosquito 
 bite. He tries to get what he wants, but if he can't, 
 then he forgets that he wanted it ; and those men never 
 come down, do they, Ko Moung ?" 
 
 " Without fail they do." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " You can't create forces and think they're ex- 
 tinguished when you no longer want them, or when 
 they are forgotten. In fact, that's just the time 
 they're most dangerous, as you're off your guard." 
 
 " Walworth is never on his guard. Don't repeat it, 
 but Cruncher was saying that he had already had a 
 few ' stinkers ' from Rangoon connected with what 
 they thought was an irregular life with excesses that 
 couldn't be good for him, and in his simplicity he 
 wrote back and said that he was changing Yoma for 
 Minkale, and as the latter was young he thought he'd 
 contemplate no more changes for some time. Well, 
 of course, they simply shrieked when they got that 
 letter." 
 
 " But how about Cruncher ?" asked Ko Moung, 
 thinking that Zeta, with her talent for romancing, 
 had coined that on the spot.
 
 i8o THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Cruncher's abjured promotion, and so they don't 
 mind. Besides, they think he's a little mad. He once 
 administered justice with a coffin on his Bench Clerk's 
 table, just to impress the criminal mind, but it im- 
 pressed the secretariat very much more, and that 
 impression will never fade." 
 
 " Well, I should like Minkale to be happy," said 
 Tun Min, whose temperature had been cooling all 
 the time that Zeta had been chattering and enter- 
 taining both him and his father. " Of course, you 
 will see her again, and if she refers to me, tell her that 
 I bear her no ill-will " 
 
 " That you would like to be friends ?" 
 
 " No. We've agreed that that's impossible." 
 
 " I don't want you to go," said Ko Moung, going 
 to the door; " but the D.C.'s orderly has a message for 
 your ladyship." 
 
 " What is it ?" 
 
 " That you mustn't be late for Ko Walworth's last 
 bachelor dinner. I thought they left the ladies out 
 of that." 
 
 " So they did out of all dinners, but that was 
 before Walworth came, and he has sweetened our 
 lives considerably. Mrs. Dibs's betise will never be 
 repeated." 
 
 " Oh, what was that ? I've forgotten," said Ko 
 Moung, puckering his eyebrows and banging a finger 
 on his head. . 
 
 " Nothing much," said Zeta, looking her wickedest, 
 " but Dibs gave a large dinner-party, and there were 
 many English ladies there. So Mrs. Dibs was told 
 to dine in her bedroom. She wasn't taking any of
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 181 
 
 that. She appeared at dessert and so did the carriages 
 of the guests !" 
 
 Zeta blushed at the reference to Dibs's dinner-party, 
 but even in the land of broad latitudes she dared not 
 describe the costume in which Mrs. Dibs appeared to 
 Dibs's guests.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IT was fashionable in the days to which this story goes 
 back for Englishmen in jungle places, and away from 
 English women, to dine in cotton vests and silk 
 pyjamas; but Walworth's "last bachelor dinner" 
 was a ceremonial occasion, and notwithstanding the 
 excessive heat, the black dinner-jacket was thrown 
 over the vest, giving the wearer the appearance of a 
 sleeper roused by the cry of fire, who had fled, snatching 
 what he could of his overnight's costume as it hung 
 from a clothes-horse. There was Cruncher, of course, 
 and Wobbles the chief district policeman, and Teek 
 the forest conservator; but that was the entire white 
 population of Pegu, and at Walworth's particular 
 request, they came accompanied by their respective 
 " wives." Cruncher, as a Deputy Commissioner, had 
 assumed a dignity worthy of his office, and was, as 
 a rule, restrained in his talk and patronizing in his 
 manner; but Wobbles and Teek had come for a riotous 
 evening, and were disappointed to find that Walworth's 
 gaiety was either forced or that it had vanished. They 
 had taken the step, on the threshold of which stood 
 their host, with a light heart, and thought that Wal- 
 worth's seriousness was quite inexplicable. 
 
 " Tell me, Mrs. Cruncher," said Teek, squeezing her 
 
 182
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 183 
 
 hand under the table, " what has made Wai worth so 
 dull ? It is quite unlike him. When I was going 
 to be married I thought my watch was moving 
 beastly slow, and I dashed it against a boundary 
 pillar." 
 
 " I went one better," said Wobbles, "for I carried 
 my wife off the day before, and when the guests 
 assembled the following day, it was in perfect good 
 faith " 
 
 " That's a lie !" said Mrs. Wobbles indignantly 
 and it was, but it had the desired effect, and even 
 Cruncher laughed. 
 
 " Is Ko Walworth really sad ?" asked Zeta, 
 in a tone of commiseration. " I don't believe it. 
 It's only the feeling of a man who's got a ticket 
 for heaven, and looks on his earthly surroundings as 
 dirt." 
 
 " I am sorry to be dull," said Walworth, trying to 
 assume a more cheerful tone, " but Mrs. Cruncher, 
 with her usual perspicacity, has very nearly guessed 
 the truth. She said ' ticket for heaven,' didn't she ? 
 I certainly have that ticket, but I feel I have no right 
 to it." 
 
 " Never throw back on the gods what they give 
 you," said Cruncher, emptying his third glass of 
 champagne, and thanking the Almighty he had never 
 had the sacrilegious feelings that Walworth appeared 
 to entertain. 
 
 " That's the only ticket you're allowed to steal," 
 said Wobbles, " without running the risk of gaol." 
 
 " Wally isn't such a fool," said Teek with a wink, 
 " as to think that conscience will mix with beautiful
 
 184 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 women. I know what it is it's liver he's got, and, 
 worse luck, connubial bliss is no cure for it." 
 
 It was a picturesque party, and the Burmese ladies, 
 with their bejewelled heads and elegant costumes, 
 were a striking Oriental group; but it was the setting 
 that was grotesque. Quite apart from the white 
 hands and faces of the men, and their neglige appear- 
 ance, there was a manifest and emphatic discord 
 between the ladies and the table at which they sat. 
 There is no daintier woman on earth than the Burman, 
 but it must be in her own environment, and as seen 
 in a zayat at the Pagoda entertaining her friends on 
 a matted or carpeted floor, she has a natural grace and 
 ease which the West might envy. But she was never 
 made to sit in a chair at a table even imperfectly 
 appointed with the usual English appurtenances 
 of eating and drinking. Cruncher's long experi- 
 ence had accustomed him equally to the smell of 
 cocoanut oil in his pillow, and to the clumsiness with 
 knife and fork of his several spouses as they wriggled 
 in an armed chair. He had come to taking it without 
 emotion, and, indeed, now failed to notice it. Wobbles 
 and Teek had nerved themselves to " temporary 
 necessities," as they called it ; but as they could travel 
 on duty, they freely availed themselves of the privilege 
 to escape from harsher surroundings. But in his short 
 study of Yoma, WaJworth had come to the opinion 
 that his own nature was not adaptable enough to make 
 him a comfortable husband in the Burmese sense. 
 Moreover, in his serious moments he was assailed 
 by doubts as to whether such domestic arrangements, 
 though sanctioned by long usage, were good for the
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 185 
 
 cause of Imperialism, and he was most uneasy. His 
 own welfare, he decided, was negligible; but Minkale's 
 was not, and even more than Minkale's was the pure 
 name and exalted character of good government. 
 These thoughts had oppressed him before his guests 
 had assembled, and for a time he was unable to dis- 
 engage his convivial nature from their entanglement; 
 but it is a pleasing property of champagne that it 
 gets home sooner than the consumer, and as Walworth 
 was not in the habit of imbibing, it took possession of 
 him with startling rapidity. 
 
 " Do you know," he said, when there was a 
 sudden pause in the conversation, " that I'm getting 
 tight ?" 
 
 " It's perfectly orthodox," said Teek, who felt 
 himself approaching a similar condition; "you ask 
 my wife. I had an awful head the day I was married, 
 and what a joy it was to her to nurse it." 
 
 Cruncher nodded approval, but it was getting past 
 the hour when his conversational gifts consented to 
 shine. 
 
 " We used to be taught," said Zeta, " that drink 
 was the root of all evil " 
 
 " No, no !" said Wobbles, interrupting. " It was 
 bracketed first with money and woman. How dare 
 you misquote ?" 
 
 " But," said Zeta, continuing, " I find it the 
 source of much sweetness. When my husband is 
 seriously put out, I put him in again with a whisky- 
 and-soda, and it restores the equilibrium of his 
 soul." 
 
 At a nod from Cruncher Zeta rose, and took the
 
 186 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 other ladies into the veranda, which did duty for a 
 drawing-room. There were only the cane tables and 
 chairs of Penang, but it was open all round, and the 
 punkah had a chance of agitating an atmosphere that 
 was cooler than what they had left in a room heated 
 by a superfluity of kerosine oil wall-lamps of a primitive 
 type. 
 
 " Ko Walworth," said Mrs. Teek, whose silence at 
 dinner had been enforced by her invincible ignorance 
 of English, " is depressed. What do you think is the 
 cause, Zeta ?" 
 
 " It's so unnatural," said Mrs. Wobbles, who had 
 quite a warm corner in her heart for her usually 
 cheerful host. 
 
 " Perhaps it's conscience," said Zeta in a whisper. 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " You know," answered Zeta, laughing, " he's 
 stolen his bride, and now his Christian principles 
 have risen in rebellion, and are just giving him 
 socks." 
 
 " What rubbish !" said Mrs. Teek. " It's the oldest 
 custom of all to steal one's wife, and, indeed, it 
 would be dull if we were given as a gift or bought and 
 sold." 
 
 " Oh, were you stolen ?" 
 
 " Rather. As a good Christian I was on my way 
 to be married at the little church in Tharawaddy, and 
 Teek boldly stopped the carriage and proposed. 
 Father, who was usually slow of thought, for once saw 
 the truth in the purest of lights, and handed me over 
 to Teek, who's been as good as gold." 
 
 "Did the jilted bridegroom take it lying down ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 187 
 
 " No standing, protecting his head with his 
 hands." 
 
 " Whatever do you mean ?" 
 
 " Mother slippered him when he protested. He now 
 has the impudence to say that he had a narrow 
 escape." 
 
 The ladies laughed merrily. They were not really 
 sure whether Mrs. Teek had not invented the story on 
 the spot, but the adventure had been one so delight- 
 fully divorced from everything honourable, that it 
 made Zeta's and Mrs. Wobbles's mouths water for a 
 similar experience. 
 
 " But," said Zeta, when her laughter had subsided, 
 " there's a nasty flavour about Minkale's fickleness. 
 She kept Ko Tun Min on the hook till the very 
 last." 
 
 " Nothing wrong about that," said both Mrs. 
 Wobbles and Mrs. Teek together. 
 
 " Not wrong, but a little mercy would have spared 
 the poor boy a lot of suffering. But he's got over it 
 now, and if Walworth forgot to turn up to-morrow, 
 he'd hear it without merriment." 
 
 " We shouldn't," said Mrs. Teek, sitting up to show 
 that she felt what she said. "I for one should burst 
 a bloodvessel, laughing. They've got such swelled 
 heads, you'd think they were white." 
 
 " Somebody's been repeating a feminine indis- 
 cretion." 
 
 " Only one ?" exclaimed Mrs. Teek. " Besides, 
 there was no repetition wanted. They say openly, 
 and intending to be aggressive, that we must all shiko 
 to Minkale when she is married "
 
 i88 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " I ?" shrieked Zeta, with her temperature rising 
 characteristically to boiling-point. 
 
 " Yes, even you. They say your husband is only 
 a Boh, but Ko Walworth is a C.S., and between the 
 two there's lots of thick brown paper." 
 
 "I'm top-side though, surely." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Ma Le" !" said Zeta now absolutely aflame. " I 
 shall send my orderly to fetch Ma May the first thing 
 in the morning, and won't I just rub her commercial 
 nose in the dirt. I, the D.C.'s wife, shiko to the 
 Wundauk Min's ? The woman is mad !" 
 
 It is an old, old story, and what district in the 
 Empire is unfamiliar with it ? The precedence list 
 is the Englishwoman's Bible, and as it was compiled 
 by an office babu who derived his inspiration at the 
 Civil Service fountain, there are now and again 
 collisions between civil and military, which man, 
 unaided by woman, would avoid, but man aided by 
 woman not only fails to avoid, but incurs at top 
 speed. 
 
 " They've got to be civil to you," said Mrs. Wobbles, 
 " but we in the police take a very back seat in the 
 green-coloured list." 
 
 " And we in the forests," said Mrs. Teek, looking 
 the picture of mortification, " have no seat at all, or, 
 rather, one that Teek says isn't worth a tinker's 
 curse." 
 
 " The pity of it is," said Zeta, " that we must go to 
 the wedding. But I have a brilliant idea. We're 
 giving them a tantalus such a lovely one, with four 
 bottles of _cut_ glass."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 189 
 
 " But you've sent it in ?" 
 
 " No ; I thought we'd use it first at our own dinners, 
 it was so nice. And to-day the boy has been cleaning 
 it up. Well, I'll just fill every bottle with vinegar 
 before it goes. Ma May is sure to taste it to see if it's 
 the best brandy. Ma Le ! She'll guess my meaning 
 all right." 
 
 " Don't be silly." 
 
 " Silly or not, I mean to do it. And if Walworth is 
 huffy, I know ways to pacify that child." 
 
 " Zeta was never a flirt," said Mrs. Wobbles, with 
 a laugh. 
 
 " Zeta was never anything else," said Zeta herself, 
 " and neither were you nor any other woman. What 
 a woman is depends on her opportunities, not on her 
 tastes. My dear, we're all made in the same frivolous 
 mould." 
 
 Just then there was heard the familiar crash when 
 Cruncher was dining well, and Zeta rose to say good- 
 night. It was the signal for the other guests to go 
 too, and Walworth saw the ladies to the door, and 
 many were the good-byes spoken before Zeta and Mrs. 
 Teek and Mrs. Wobbles consented to let go of his 
 hands. He knew they all loved him, and he would 
 have liked them to stay ever so much longer, but he 
 did not press them to, as he wanted an hour with Teek 
 and Wobbles, and they felt the absence of the pressure 
 they were accustomed to. But with their thorough 
 knowledge of human nature, guessed that he wanted 
 to let himself go on his last bachelor night, and so 
 they took their departure without resentment if not 
 without regret.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Fill up, Wally," said Teek, taking care that his 
 own glass was full, " if you want to resume our inter- 
 rupted conversation. But, by God, you'll ruin and 
 blast this damned Empire to hell if you start those 
 novel doctrines " 
 
 " I mean them for the moment, at any rate, 
 and perhaps for always, but that depends on my 
 cerebral processes which are rather cloudy just at 
 present." 
 
 " The average civilian," said Wobbles, who had 
 discovered just the kind of chair that suited his after- 
 dinner torpor, " first discovers that he's a prince, next 
 that he can run royalty damned cheap on a rupee a 
 day all told, and last of all that he's a public servant ; 
 but that's only when he's retiring, and the champagne 
 farewells have touched his liver. But where were you 
 lugged up ?" 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " Because you're human. And you're not above 
 satisfying your wants rationally. I tell you, Wally," 
 said Teek, who hated prigs, " that it's awful bosh to 
 talk of trusts and trustees with the damned Burman 
 for a beneficiary." 
 
 " Call me by names of few or many letters," 
 said Walworth, standing up for his service, " but 
 tell me if there's another service on this planet 
 that can show the record of mine ? It wasn't on 
 booze and beauty that they built the noblest of 
 Empires " 
 
 " Then on what ?" 
 
 " On the granite rock of British principle." 
 
 " That be damned for a yarn !" said Wobbles, whose
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 191 
 
 father and grandfather had been John Company's 
 servants in the garish days, when they thought more 
 of sensuous practice than of moral principle. ' Who 
 were our Empire-builders ? Were they missionaries ? 
 They were an illustrious race of soldier-civilians who 
 put the man of a conquered race on a much lower 
 plane than they did the women of the country. 
 Drink to his memory." 
 
 " We have pushed on a bit since the corrupt days 
 of Clive and Hastings. What about Napier, and 
 Lawrence, and Gordon ? Clive was a plundering 
 dacoit, and Hastings a wholly unprincipled circle 
 thugyi as compared with the noblemen who may truly 
 be called our Imperial missionaries." 
 
 " But what's put these grandiose ideas in your 
 noddle." 
 
 " Of course, Minkale." 
 
 " Is that all ?" said Wobbles with a guffaw. " Well, 
 she'll lose nothing if you keep your principle 
 and chuck her. Don't be shocked. But I had a 
 letter from Treble Bloo, saying he was coming up 
 for the wedding, or, rather, he was hoping that 
 you had cooled, and that there'd be no wedding. 
 He's coming in a launch, and has made provision for 
 two " 
 
 " Should Minkale return with him ?" asked Wai- 
 worth, visibly annoyed. 
 
 " Yes; she's all right." 
 
 " That," said Walworth, with determination, 
 " finishes it. To think of surrendering Minkale to 
 an infernal swine and bounder like Treble Bloo! 
 Such a possible catastrophe awakens many sensibilities
 
 IQ2 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 that I hadn't suspected. I'm not jealous, but I 
 shall save Minkale from damnation if not from 
 death." 
 
 In an instant was the whole current of Walworth's 
 life altered by just a whisper. On what a very little 
 hangs a great deal in the laboratory of Nature ! To 
 think that a casual remark thoughtlessly made should 
 have such momentous consequences ! That it has is 
 a platitude in more places than the philosophy of 
 Buddhism, where the most imponderable causes are 
 viewed with the alarm occasioned by devouring 
 monsters. 
 
 " We've actually brought Walworth up to the 
 scratch/' said Teek, filling all the glasses for a doch- 
 and-doris. 
 
 " Do you know, Walworth," said Wobbles, putting 
 his glass down, " there's no apparent god in a Buddhist 
 country, but custom and the concubine is its highest 
 expression. We promised in the proclamation of 
 1857 never to interfere with the custom of the country. 
 Well, I've gone one better, and have merely impressed 
 my own individuality upon that custom. It suits 
 the country, and it suits my nature. And if you'll only 
 give it a dog's chance, it'll keep you going till you're 
 ripe for pension. Good-night, old chap." 
 
 When his guests had gone Walworth threw himself 
 into a long arm-chair, and wondered how it was that 
 Teek, an old Marlburian, and Wobbles, a Wyke- 
 hamist, with the great traditions of their respec- 
 tive schools, could become the apostles of a loose 
 morality. 
 
 " I," he reflected, " was badly brought up in a den
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 193 
 
 of impurity at home, where no gospel was taught but 
 self ; at school they taught little but Greek and Latin ; 
 and at Oxford there was but one god, and that was 
 self-advertisement. Slender equipment at its best for 
 an Imperial office, but apparently better than what's 
 sold much dearer at the public schools."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE world that Minkale looked out upon from her 
 bedroom window on her wedding morn was one of 
 gorgeous beauty. Nature both within and without, 
 she thought, were absolutely in tune. It was late 
 for padouk to be in flower again, but it was a special 
 occasion, and stretching a point, Nature spread out 
 before her with both hands such a wealth of green and 
 gold as had never before been seen in Pegu. The 
 whole country round appeared aflame with the gilded 
 tops of the Pagoda, the gaudy bunches of goldmohur, 
 and the golden forests of padouk caught alike by the 
 gladdening rays of the morning sun. There were 
 lilacs, too, that grew in wild profusion, and the stately 
 palmyra that seemed to keep its vigils like some river 
 god solicitous for the frail craft that rode on deep 
 and stormy waters, and Minkale was in raptures with 
 the scene. Men and women moved about below her 
 window, and talked and laughed, and hearing her 
 name, she knew it was her wedding that was the general 
 theme, and a gentle intoxication stole over her girlish 
 soul. 
 
 " We mustn't be late," said the harsh voice of her 
 mother from below; but Minkale knew there was 
 plenty of time, besides, it was her day, when she was 
 
 194
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 195 
 
 permitted to impose her will on everything and every- 
 body, and she spread out her wedding presents, feeling 
 she would never be tired looking at them. There was 
 a diamond pendant from Walworth that had the first 
 place of course, but her father's gift was superb, and 
 Minkale knew to an anna what those rubies and 
 emeralds had cost. She kissed the pearl necklace 
 from her mother, and when she had adjusted it round 
 her pretty neck, was satisfied with the effect, feeling 
 there were not many women whom it would have 
 suited so well. 
 
 Walworth, on the other hand, awoke with a splitting 
 headache, as, indeed, did Teek and Wobbles, but the 
 recuperative forces of youth, abetted by judicious 
 doses of Eno, work marvels, and by the time it was 
 necessary for the " business " to begin, nobody would 
 have suspected that the night before still lingered in 
 the morning after. But Walworth had very definite 
 ideas, which had survived the last bachelor dinner, 
 that he was about, not to make a damned fool of 
 himself, for of himself he thought the least, but to 
 wreck a young life, and to commit an outrage on the 
 best traditions of a great Imperial service. That the 
 girl wanted to be wrecked, and that the service had 
 its bad traditions, though in a lesser degree than the 
 good, made no difference to his clear and discriminating 
 mind, and he began to loathe himself for acting in 
 opposition to what he was convinced was right. But 
 it was, he thought, too late to jump back over an ever 
 widening chasm, and besides, there was that black- 
 guard Treble Bloo to be checkmated, so he decided 
 he would " drift " on the wave of destiny. He was
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 serious till he saw Cruncher and Wobbles and Teek 
 walk in, dressed like Burmans in shimmering silk 
 putsoes, and white engyis, with fillets of white muslin 
 bound round their heads, and then he laughed up- 
 roariously. That day he was never again serious for 
 a moment. 
 
 " What cheer !" 
 
 " I've never bathed a baby in my life, s'welp me !" 
 said Teek, trying to pick Wai worth up in his arms. 
 " Come, let's sponge him and get him the right tem- 
 perature on his wedding day." 
 
 Even Cruncher, throwing off the frigid dignity of 
 office, confessed to a weakness for " rag," and in much 
 less time than it takes to tell the story, Walworth 
 was stripped, and much to the amusement of his 
 loogalay, was rudely bathed and dried by three hefty 
 Englishmen, whose capacity for masculine amuse- 
 ment had still the vigour and freshness of England's 
 public schools about it. 
 
 " Damn you rotters !" said Walworth, at last pro- 
 testing when they insisted on forcing his legs through 
 the arms of his vest. " It's the loogalay's prerogative 
 to dress me on my wedding day." 
 
 " And Minkale's, by God, to undress you on your 
 nuptial night !" said Teek, pouring with perspiration, 
 for the climate of Pegu was ill-adapted to Teek's 
 notions of " rag." 
 
 It was hot and thirsty, so the Burmese boy was 
 allowed the honour of robing his master in the Burmese 
 national costume, while the Madrasi butler dispensed 
 cold whiskies and sodas to the amused guests. 
 
 ''JLpok here, Walworth!" said Cruncher, making
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 197 
 
 an effort to express an idea that he had always failed 
 to remember at the right moment, " have I anything 
 particular to say to Minkale's elders ? Is there any 
 settlement ?" 
 
 " What the devil do you mean ?" said Walworth, 
 looking puzzled. 
 
 " It's a damned big business," said Teek, recalling 
 his own wedding. " Minkale's elders will want to 
 know what's agreed upon. They're mighty particular 
 too. She has her dot, and you'll be asked by how 
 much you've increased it; and then they'll want to 
 know whether property acquired after marriage is to 
 be joint or several " 
 
 " When they asked me that," said Cruncher, " I 
 told them Zeta could keep all the babies, and now 
 they've got me in their pwes as a representative 
 Englishman." 
 
 " Do my office, my rank, and my brilliant prospects 
 count for nothing," said Walworth, in a tone of 
 annoyance, " when these damned elders are on the 
 war-path ?" 
 
 " Don't let it bother you," said Wobbles, " it's the 
 merest swank. Just the Burman all over." 
 
 It was emphatically nothing of the kind, but a 
 simple and systematic arrangement for the applica- 
 tion and distribution of assets in a country where 
 nothing was more necessary, seeing that divorce is 
 as easy as marriage, being in either case consensual. 
 But what the domestic Burman regards as marriage 
 is contemptuously treated by Englishmen as con- 
 cubinage, and such incidents as trusts and trustees 
 are laughed at as swank.
 
 ig8 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 When Walworth was nearly ready, Cruncher sent 
 his orderly round to warn Moung Ba Shin of the 
 bridegroom's approach, so that, when they arrived 
 at the house by the river, everything was in readiness. 
 There was Minkale 1 simply radiant in her happiness, 
 and ablaze with diamonds, seated on the new pink 
 and blue carpet that Ma May had, after much chaffer- 
 ing, bought at an English store in Rangoon, and near 
 her were her mother and her elders, who were to 
 "settle" the little legal preliminaries; but much to 
 Walworth's amazement, there was no priest, and he 
 found, moreover, to his surprise, that an orthodox 
 Burmese marriage could be solemnized without one. 
 Religion goes in and out of a Burman's daily life in 
 larger proportions than in the Christian's, but that 
 marriage has a religious flavour is to the former a 
 ridiculous idea. What is of much more importance 
 to him is the legal element, which in Walworth's case 
 was not exactly a farce, for though it was understood 
 that the tie was not legally binding, it was felt that 
 such agreements respecting property as were made 
 would have contractual vitality. When the usual 
 greetings had been exchanged, Walworth took his 
 seat alongside his bride, and the proceedings began 
 with Cruncher asking Moung Gyi, who was one of 
 Minkale's elders, what Moung Ba Shin proposed to 
 settle on the bride. 
 
 " One lac, my lord." 
 
 " Upon such a very young girl !" exclaimed Cruncher 
 incredulously. 
 
 " It is the custom, my lord." 
 
 " It won't be safe," said Cruncher, shaking his
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 199 
 
 head, " for the Wundauk Min to add to that settle- 
 ment"; and then there was a titter as some wild 
 young loobyo at the entrance shouted: " Youk cha 
 pada !" 
 
 " Arrest that son of a dog for bad livelihood !" 
 cried Wobbles, and having seen the caitiff pounced on 
 and pinned down he resumed his seat, and the pro- 
 ceedings continued. 
 
 " An officer of his sublime rank," said the elder, 
 " endows his bride with enough when he gives her his 
 heart, and the half of his throne." 
 
 Then there was general clapping while refreshments 
 were distributed in the house to the assembled guests ; 
 but Moung Ba Shin's house was much too small a 
 place to entertain all the friends that were bidden* 
 and the preliminaries being over, an adjournment was 
 made to the compound of the circuit house, where men 
 and women lined up along the roadway in their 
 hundreds to give Walworth and Minkale" a cordial 
 welcome. The Bishop did not appear, but there were, 
 near a distant clump, a group of monks wearing 
 Ma May's gift of robes, who appeared to take a melan- 
 choly interest in the gay proceedings. They, how- 
 ever, were the only serious spectators, for the world 
 and his wife had come to enjoy themselves, and neither 
 the one nor the other had the least intention of going 
 away disappointed. There was no band, but there 
 was instead an An Yein Pwe, in which a lady swayed 
 from side to side, and did some marvellous contortions 
 to the accompaniment of a soft-toned harmonicon, 
 aided by a drum and a bamboo split in two that did 
 duty for a clapper. She sang in harsh, metallic tones
 
 200 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 such .ditties as " Climbing up the Golden Stairs " and 
 " Ta-ra-ra-ra Boom de Aye," and everybody thought 
 what a gorgeous thing it was to be married under 
 Imperial auspices. 
 
 " I shall never stop laughing," said Teek, handing 
 Zeta a glass of champagne. " I think I shall buy 
 Moung Ba Shin." 
 
 " That unclean thing," said Zeta, making a grimace. 
 
 " Look at the holy calm on his face. He's been a 
 thorough blackguard all his life, and thinks he's got 
 a clean slate now that he's bought Walworth with 
 Minkale." 
 
 " Oh no !" said Zeta, shaking her head. "If he 
 built a hundred Pagodas and gilded them all with the 
 gold of good works, he'd still have a debit balance to 
 wipe out. Hear Ma May on him." 
 
 " On her own husband ?" 
 
 " That's a business relationship, as you've just seen. 
 She's foretold it that he has to do ever so many slimy 
 incarnations as a snake, a leech, and a crocodile, and 
 with intermediate ones as a tick, a bug, and a cock- 
 roach. She loathes him." 
 
 " Tell me, Zeta, does a Burmese woman ever love 
 her husband, and, if so, for what ?" 
 
 " Oh yes, she often has the sense to. He can be 
 generous though wealthy, and, mind you, he's meant 
 to be the father of her children " 
 
 " And their playmate and caretaker-general," said 
 Teek, hitting the nail of national character on the 
 head. 
 
 " It's very appropriate," said Zeta, keeping one 
 eye on Minkale's attentions to Treble Bloo, who was
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 201 
 
 now very much in evidence. " You see, looking after 
 babies does not require much intellect, and, mercifully, 
 the Burmese man has none. But if it's business that's 
 afoot, then tell me, Ko Teek, is the Burmese woman 
 badly equipped ?" 
 
 Teek expressed a doubt. 
 
 " See how Minkale allowed Ko Walworth to elbow 
 Ko Tun Min out. Wasn't that clever of her ?" asked 
 Zeta. 
 
 " Brains seldom go with bodies," said Teek, gently 
 pressing Zeta's foot with his own, " and, Zeta, I 
 needn't tell you that your architect was no fool." 
 
 " My architect ? Ma L6 ! why, mother always said 
 that he was the biggest of fools !" 
 
 " Was she referring to her husband ?" 
 
 " I'm not sure," said Zeta with a laugh. 
 
 It was a tedious performance, but Walworth and 
 Minkale made the entire round of Moung Ba Shin's 
 guests, and received the hearty congratulations of 
 those that were not suddenly struck dumb by the 
 Imperial magnificence of the occasion, with every 
 symptom of pleasure, for while Minkale smiled on the 
 men, Walworth, bubbling over, cracked jokes with 
 the women, who were all very fond of him. At last, 
 however, they were free to join th^ir own circle, and 
 to be seated while a local photographer took several 
 sittings, as Moung Ba Shin had liberally ordered a 
 thousand copies wherewith to decorate not only his 
 private residence, but all public places in the town. 
 
 " Where are you off to for your honeymoon ?" asked 
 Treble Bloo of Minkate, but she only pointed to 
 Walworth.
 
 202 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Oh, your own house ! How prosaic !" 
 
 " No!" said Walworth with venom in his tone. As 
 a matter of fact, the venue of the honeymoon had been 
 kept a close secret, and advisedly so, for in barbarous 
 countries marriage is associated with savage customs 
 not the least disgusting of which is the stoning of 
 the house by night where the newly-wedded couple 
 have taken up their residence, in the hope of being 
 bought off with silver and gold. 
 
 " I thought you might have my launch," said Treble 
 Bloo innocently, " if you chanced to be going my 
 way to Kyouktan." 
 
 " Some other time, thank you," said Minkale. 
 
 " No other time," vowed Walworth inwardly, feeling 
 that given time and opportunity, nothing would please 
 him better than to reduce certain meaty parts of the 
 Tennaserim Commissioner to pulp. 
 
 While they were talking, a message was received 
 from the station-master to say that then: train had 
 left the next station, and that meant they had but 
 few moments to lose; but in those Cruncher proposed 
 their health, which Walworth actually acknowledged 
 from the dogcart in which Minkale sat by his side 
 and beamed on the crowd. 
 
 " It's damned good of you all," said Walworth. 
 " And when I come back we can have it all over 
 again." 
 
 " Not all," protested Minkale, in a voice that was 
 meant for her spouse alone. 
 
 " She did look pretty," said the crowd as it melted; 
 but Bindasery, the orderly and fortune-teller, thought 
 otherwise.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 203 
 
 " In nature," said Bindasery, talking to the Punjaubi 
 policeman left in charge of Wai worth's house, " the 
 snake does not bite the scorpion, but the miraculous 
 will happen." 
 
 " What will happen ?" asked the policeman, peeling 
 a plantain. 
 
 " The bride will bite the bridegroom he is dead, 
 and you may dig his grave." 
 
 " Go and stuff your dirty mouth with mud," said 
 the policeman, who belonged to a frontier tribe, with 
 the male members of which seduction was not only 
 a manly art, but an hereditary gift. " He is young 
 and she is young, and if she be a little pretty 
 why, it just puts an edge on his appetite, you 
 fool !" 
 
 " That's like a lewd Punjabi," said Bindasery, who 
 was not in the least afraid of the stalwart limb of the 
 law. ' You see a buxom wench, and you make her 
 yours: you have no stomach for anybody's rights but 
 your own." 
 
 " You didn't say he'd run off with another fellow's 
 girl not that there's anything wrong about it but 
 when I'm talking I like to keep things on a clear 
 horizon. What makes you mix snakes and scorpions 
 with brides and bridegrooms ?" 
 
 " She who bites once can bite again, and as for his 
 sting, there isn't an inch of my body I can sit on I 
 must either stand or sleep on my face." 
 
 "Wah, wah!" said the policeman. " The Wun- 
 dauk saheb bahadur is a fine fellow. But who has 
 she bitten ?" 
 
 " The myook of Shwegyn."
 
 204 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " That sickly, puling monk. I should think she 
 has. Every girl wants a man for a husband." 
 
 And thus it happened that from the Deputy Com- 
 missioner of Pegu down to the lowest constable in 
 the gamut of Imperialism, there was not a single dis- 
 cordant note of disapproval sounded when the seduc- 
 tion of Minkale was accomplished. 
 
 Ko Moung and Moung Tun Min had left Pegu 
 together by an early train, but had halted at Nyaung- 
 lebin to have a chat with a septuagenarian Woon, 
 who had held office under Mindoon Min at Shwebo, 
 and were now on their way to Poozonmyoung, when, 
 at the level-crossing, they met the bridal train. As 
 the white-painted first-class carriage approached, Tun 
 Min looked up, and he saw Walworth put his arm 
 round Minkale's neck and kiss her with the warm kiss 
 of passion. 
 
 " May I be blind for evermore !" he prayed. 
 
 Ko Moung, too, looked up and saw what had dis- 
 gusted his son, but he simply said : 
 
 " That's an emotion which soon passes. When the 
 thirst is quenched, the crystal brook inspires no 
 thoughts."
 
 PART III
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE Anglo-Indian policeman has left many impres- 
 sions on the untutored English mind, which were 
 equally unfavourable and unfounded; but of Mortlock's 
 capacity to deal with crime, and energy in following 
 up the slightest clues, there was never the smallest 
 difference of opinion. There were those who objected 
 to the trial of Tun Min's enemies dragging on for 
 nearly a year, seeing that two of them were taken 
 red-handed; but the conspiracy had wide ramifica- 
 tions, and as the investigation proceeded one discovery 
 after another came to light with such startling rapidity 
 that, had Mortlock been permitted to continue his 
 examination any longer, it seemed probable that half 
 the district would be in gaol. 
 
 Mortlock was disappointed and disgusted at the 
 prohibition, but was consoled as trial after trial con- 
 cluded with the conviction of the greatest of Shwegyn's 
 malefactors. What afforded him, however, the greatest 
 satisfaction was the simple case of Tun Min and the 
 hidden currency notes, of which he had been the 
 merest spectator, and which by itself had called for 
 no detective skill whatever. 
 
 " The simplest cases," he reflected, " work out 
 automatically. We put the accused in the dock, and 
 
 207
 
 208 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 when they begin to incriminate each other they are 
 without an equal in the art of advocacy." 
 
 Mortlock was right, and his ripe generalizations were 
 fully verified by the proceedings in Bungoo's case, as 
 it was commonly called, from the fact that it was 
 popularly believed to have been concocted in the 
 pleader's brain. 
 
 Bungoo was a product of the Bengal schools of law 
 at a time when the Dhurmtolla lawyer had established 
 his claim to be regarded as the finest liar on earth, 
 and it was Bungoo's ambition to prove to a critical 
 world that his professional notoriety was deservedly 
 achieved. He disappointed neither himself nor the 
 world, for, on being retained in a case, his first and 
 chief inquiry was to know what and how many lies 
 he was to tell, and as a rule he lied with equal judgment 
 and fecundity. But so far his experience had all been 
 what he termed " altruistic," inasmuch as he had been 
 philanthropically concerned in protecting the interests 
 of others. Now, however, it was his own case, and 
 the stake was high, and Bungoo was far from happy. 
 He had secretly made overtures to Mortlock, and 
 promised to unlock the criminal secrets of a dozen 
 districts if pardoned; but Mortlock was interested in 
 no district but his own, and the secrets of that were 
 in his keeping. This failure greatly depressed Bungoo, 
 who thereafter tried to come to terms with his co- 
 accused, promising to memorialize the Throne if they 
 would only say that he was their unwilling agent 
 coerced by bloody threats of murder; but the only 
 answer he got was that it was better form to sink or 
 swim together.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 209 
 
 " We shall see," said Bungoo, in his harsh Bengali 
 voice, "as to who will swim in the deep waters of 
 jurisprudence, my friend." 
 
 The time at length arrived, and with it the Sessions 
 Judge, when Bungoo and his confederates must ex- 
 plain or expiate their conduct, and the trial was begun. 
 
 " This case," said the Judge, addressing the Public 
 Prosecutor, " is one of great moral depravity, but it 
 is also as clear as the noonday sun. Do the accused 
 urge anything in mitigation of sentence ?" 
 
 " My lord, my honour," said Bungoo, greatly 
 agitated, " I did not do it with a willing mind. I 
 pray to be heard." 
 
 " That is a distinctly good idea, Babu," said the 
 Judge, " as it will obviate the necessity of calling any 
 witnesses. We shall examine the accused first." 
 
 In those early days of empire, Judges were greatly 
 respected for their many accomplishments, but legal 
 knowledge was not one of them, and judicial procedure 
 was unorthodox as often as not ; but, taking common 
 sense for its guide, it was never contemptible. 
 
 " Yes," said the Public Prosecutor, " we know 
 what the prosecution have to say in detail, but there 
 is some confusion and contradiction in the prisoner's 
 examination before the Magistrate just a little more 
 light, your honour." 
 
 " Now, Babu," said the Judge, stopping the Prose- 
 cutor's speech, " just you get into that box, and, by 
 God ! if you don't tell the truth without persuasion 
 I'll offer your accomplices a free pardon to turn 
 Queen's evidence." 
 
 Bungoo grew pale, and his knees knocked as the 
 
 14
 
 210 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 briny bay between Burma and the Penal Settle- 
 ment came within his mental view. That, he thought, 
 was not British justice to think of offering a pardon 
 to one in order that another might confess. But it 
 was a call to brace himself and to keep the national 
 lamp of invention burning brightly, and, making an 
 effort, he stepped down from the dock and into the 
 witness-box. 
 
 " I will tell the whole truth," he stammered. 
 
 " You'd better," said the Judge sternly, and a cold 
 perspiration broke out on the Babu's bald head as he 
 bowed low to the seat of justice. 
 
 " Hirnam Sing," said the Babu, wiping his spec- 
 tacles, " could tell the truth so as to exonerate poor 
 Babu, but his nature is as bad as my destiny. It was 
 he who was impoverished by the integrity of the 
 myook, and it was in his base heart that the desire 
 for revenge was conceived. What could Babu do ? 
 He is not a man that will listen to reason, or to the 
 whispers of conscience. He sat at my threshold 
 threatening to destroy my young children if I did 
 not abet his crime. What was poor Babu to do then ? 
 Ah ! I had a thought. I would only apparently abet 
 the crime, but would inform when it was complete. 
 Thus would an innocent Judge be saved and a desperate 
 malefactor be enmeshed. But Messrs. Spicer and 
 Mortlock must interfere. It was quite unnecessary, 
 and it placed poor Babu in a most unfavourable light. 
 I beg your honour to be merciful. My poor wife and 
 family " 
 
 Here the Babu broke down and wept bitterly, and 
 had to be assisted back to the dock.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 211 
 
 Hirnam Sing had, however, a very different story, 
 and, taking out his pocket-book, proceeded to explain 
 his connection with the sordid crime with the coolness 
 and confidence he had usually shown as Prosecutor in 
 the myook's court. 
 
 " I got wind," he said, opening his pocket-book, 
 " at seven p.m. from an informer of the conspiracy, 
 and was told that the departure of the myook for the 
 hospital would be the signal for the Babu to emerge 
 from the laterite ditch and secrete the stolen currency 
 notes in the myook's clothes. It was my duty to be 
 there. I followed him up the stairs, as the Deputy 
 Commissioner has deposed in the court below, and I 
 was just about to arrest him when the Yazo Woon 
 accused me of complicity and made a grab for my 
 neck. Naturally, I bolted. If my presence establishes 
 my guilt, then how about Spicer saheb and Mortlock 
 saheb ? They knew that a crime was going to be 
 committed and were there on duty. So was I. How 
 is my case different from theirs ?" 
 
 " That, thank God," said the Judge, " sews the 
 Babu up." 
 
 " I'm afraid," said the Prosecutor, aghast, " that a 
 confession is not available except as against the con- 
 fessor." 
 
 " You make that remark again," said the Judge, 
 pretending to be annoyed, " and I'll report you for 
 incompetency." It was a serious threat, and the 
 Prosecutor resumed his seat. 
 
 It was now the turn of Moung Lone, the Bench 
 Clerk, who, being a Burman, had all his official life 
 been regarded as a fool, but that was his cunning. He
 
 212 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 was, on the contrary, possessed of rather more brains 
 than the average Burman, but after mature considera- 
 tion he decided to trade on his national character, and 
 was abundantly rewarded. 
 
 " I never saw such an idiot," said myook after 
 myook under whom Moung Lone had served. " He 
 stumbles on confidential letters, pays out deposits to 
 the wrong people, loses valuable exhibits, and some- 
 times whole records escape his vigilance." 
 
 " What do you say, Moung Lone ?" asked the Judge 
 in softer tones than he had spoken to the Kalas in, 
 for he had always kept a warm corner in his heart for 
 the happy-go-lucky Burman, who was everywhere 
 being ousted by the native of India. 
 
 " My lord," said the Bench Clerk, " I am simply 
 amazed at my predicament. I believed what I was 
 told, and I ask you to believe what I now say." 
 
 " What is the lie ?" 
 
 " No lie, my lord. The myook is the son of a wealthy 
 father, and in good works has distributed his father's 
 wealth freely. There are scores in Shwegyn whose 
 wants have been relieved by his liberality. But he 
 will never take back what he has lent. I don't 
 know how many thousands the Babu owed him, but, 
 being an honourable man, and finding his offers to 
 repay the loans refused, he sought my help. I saw 
 his distress and consented. It was his idea that 
 I should summon the myook to the hospital while 
 he stuffered the myook's drawers with currency 
 notes." 
 
 " Do you propose," said the Judge, " to proceed 
 against the Chetties, the ten-house goung, the circle
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 213 
 
 thugyi, and the army of hangers-on who are co- 
 accused ?" 
 
 " It's as Your Honour pleases," said the Public 
 Prosecutor, who knew the Judge's weakness for short 
 cases. 
 
 " Damn it !" said Mortlock, cursing the Public 
 Prosecutor. " If you agree to that, I'll have you 
 sacked." 
 
 But before there was time for remonstrance, all the 
 other prisoners were released, and enjoined never to 
 do it again, thus depriving Mortlock of the satisfaction 
 of seeing another dozen more or less notorious 
 criminals sent across the bay. But there was a full 
 calendar which would keep the Judge busy for a couple 
 of months, and Mortlock leant back again into his own 
 chair, feeling that the assize would bring him plenty 
 of comfort yet. 
 
 There is in Burma an antiquated custom of ap- 
 pointing two assessors to assist the learned Judge in 
 his deliberations; but anything more pathetic than 
 the humble lot of the yokels who sit on a mat below 
 the throne of justice and say " Yes, yes," to the Judge's 
 dicta can scarcely be conceived. They may possibly 
 be a survival of the studious days when earnest Judges 
 groped in the dark for the treasures of national law 
 and custom ; but now we credit the judgment seat with 
 a larger legal knowledge than formerly existed in the 
 judgment head, and groping in the dark with or without 
 assessors has become a superfluity. 
 
 " As these men have practically confessed," said the 
 Judge, turning to the assessors, " the" case has been 
 stopped, and it won't bejiecessary for you to record
 
 214 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 an opinion; but perhaps you would like to say some- 
 thing complimentary to the police for the clever way, 
 on the slenderest hint, that they dived right down 
 to the bottom of this shameful business." 
 
 The assessors were not quite the useless type of 
 concurring Judges to whom the Judge was accustomed, 
 and much was his surprise when they brought to his 
 notice the highly meritorious service of the Bench 
 Clerk, in abetting the payment of a debt from which, 
 of course, it was to be inferred that in their pious 
 opinion no crime had ever been in contemplation. 
 
 " Well, I'm damned !" said the Judge, turning to 
 Mortlock. " Has either of them ever been had up 
 for bad livelihood, or for smuggling, or for illicit 
 gambling, or have they been adjudicated insolvent ?" 
 
 " I don't know," said Mortlock, smothering a laugh 
 that had a tendency to break out no matter where he 
 was if only the humour was ridiculous enough. 
 
 " I shall adjourn the case, Mortlock, till their ante- 
 cedents have been thoroughly inquired into by a 
 competent magistrate. I never heard anything more 
 calculated to bring the exalted office of an assessor 
 into contempt !" 
 
 " Are the assessors to be on bail, sir ?" asked Mort- 
 lock, entering merrily into the fun. But there was no 
 section of the code plastic enough for framing an accu- 
 sation, and they were permitted to go on undertaking 
 to report when wanted. 
 
 " That, I think, will suffice," said the Judge. " It 
 will bring a sense of their misconduct home to 
 them." 
 
 And the Judge was right. There are those who
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 215 
 
 have graduated in the pedantry of the West who think 
 that the judicial system of England should be ad- 
 ministered undilute to the Burmese baby only just 
 beginning to walk; but there never was a greater 
 mistake. Justice is administered not only with water, 
 but with whisky-and-water as the circumstances of 
 the case require. 
 
 The case was practically concluded, for all that 
 remained to be done was the pronouncement of 
 sentence, and Moung Tun Min, who had been fre- 
 quently brought from Prome to assist the police, was 
 now free to retrace his steps to his own responsible 
 charge; but he was greatly upset by a letter he had 
 received that day from Minkale asking him to meet 
 her on his way back. 
 
 " I have no right to look to you for help," the letter 
 said, " but I have moments of terrible anxiety con- 
 nected with Ko Walworth, and there is none to 
 advise. Do come if you can." 
 
 Tun Min was puzzled to know what to make of the 
 letter. Minkal6 had been married for nearly a year, 
 but he had heard nothing of her or from her all that 
 time. Zeta, he knew, had been in correspondence 
 with her, but he had particularly requested her never 
 to mention the jilt, and Zeta, out of respect for his 
 feelings, pushed Minkal6 out of her mind when she 
 was near Tun Min. 
 
 " I wonder what it can be ?" said Tun Min, walking 
 up and down in his veranda while his loogalay packed 
 his " pas " for the journey. " Zeta and she are 
 friends. Moreover, Cruncher is not above giving 
 advice to a beautiful woman, and, what is more, they
 
 216 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 have experience in the lines on which Minkale walks 
 and I have none." 
 
 He pulled the letter out of his pocket again to see 
 whether it suggested that it had been written in haste ; 
 but he found every letter perfectly formed, with the 
 stops in their proper places, and he concluded that it 
 had been written with slow deliberation. There were 
 no marks of tears shed either on the paper or on the 
 envelope, and he further concluded that the document 
 was penned without emotion. At any other time he 
 might have been impressed with the emergent necessity 
 of obeying such a call, whether it came from friend 
 or foe, but just then the thought uppermost in his 
 mind was his narrow escape from the perfidy of his 
 Shwegyn enemies, and his suspicions once thoroughly 
 awakened, he began to see a trap in every proposal 
 and murder in every meal. So great was his obsession 
 that for weeks he had lived on fruits alone, feeling 
 that they could not be tampered with without leaving 
 eloquent suggestions of danger. 
 
 " What is it ?" he asked himself for the twentieth 
 time. " I have no secrets in common with her, nor 
 do I desire to. If it's worth my going it was worth 
 her telling. but she thought otherwise." 
 
 " It is a trap," he said. " But it has come too late 
 to be a danger." 
 
 He telegraphed his inability to see Minkale" without 
 expressing regret or pleading any unavoidable pre- 
 engagement, and stepped on board his sampan in time 
 to catch the night mail to Rangoon, through which 
 he had to pass on his way to Prome. As he lay in 
 his bunk awake, unable to sleep owing to the jolting
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 217 
 
 of the train, he doubted whether he had sent the 
 right answer. When a monk he had been accustomed 
 to ponder for days the expediency of any particular 
 line of action; but in the Government service such 
 delay would have stamped him as incompetent, and 
 the habit of acting with promptitude was therefore 
 cultivated by Tun Min to being almost a mechanical 
 impulse. 
 
 " If I have done wrong," he said to himself, " the 
 sin is that of the Government for inculcating the 
 lessons of haste. And as for Minkale, she has nothing 
 to complain of if Walworth kills her." 
 
 When the train stopped at Pegu in the small hours 
 of the cool morning, he put his head out of the train, 
 and addressed an inquiry to the station-master, by 
 whom he had been recognized. 
 
 " Is there any news ?" he asked. 
 
 " None," said the station-master, in a hurry to see 
 to the tram's necessities, " beyond the fact that Mr. 
 Walworth Bubbles has been dropping Mr. Treble Bloo 
 out of a top window, and it's thought that the Com- 
 missioner, even if he lives, will be a paralytic for 
 life." 
 
 " Oh," thought Tun Min, as he pulled his head in 
 again, " that's her little game ! When charged he'll 
 want to prove an alibi, and they want me to swear 
 that Walworth was fifty miles from Pegu just when 
 he was holding Treble Bloo by the seat of his trousers 
 some twenty feet above his bathroom puddle. No, 
 thank you." 
 
 Satisfied that it was nothing more than a paltry 
 artifice to save Walworth, which, instead of being his
 
 2i8 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 salvation, might end in the ruin of all of them, he 
 was thankful that his judgment had not betrayed him, 
 and he fell asleep. 
 
 That Ko Moung was at Pegu and might like to see 
 his son, of whom he was proud, for a few minutes 
 never occurred to Tun Min. He had been taught in 
 the Kyoung, much as in European monasteries, that 
 the spiritual life can only begin where the natural life 
 ends, and, making an effort, had at any rate achieved 
 the suppression of filial instinct as a first instalment 
 on the sacrificial altars of Buddhism. 
 
 " We did not choose our fathers," said an aged 
 monk, " and we do not weep for them." 
 
 That monk expressed Tun Min's feelings.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THERE are more capitals, ancient and modern, in 
 Burma than there are letters in the alphabet, and of 
 the former, Prome is very far from having been the 
 least. On the contrary, its past is enshrined in noble 
 traditions of sanguinary contests, and in the religious 
 enthusiasm of its inhabitants who gave liberally to 
 the construction of the usual monuments of religious 
 faith. There are Pagodas, and Kyoungs, and Tazoungs, 
 as in a hundred other Burmese cities, in which the 
 lights of regal dwellings have been extinguished, but 
 those are mostly cities that have dwindled and decayed ; 
 whereas Prome still pulsates with the life of a vigorous 
 and prosperous community, richly endowed for trade 
 with rail and river, in a country where the communica- 
 tions are a reproach to civilization. 
 
 Situate on the banks of the Irawaddy there are few 
 more picturesque views in Burma than the approaches 
 to Prome by river, with its hills on either bank, and 
 Zeta soon discovered that there were few pleasanter 
 ways of passing the long and weary day when Cruncher 
 was on tour, than by taking the daily trip to Thayetmyo 
 and back in the comfortable steamers of the Flotilla 
 Company. 
 
 It was on one of these voyages that she persuaded 
 
 219
 
 220 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Tun Min to accompany her partly for his companion- 
 ship, but in greater part for his health, for he had just 
 returned from Shwegyn looking jaded and played out, 
 without the excuse of anxiety or overwork. They 
 were the only first-class passengers, and as the mate 
 only appeared at meals, they were able to enjoy the 
 freest scope for conversation. 
 
 " Do you still often hear from Minkale ?" said Tun 
 Min, standing by the taffrail, watching a few bathers 
 in the muddy waters, as they paddled about heedless 
 of danger, though crocodiles were not unknown in 
 the lower regions. 
 
 " Often." 
 
 " Curiously enough I heard from her at Shwegyn, 
 and she appeared to have something urgent to say, 
 as she spoke of trouble. She wanted me to call on 
 my way back, but I declined the invitation." 
 
 " And you dare to tell me that you acted like 
 a brute, in a tone of rigid unconcern ?" said Zeta, 
 who was thoroughly roused by Tun Min's callous- 
 ness. 
 
 " The subject of Minkale no longer affects my 
 temperature." 
 
 " You wouldn't talk like that if you knew, all that 
 poor girl had gone through, and had in prospect before 
 her. Don't smile. No one admits more freely than 
 I do that she treated you badly. But who was it that 
 led her into temptation ? Whose brain was it that 
 wrote the part she was to play ? But never mind 
 that. I want you to feel now that your sympathy 
 would not be wasted upon her." 
 
 " Has anything very dreadful happened ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 221 
 
 " I should have told you long ago, but for the fact 
 that you forbid me to mention her name." 
 
 " Consider the injunction dissolved," said Tun Min, 
 remembering a bit of legal phraseology that he had 
 recently encountered in his studies. 
 
 " I suppose you know that her baby died ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Ko Walworth regarded its birth as a misfortune. 
 That's a man all over. Do you remember the beautiful 
 Ma Mee, the wife of Colonel Timpat. Of course you 
 do. He was Commissioner of Pegu some eight years 
 ago?" 
 
 " Yes, but not very well." 
 
 " He roundly blamed her whenever she had a 
 baby " 
 
 " Do you mean for not having two or more at a 
 time ?" 
 
 " For being the sole author of her trouble. Ma Mee 
 was a wonderful girl, but there was a limit to her 
 capacity for performing miracles. That, however, 
 Minkale could have borne with, for she is fond of 
 white babies, and blame or no blame, she was prepared 
 to have a quiver full, as the Christian says." 
 
 " What else has she had to put up with ?" 
 
 " Don't mention it. But I'm sure and my husband 
 is also coming to my opinion that Walworth is 
 crazy." 
 
 " I did hear on my way that he had thrown the 
 mingyi, Treble Bloo, out of a top window, and broken 
 most bones hi his body. But, Ma Zeta, there is no saner 
 man in the tropics than Ko Walworth." 
 
 " What makes you say that ?"
 
 222 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 "Did any scholar leave the Oxford Durbar so 
 heavy laden with medals ? Did Cruncher ever before 
 say a single good word for any man, black or white, 
 till he had studied Wai worth for six solid months, and 
 knew him inside and out, and yet pronounced him 
 to be the only intellect in the province. And what 
 did Spicer say of him ?" 
 
 " What ?" 
 
 " That he could set the Irawaddy on fire." 
 
 " I can assure, Ko Tun Min, that those are one and 
 all symptoms of insanity. Listen and don't shake 
 your head as though you were a marionette. From 
 what you say he must be quite different from all other 
 men, and that in itself excites suspicion." 
 
 " What else have you to go upon ?" 
 
 " Did you ever hear anything more crazy than that 
 he had done Minkale an unforgivable wrong ? And 
 as for the blow to the prestige of his service, you'd 
 think, from the exaggerated way he talks, as if he 
 had exploded a ton of dynamite under it, and blown 
 the Burma Commission to smithereens." 
 
 " He's not mad. He's playing some deep game." 
 
 " Well, if he is, there is a comic element in it, too, 
 for he professes to be deeply grieved at the wrong he 
 did Ko Tun Min." 
 
 Both Zeta and Ko Tun Min laughed long and merrily 
 at such an obviously silly lie as they both thought it 
 to be. 
 
 " He isn't offering to restore Minkal6 to me, is he ?" 
 asked Tun Min, still visibly amused. 
 
 " You needn't turn up your nose, then, at Minkale, 
 even if she would be second-hand. She isn't thread-
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 223 
 
 bare and out at elbows. But one doesn't know what 
 to think of Ko Wai worth. You say he pitched the 
 mingyi out of a window, which means, if it's true, 
 that he's been and buried his future alive in a deep 
 and unmarked grave. If he can do that to himself, 
 you may be sure he'll stick at nothing if it's the 
 riddance of Minkale that's bothering him." 
 
 " Ask her to come and stay with you." 
 
 " Indeed, then ! He might never take her back 
 again. You men take a lot of managing, and mistakes 
 are not always remedied as soon as you think." 
 
 " Is there anything I can do ?" 
 
 " Ma Le ! If you but could ! But " 
 
 " But what ?" 
 
 " It isn't in your destiny." 
 
 " Destiny's been known to repent according to the 
 Sayadaw, but what does Ma Zeta know about my 
 future ?" 
 
 " Do you think that Minkale and I haven't had 
 Bindasery in to tell our fortunes, and that he has told 
 us all about your hand, and " 
 
 " And about Wai worth's too ?" 
 ' Yes. And Minkale grew pale when he said that 
 a woman was to be the ruin of both of you, and that 
 your hands were very similarly marked." 
 
 " Bindasery is a liar." 
 
 " But he's seen your hands ?" 
 
 " Yes, and Wai worth's too ?" 
 
 " Then why abuse the poor man ? He's told the 
 literal truth." 
 
 " Am I ruined ?" 
 
 " I hope not. But it's how things are shaping.
 
 224 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 I don't mean officially, but in your growth of heart 
 and mind. Surely you feel it yourself that in 
 the garden of love you're a blasted and withered 
 tree." 
 
 " If that's all that Bindasery meant, then it was a 
 very safe prophecy." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " Show me a man who hadn't found woman a dis- 
 appointment." 
 
 " How about Cruncher ?" 
 
 " I thought," said Tun Min nervously, knowing 
 he was skating on the thinnest ice, " that his domestic 
 experiments were made in the hope of finding one 
 that wasn't a disappointment." 
 
 " You mean to be funny. Cruncher is the most 
 woman-struck man in the world. He lives for them, 
 and do you think one wee little goddess like myself 
 would suffice as a shrine for his adoration ?" 
 
 " It may be the same with Walworth. But don't 
 you think that there's a lot of exaggeration in the 
 reports women spread of their husbands ? I've had 
 my eyes fixed for some time on English life as the 
 pictures are painted by Mrs. Henry Wood and other 
 lady novelists, and on the whole the men come better 
 out than the women." 
 
 " You'll believe anything but the truth. I'm very 
 fond of man, but it's because of his depravity. Do 
 you seriously think that women want saints for 
 husbands ? With all her cleverness, woman, Ko Tun 
 Min, could never be wicked without the assistance of 
 man." 
 
 " Then you think there's nothing to choose ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 225 
 
 " Let everybody choose for himself. All I know is 
 that no decent woman would like to be a man." 
 
 It was hard work pulling up against the stream on 
 the way to Thayetmyo, but it was the prettiest part 
 of the whole river from Mandalay to the sea, and both 
 Tun Min and Zeta often had their conversation inter- 
 rupted for many moments, as going round a bend some 
 new picture delighted their eyes with its freshness 
 and wealth of colouring. 
 
 " Destiny has chosen for us all, and it is waste of 
 time to be discussing which is the better off. Let's 
 get back to Minkale and Walworth. Supposing it's 
 true that he's maimed the mingyi for life, will they 
 put him in gaol ?" 
 
 Zeta laughed a merry laugh. 
 
 " You are an oaf !" she said contemptuously, " to 
 think that the mingyi's character isn't known well 
 enough to keep Walworth out of gaol. But, of course, 
 he'll be dismissed. Their list of unforgivable sins 
 is much smaller than ours " 
 
 " Naturally. They compiled the lists." 
 
 " Whoever compiled them, killing Commissioners 
 wasn't bracketed with slaying pie dogs. I'm simply 
 shaking all over thinking whatever poor Minkale will 
 do." 
 
 " She won't starve in body," said Tun Min, looking 
 as a man always does, first and foremost at the 
 financial side of misfortune. 
 
 " A woman's stomach is of much less concern to her 
 than her heart. Poor thing, she will be heart- 
 broken." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 15
 
 226 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " When he's either shipped home, or tied up in a 
 lunatic asylum. I never open her letters till I've 
 caught sight of the Pagoda and have recited my 
 
 prayers, lest " 
 
 " Lest what ?" 
 
 " Lest I should hear something terrible that would 
 shake me to my foundations. I'm sure I should leave 
 Cruncher for a bit and go to her." 
 
 " It's strange, but my father, Ko Moung, the Bishop, 
 and several friends of mine who write, never have 
 hinted that anything was amiss with Minkale. Ko 
 Moung, in particular, would like to tickle my vanity 
 by letting me know that she now preferred me to 
 Walworth." 
 
 " They thought you were human, and didn't want 
 to harrow your feelings: this is much more likely. 
 But I wish you hadn't told me of that letter, and of 
 Treble Bloo's fall out of a lofty window." 
 
 " You mean his involuntary and unorthodox exit." 
 " Don't be funny. There must have been something 
 more serious at the back of it than just Walworth's 
 muscles." 
 
 At Thayetmyo the steamer tied up for a few minutes, 
 while the passengers got off, and the cargo, consisting 
 chiefly of cases of kerosine or of cotton goods, was 
 hastily put ashore. 
 
 " Would you like to go ashore ?" asked Tun Min, 
 knowing perfectly well they were safer from criticism 
 where they were. 
 
 " No," said Zeta, watching the process of unmooring, 
 as the boat hauled out on its anchor, which it weighed 
 while the skipper shouted his last farewells to the
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 227 
 
 local agent, promising to be in better time next day 
 if the current was not so strong. 
 
 " I'm still thinking of Minkale," said Zeta, resuming 
 her seat by the rail. 
 
 " Away in the back of your mind you think she 
 might have been flirting with the mingyi Treble 
 Bloo ?" 
 
 " That alone would be nothing." 
 
 " Unless she was found out you mean ?" 
 
 " Exactly. You see, Cruncher and Walworth don't 
 take the same views of the same innocent pastime. 
 Cruncher and I understand the sexes thoroughly, and 
 a step or two more or less in the giddy dance of 
 life -" 
 
 " Really helps to steady you ?" 
 
 " Yes, if you like it so," said Zeta seriously. " But 
 Walworth has other views." 
 
 " Original ?" 
 
 " No; essentially masculine. He thinks that while 
 he is privileged to flirt with all women, his wife may 
 flirt with nobody." 
 
 " But why should it be necessary to flirt ?" 
 
 " Ma Le. Do you think I like my life as stale as 
 yesterday's bread ? Or as flat as bazaar soda ?" 
 
 " But Cruncher sparkles ?" 
 
 " Yes, but never with his wife." 
 
 " Is it bad form ?" 
 
 " No, it is impossible." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Husband and wife," said Zeta, with perhaps just 
 the trace of a blush, " live very near each other 
 nearer, perhaps, than flirtation comes to but what's
 
 228 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 so nice in flirting is the nearness suggested as re- 
 alizable." 
 
 Zeta had no intention of being wicked, but had 
 merely meant to send up a ballon d'essai to see how 
 the currents ran in the atmosphere of Tun Min's soul, 
 and was intensely amused to find that he had taken 
 her seriously. 
 
 " Silly boy," she said, while she shook with laughter, 
 " broad phylacteries, as the nuns used to say, don't 
 become young people nowadays." 
 
 " Really, Zeta, you alarm me sometimes. I think 
 you said that Captain Cruncher regarded you as a 
 wild bird." 
 
 " That explains why I'm here; but not as a depraved 
 bird." 
 
 " I'm not easily shocked, but there's Prome in view, 
 and I'm not sorry, but will you be met ?" 
 
 Zeta was furious with Tun Min for having taken her 
 literally, and she scourged him with her tongue, while 
 his tears flowed, as only a Burmese girl can. But 
 Prome was farther away than Tun Min had guessed, 
 and there was time enough for the entente lo be 
 restored before they parted. Moreover, Zeta just 
 as she stepped off the boat on to the narrow plank 
 connecting up with the shore, made Tun Min promise 
 that if Minkale expressed a wish to see him, he would 
 wait on her without delay. It was Cruncher that met 
 her, and seeing Tun Min, guessed that they had taken 
 the voyage with the intention of discussing Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bubbles in private, and was not displeased. 
 
 " Is he still thirsting for the dew on Minkale's lips ?'* 
 he asked when he had got her home.
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 229 
 
 " Minkale," said Zeta with warmth, " is well rid 
 of a soulless crocodile like Ko Tun Min." 
 
 " What's he done ?" 
 
 " Nothing. He's just a Nat in ice packing if he 
 isn't a crocodile. I thought I should have moved him 
 to tears with a moving picture I drew of Minkal6's 
 sad life, but nothing ever stirs him now." 
 
 " Is there anything new ?" 
 
 " Only that Walworth has flung Treble Bloo out 
 of his house like a bad nib, and as you often say, 
 there'll be the devil to pay." 
 
 " There'll be nothing so damned silly ! Walworth 
 has earned the gratitude of the entire Commission, 
 and I'll bet you they drink his health to-night at the 
 Pegu Club in ' bubbly.' So shall we." 
 
 Chinasammy put the wine on ice while Zeta had 
 a cold bath to reduce a temperature which was still 
 high after her explosion on board. Tun Min, on the 
 other hand, while he washed and dressed for his humble 
 dinner, congratulated himself on his escape, and decided 
 there was more truth in biblical history than he had 
 suspected.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE light had gone out of Minkale's life, but she 
 believed it would return if she could but disabuse 
 Walworth's mind of one or two illusions that it 
 cherished. She had lost her first baby, a dear little 
 thing with blue eyes and golden hair and had for 
 a time been laid low by the cruel blow; but, what she 
 felt much more acutely was Walworth's frequent 
 withdrawal from the outside world to the impenetrable 
 vaults of his own soul, where he communed with 
 himself, and if he occasionally gave her a glimpse of 
 the current of his thoughts, it depressed her still 
 further, for it told her that it was their " marriage " 
 over which he was brooding. There were times, 
 alas ! only too few, when he was warmly affection- 
 ate, and inspired the hope that he had corrected 
 the false deductions he drew from his union with 
 a Burmese girl, but almost as soon the hope was 
 dashed to the ground by his declaration that he 
 deserved dismissal for having lowered the prestige 
 of his service, for having desecrated the body of 
 his mistress, and for having robbed a subordinate 
 of his betrothed. On those occasions he permitted 
 discussion, but was unconvinced by Minkal6's dia- 
 lectic. 
 
 230
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 23! 
 
 " You don't charge a man with theft," she once 
 argued, " unless the owner of the stolen goods lays 
 an information ?" 
 
 " That is so," said Wai worth, without suspecting 
 that Minkale had begun to bombard a position which 
 had assailable corners in its fortifications. " Has 
 anybody laid an information against you ? I am 
 the owner of the stolen goods as you call them, and 
 am delighted at the theft; indeed, if you look into 
 definitions in that unbound volume, I aided and 
 abetted the theft. You're a child, and don't under- 
 stand." 
 
 " On the contrary, I'm a woman, and my brain 
 was never clearer. I think I can remember a time 
 when my prattle was not unpleasing to my critical 
 hubby." 
 
 " If you're satisfied, Minkale, it's because your 
 inward eyes have been dazzled by the greatness of my 
 position. You think you've married a rajah, and 
 you picture yourself as a ranee wearing a jewelled 
 crown. For that deceit I alone am responsible. And 
 I cannot think that my conduct has been honour- 
 able." 
 
 " I'm very well satisfied," said Minkale, putting 
 her arm round his neck and giving him a kiss, " and 
 of my satisfaction I am the best judge. We all like 
 a little gilt on our ginger-bread. There are harmless 
 illusions which we all cherish, and life would be an 
 unholy tragedy if we thought and felt with Euclid's 
 exactness and coldness. I do think myself a queen, 
 and very often feel myself one; but I should be much 
 more royal if I could transfer some of the pictures
 
 232 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 from my mind to yours. You are a king after a 
 fashion, aren't you ?" 
 
 " A miserable impostor, with his day of retribution 
 when found out." 
 
 " What madness !" 
 
 " You're obsessed." 
 
 " No, it's you that are." 
 
 "Well, Minkale, it isn't a nice subject to discuss; 
 in fact, it's pretty brutal for a man at any time to tell 
 his wife that their marriage was a mistake. But you 
 know that I'm not thinking of myself; my first thought 
 is my wife. You, dear girl that you are, have done 
 your best to mitigate my regrets by trying to make 
 me think that our marriage was made in heaven. 
 But how about the second and third grounds for 
 dissatisfaction ?" 
 
 " What is the second ? Let's have them one at a 
 time." 
 
 " The service." 
 
 It is a platitude that the history of the civilized 
 world for the last century and a half has no brighter 
 pages than the annals of the Indian Civil and Military 
 services. There are written in indelible characters 
 the moral and spiritual greatness of England, quite 
 as much as the genius of her sons for administra- 
 tion, whether as in Haileyburian days they came 
 of aristocratic birth, or as in later years, were re- 
 cruited from the professional classes; and when 
 Walworth looked into the inner history of empire, 
 with its lofty ideals, he began to feel that a sad 
 retrogression had set in from the standards of the 
 Napiers, the Lawrences, and the Havelocks, who really
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 233 
 
 stood as representative of what was best in English 
 character. 
 
 " What about the service ?" 
 
 " Just this, Minkale, that if this sort of thing is 
 allowed to go on any longer, it means the extinction 
 of the Empire." 
 
 " We are certainly in fashion." 
 " But is it a good fashion ? What impression does 
 it make on the Burmese mind ? What about the 
 children who owe their existence to the fashion ? 
 
 You and I personally are as pleased as Punch " 
 
 " That is all we need mind." 
 
 " Ah, no !" said Walworth, speaking with great 
 earnestness. " In our private lives, if we have no 
 children, we are entitled to please ourselves, but not 
 in our official. Mind, when we go there's a legacy 
 we leave to our successors, and the size and purity 
 of that bequest are absolutely the net result of our 
 official lives." 
 
 " I never regarded you," said Minkale in jest, though 
 it wasn't a time for levity, " as an orthodox Buddhist. 
 Fancy that !" 
 
 " Gautama was not an Imperial ruler, was he ?" 
 " He was a jungle parrot, who thought much more 
 than he said." 
 
 " Well, he left a very complete Imperial religion 
 that is, in its suggestion that men and women in 
 responsible places have individualities to impress on 
 the eternal screens of the future, and should be guided 
 by the necessities of posterity rather than by their 
 own instinct for enjoyment." 
 " Is it a necessity of posterity," asked Minkale, with
 
 234 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 some acerbity, " that you and I should make our- 
 selves miserable ? By the way, your religion has 
 produced many remarkable men, hasn't it ?" 
 
 " You mean the Christian religion. Oh yes, saints 
 galore !" 
 
 " But it preaches a doctrine that appeals to my 
 Buddhist mind." 
 
 " Which one ?" 
 
 " That ' sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' 
 Mind you, your Empire was made by men to whom that 
 principle appealed as an axiom." 
 
 " Nothing of the kind, Minkale. They had more 
 sense. Do you think they didn't order their next 
 day's dinner ? They not only did that, but they 
 insured their lives and wanted no teaching that a 
 pension with, or without, off-reckonings was a thing 
 of beauty and a joy while they lived. The maxims 
 of Christianity were never intended to be Catholic. 
 The Bible speaks to many nations, and has to humour 
 not only national sentiment, but very often the fads 
 of fanatics; and it doesn't do to pick out a saying 
 here and there, and say it is the rock on which our 
 Imperial greatness is founded." 
 
 " In other words," said Minkale quickly, " religion 
 and religious sentiment have nothing whatever to do 
 with a nation's greatness." 
 
 " On the contrary, it is very often the direct cause 
 of national decay. Look at Spain, Portugal, and, 
 rather nearer home, our own Ireland." 
 
 " Then what on earth are we talking and differing 
 about ?" 
 
 " About the lofty ideals of Empire builders."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 235 
 
 " And how do we sin against them ?" 
 
 " As a conquering race," said Wai worth, speaking 
 with more sincerity than discretion, "we do not keep 
 our self-respect, neither do you yours, if we mingle 
 the races." 
 
 Minkale, like all Burmans, had a great pride of race, 
 and, stung by Walworth's taunt, her first impulse was 
 to get up and leave him for good; but she was really 
 in love with him, and a woman's love will stand the 
 strain of contemptuous reference to her state of sub- 
 jection. 
 
 " If a man had said that to you, you'd have called 
 him a damned snob, and have held him out of the 
 window till he apologized." 
 
 Walworth jumped. It was the hottest breath that 
 Minkale had as yet blown on his pink and white cheeks, 
 and he was scorched. 
 
 " We're all snobs if you look us through and through," 
 said Walworth, composing himself again. 
 
 " Now we've got it," said Minkale, looking really 
 pleased, " that the sin we've committed is against 
 the snobbery of national sentiments. Is that not 
 so?" 
 
 " Strictly speaking that is so, but I'm not altogether 
 sure that snobbery is quite the right word." 
 
 ' You can't suggest a better, dearest, and though 
 you know the hollowness of its pretensions, you 
 are prepared to wreck your life and mine for 
 them." 
 
 Minkale wept, and Walworth took her in his arms 
 and kissed her. 
 
 " Now that we've begun," said Minkale, letting her
 
 236 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 husband dry her tears, " let us finish the argument. 
 " It's no use niggling at it." 
 
 " Well !" 
 
 " What of the third ground ?" 
 
 " Ko Tun Min !" 
 
 " What, that little squirt of a myook or rather 
 wundauk as he is now ! You don't think he cares 
 very much, do you ? Rot ! He only used us as a 
 lever for raising himself to what at his age is a giddy 
 height indeed. And you needn't have much sympathy 
 for him." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " To begin with, look at the artful, fraudulent game 
 to which he made me a party for his own ends, and 
 then, secondly " 
 
 " What ? Anything worse than that ?" 
 
 " I'm not sure that it's altogether correct even by 
 the advanced standards of you gay and thoughtless 
 English people, but Zeta and he are rather fond of 
 eating the air between Prome and Thayetmyo on 
 those large steamers, and you know there are quite a 
 number of cabins." 
 
 " That's scandal," said Wai worth reprovingly. 
 " That young monk is a bit of a Lothario, is he ? 
 Well, he'll get the j oiliest slippering he ever had if he 
 tries those larks on with Zeta." 
 
 " Captain Cruncher will never know. He's always 
 tight." 
 
 " Cruncher's got so many strings to his bow that 
 he'd never mind. In fact, he thinks it tune for a new 
 tonic, and his scouts are out in Maubin and at 
 Myanoung looking out for Theta and Fie. No ! I
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 237 
 
 was thinking of Zeta, whom I regard as a downright 
 good girl. Mind you, I know I've flirted with 
 her." 
 
 " You have, but you don't know." 
 
 " Anyhow, it was the monk of whom we were 
 talking, and I was assured that he left the kyoung 
 for you and you alone. His passion consumed 
 him." 
 
 " Really," said Minkale, disgusted, " we're a nation 
 of liars ! He will be enormously wealthy when his 
 father dies, and it occurred to my intriguing parents 
 that it would be a capital thing for their only daughter 
 if they could persuade Ko Moung's only son to abandon 
 his robes and many her. Day after day messages 
 were sent to him that I was languishing for his love, 
 and I am not unbeautiful, am I ? He saw, and was 
 conquered." 
 
 " There, you've given yourself away !" 
 
 " But it wasn't love as you and I know it, dear, 
 that drew him to me." 
 
 " Then what was it ?" 
 
 " It was love's cheat lust masquerading as love. 
 Tell me, which is a commoner foundation for mar- 
 riage ?" 
 
 " We misjudge a lot of people," he said, afraid of the 
 introspection suggested by the question. 
 
 " Don't tell me that ! Both you and I know the 
 human heart sufficiently to know that most women 
 marry for love and most men for the other thing. 
 Don't let Ko Tun Mm come between us." 
 
 " I've tried, and I wish I couldn't." 
 
 " You shall hear it from his own mouth. That boy
 
 238 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 has a lot of pluck, and if I write to him he'll come 
 and bravely acknowledge that he doesn't and never 
 did care two flips of the fingers for the contemptible 
 Minkale. Shall I write ?" 
 
 " Certainly. It would be a great relief to me to 
 know that your memory was not a scorching blister 
 on his soul." 
 
 Minkale lost not a single moment, and went to her 
 own little writing-table in the side veranda upstairs 
 to indite the letter which Tun Min received just at 
 the conclusion of the Babu's case; and while she was 
 away no less a personage arrived than Treble Bloo, 
 who always made it a point of approaching a house 
 noiselessly in order that he might study the private 
 habits of his hosts. A purda blown to and fro by 
 the wind showed him that Walworth was in his 
 study alone, and, looking up into the veranda, 
 he saw Minkale equally busy at another green baize 
 table. 
 
 " They have quarrelled," he inferred, and at 
 once deciding to comfort the lady, walked up the 
 stairs unannounced as though the house were his 
 own. 
 
 Minkale was startled at his greeting, and screamed 
 before she recognized who it was, which meant that 
 Walworth hastily left his files to see what had alarmed 
 his wife. When he found what the shock had been 
 occasioned by, he stood amazed, looking at Treble 
 Bloo, suggesting by his expression not only a question 
 as to the trespasser's right to a chair, but as to his 
 elementary right to exist. 
 
 " Don't mind me, Walworth," said the Commissioner
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 239 
 
 with a sang-froid quite unaffected. "I'm not in- 
 specting you this time. I've come for a friendly chat 
 with Minkale. You can resume your studies I mean 
 your cases. I forgot you'd passed." 
 
 " Look here, Mr. Treble Bloo," said Walworth, 
 shaking from head to foot with very natural anger, 
 " have you ever fallen twenty- two feet in a blue-and- 
 black puddle." 
 
 " He isn't tight, is he, Minkale ?" asked the Com- 
 missioner, the colour mounting to his cheeks as quickly 
 as it left Minkale's. 
 
 " You can answer that question," said Walworth, 
 " in two ways. One by running dov/n the stairs at 
 
 top speed and " 
 
 " I never ran in my life," said the Commissioner 
 defiantly. 
 
 " The only other way is on your nose in the puddle," 
 said Walworth, lifting the outraged and protesting 
 Commissioner by his collar and the seat of his overalls 
 and ejecting him right over the veranda rails. 
 
 Minkale, woman-like, fainted, but native servants 
 are born for any emergency, and when they had re- 
 covered from the momentary shock of seeing Im- 
 perialism spread in the dirt after a flight of two-and- 
 twenty perpendicular feet, they quickly attended to 
 the Commissioner's wants, while urgent messengers 
 were despatched for Blandish, the new Deputy Com- 
 missioner, and the Parsi doctor. But Walworth 
 devoted all his time to his hysterical wife, whose 
 condition was such as to suggest that though it was 
 Treble Bloo that had fallen it was she that was 
 hurt.
 
 240 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 The Commissioner's injuries were without doubt 
 serious, and when Blandish had left him at the circuit- 
 house in the doctor's charge he walked over to Wai- 
 worth's to ask how it had happened. 
 
 " I threw the swine out," said Walworth crisply. 
 
 " But, damn it !" said Blandish, looking astonished, 
 " you can throw about a good deal from paper-weights 
 to myooks, but you can't jolt a Commissioner's liver 
 like that." 
 
 " He asked for it." 
 
 " How ? You know I've got to report it." 
 
 " You can do it in a dozen lines. That lewd rascal 
 has simply haunted this house ever since Minkale 
 came in. Why, God alone knows. For you could see 
 she wasn't on for any fun but my own." 
 
 " He's had it in the neck before," said Blandish, 
 " and this will finish him if your muscles haven't. 
 Paniwalla, who's examined him, says he may recover, 
 but never from the shock." 
 
 " Shall I be broke ?" 
 
 " Good God, no ! See what a block there'd be in 
 promotion with a junior like Treble Bloo in a com- 
 missionship. But if you want to keep your hand in, 
 keep an eye on a few of those soldier Commissioners 
 those are the blighters who keep our pay from being 
 raised." 
 
 " India Office inexorable ?" 
 
 " Quite. Of course you'll be transferred to suffer 
 an orthodox punishment, but that's all bunkum. 
 They'll give you a better station, and morally you'll 
 feel patted on the back. Ta-ta !" 
 
 Blandish was right in the view that was taken and
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 241 
 
 also in the punishment that was prescribed for the 
 outraged Wundauk Min. 
 
 Walworth was posted to Prome publicly, but 
 he received a private suggestion that it was un- 
 desirable that his connection with Minkale should 
 continue. 
 
 16
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BINDASERY bathed by the well, and while he bathed 
 it was his daily habit to hold a levee. His reputation 
 as a fortune-teller stood high, but what stood higher 
 still was the respect in which he was held for his ripe 
 knowledge of legal procedure. He had once held office 
 as a process-server to the Pegu courts, and had himself 
 drunk deeply at the spring of litigation; but his erring 
 judgment had at an unfortunate moment when money 
 was tight raised the tariff of process-service to pro- 
 hibitive heights, and that was his undoing. Now he 
 was a humble orderly running errands, or gathering 
 the balls at tennis, or dozing outside his master's study ; 
 but he never abandoned the hope that some day 
 when his star once more shone in the ascendant he 
 would be allowed to resume the sash and wallet of a 
 summons peon. If only Walworth was transferred, 
 he felt his good luck would return, and now that his 
 enemy had gone he rejoiced, and it pleased him to 
 receive the congratulations of his friends. 
 
 " Now," said Bimli, the court sweeper, sitting at 
 quite a respectable distance, for when rinsing his mouth 
 Bindasery had been known to squirt a dozen feet, 
 " not only will your stomach but your pockets be 
 full." 
 
 242
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 243 
 
 " I'm mixing a little ghee with my dhall for break- 
 fast," said Bindasery, wringing out the cloth in which 
 he had bathed, " and now it will taste like the butter 
 of Dinapore." 
 
 " Everything," said Suddhu, the water - carrier, 
 " will taste and smell better now that the bhoot 
 shy tan has gone. Even the birds are singing, and 
 I declare that the plantain-tree by the stables will 
 bear." 
 
 " His breath was a blight," said Bimli, breaking up 
 a stick of tobacco preparatory to a chew. 
 
 " The Burmans," said Bindasery, " called him the 
 Kya Woon." 
 
 " If that's a term of abuse," said Suddhu, " I vow I 
 can beat it right off." 
 
 " It means a tiger judge," said Bindasery, " and is 
 sometimes a compliment." 
 
 Both Bimli and Suddhu smiled at the delicate 
 sarcasm. 
 
 " Well, anyhow," said Bimli, " he's done for himself 
 this time, hasn't he ? You can't throw Commissioners 
 about like brick-bats. You know, Bindasery, what 
 the white men's habits are." 
 
 " Don't I just, and there's no forgetting them when 
 I want to sit down. But, Bimli, I forgave the Wundauk 
 much for the ' putkun ' he gave the Commissioner. 
 I've seen snipe and quail fall to the gun, and once at 
 a rajah's wedding when they threw largesses from the 
 window I thought I had never seen a prettier sight. 
 But the falling of the Commissioner saheb was that of 
 a star." 
 
 " And what a puddle he fell into ! How he will
 
 244 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 smell !" said Suddhu, laughing till his puggaree 
 rolled off. 
 
 " But it won't do the Wundauk any harm," said 
 Bindasery with assurance. 
 
 " Why not ?" 
 
 " Why not ?" said Bindasery with indignation. 
 " The law of mine and thine is the same in the house 
 of a saheb as in the courts of the Queen. And Ma 
 Minkale was much too valuable a jewel to be burgled 
 without a protest from her owner." 
 
 " They are devils for women these sahebs !" said 
 Suddhu, taking his turn at the well while Bindasery 
 spread his cloth out to dry. 
 
 " God in heaven !" said Bindasery, who had but 
 few morals, and even those were unknown to his 
 friends. " Whatever were women made for ? It is 
 their destiny. And I know none better; but in a 
 country like this where they do not veil their faces 
 they get out of their depth." 
 
 " And drown ?" 
 
 " That wouldn't matter, but it's the good men they 
 drag down with them." 
 
 " How's that ?" 
 
 " You are still a young man," said Bindasery, " and 
 will see Ma Minkale again. When she's got her hand 
 in, it'll be into bangles that the Wundauk didn't buy. 
 And her ears and neck will be a study in diamonds 
 and pearls that her husband won't know the origin 
 of." 
 
 " But that is so everywhere," said Bimli, to whom 
 bribery was an elementary necessity. 
 
 " That," said Bindasery crisply, " I know to be a
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 245 
 
 lie. I have served under Commissioners, and Magis- 
 trates, and Police Superintendents in places where gram 
 was cheap and where it was dear, but never did they 
 take a handful which wasn't paid for. The saheb will 
 never take a bribe whether he is serving on this or on 
 the other side of the ' black water,' but here, where 
 the memsaheb is a Burmese girl, things are rather 
 different." 
 
 Bindasery was right. It would be unjust and a 
 wicked libel to suggest that in every case where these 
 unfortunate sexual alliances exist the door is open 
 to bribery and corruption, but it would be true to 
 predicate it of a great many, and if there were no 
 other objection to the mingling of the races there 
 would at any rate be the one that it brought the pure 
 name of British rule very often into undeserved and 
 evil repute. 
 
 " That I know to be true," said Suddhu, " for I, too, 
 have toured with several castes of saheb log, and they 
 never took a thing but paid for it. It wasn't the same 
 though, with their staff, and in a country like Burma 
 the Burmese girl is as much on the Wundauk's staff as 
 his cook and sweeper." 
 
 " Does she have the courage to take the tip direct," 
 asked Bimli, who knew perfectly well the aroma of 
 a tip. 
 
 " Mahadeo ! No," said Bindasery. " Not, at any 
 rate, till she's expert. Moung Ba Shin was just getting 
 ready to sit at home like a hen on eggs when the 
 Wundauk was transferred." 
 
 " That was the plan, was it ? He was to take the 
 tip and hand it on to Ma MinkaleY*
 
 246 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Cunning fellow," said Bindasery approvingly. 
 " That gave him his own chance as well. Minkal6's 
 simple mind would never have understood the doctrine 
 of discounts, but she would have been contented with 
 her share." 
 
 " At Prome she'll miss the co-operation of her 
 father." 
 
 " She can have that of the Bench Clerk instead; but 
 in that there is danger those thieves sometimes fall 
 out as father and daughter never can," said Bindasery, 
 not without professorial knowledge of the dark lane 
 of finance. 
 
 " I think she'll be rather nervous," said Suddhu, 
 " as she's dead out of favour with the Wundauk, and 
 if he catches her there'll be no hushing up." 
 
 " No young and characterless wench will ever be 
 out of favour with the Wundauk," said Bindasery. 
 " But what's wrong at the present moment with him 
 is his head and not his heart. You know those 
 Pathans in the military police ? It is the same with 
 them. They're not very fond of each other when 
 at home, but here it is murder or nothing with 
 them." 
 
 " I was talking to the saya," said Bimli, who knew 
 a lot about doctors, " and he said the Englishman's 
 head, which is fine enough here, was better and 
 stronger in his own country. Here the heat and the 
 mildew settle on his brain and boot equally, and that's 
 what's the matter with him. You fellows don't know 
 what I do." 
 
 " Then," said Bindasery, taking the hooka from 
 Suddhu, " it can't be worth a kana cowrie."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 247 
 
 ' There's little that misses Bindasery," said Bimli r 
 feeling annoyed, " who sits behind chicks, or with his 
 ear on the speaker's neck; but I, too, hear a little 
 sometimes, and it's hard to keep it in my own bosom 
 like a ten-rupee currency note." 
 
 "It's worth more than that, is it ?" 
 
 ' Just this that when Ma Minkale said good-bye 
 to her mother she said she would soon be back." 
 
 " Naturally," said Bindasery, looking disappointed. 
 " For she looks as if she felt the want of some rest." 
 
 " But her mother," continued Bimli, " said she 
 hoped that the Wundauk's love would return, and 
 that Minkale would like Prome better than Pegu." 
 
 One native always knows when another native is 
 telling the truth without cross-examination, as if by 
 instinct and both Bindasery and Suddhu believed 
 Bimli, but the former was puzzled to know what the 
 cause of the Wundauk's coolness was, as he had never 
 noticed it. 
 
 " I thought," said Bindasery, " that he treated her 
 as other sahebs do their memsahebs never wanting 
 them while they had work to do, and the Wundauk 
 was a glutton for work quite as much as for 
 curries." 
 
 " We beat our wives," said Suddhu, " but he was 
 never even cross with her. Still, when the baby 
 was born he took no interest in it. You and I would 
 have run into debt celebrating its birth." 
 
 " I remember," said Bindasery, looking very dis- 
 gusted, " that he celebrated its death instead. He 
 and the Deputy Commissioner saheb had drinks when 
 they got back from the cemetery, while the mother
 
 248 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 wept and had no one to comfort her but that old hag 
 Ma May." 
 
 " A mother's love is sweet, but that of a husband is 
 sweeter," said Suddhu. 
 
 " The fact of it is," said Bindasery, " that his 
 natural appetite is returning. It is a way with these 
 Englishmen that when they come out they try the 
 food of the country and really like it; but that's only 
 while the novelty lasts. In some cases it lasts much 
 shorter than in others. Now with Cruncher saheb it 
 will never alter, but the Wundauk must be better 
 bred. He has got ashamed sooner." 
 
 " They are never ashamed," said Bimli, " till the 
 Commissioner's memsaheb comes round, and then, 
 my God ! isn't there a scurry ? Out went Ma Minkale, 
 and the Wundauk passed her in the street without 
 removing his hat." 
 
 " He then dined in a black suit," said Bindasery, 
 " and when he called me names I was a ' stupid 
 idiot.' " 
 
 " Instead of what ?" 
 
 " I shall not defile my mouth." 
 
 " Well," said Suddhu, who had been lost in thought 
 with his eyes shut, " I wonder what their end will be. 
 As a rule it's the girl that fares worst." 
 
 " I have examined their hands, and, believe me, 
 Bimli, though yours are dirty with sweeping, you'd 
 never dream of exchanging them for either of theirs. 
 Or, for that matter, for the myook's. You remember 
 Moung Tun Min, the milk-and-water monk ?" 
 
 " Yes. What about their hands ?" 
 
 " They all die young, and all about the same time,
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 249 
 
 and there must have been the most malignant forces 
 at work to have brought the Wundauk thousands of 
 miles to be beaten by a woman on the same stone as 
 the myook and indeed together." 
 
 " Is Minkale the beater ?" 
 
 " Who else ?" 
 
 " Well, she polished the myook off, and what hap- 
 pened he was promoted. If she beats the Wundauk 
 equally hard she'll make a Commissioner of him before 
 his turn." 
 
 " Nothing can save them," said Bindasery, spitting 
 as he generally did when he was moved. " But I did 
 not think that the end was so near." 
 
 " What makes you think it now ?" 
 
 " The tigress is in the pen with the lambs they are 
 all in Prome." 
 
 " But they were all here, Bindasery," said Suddhu, 
 unconvinced, " and they've come to no harm." 
 
 " When the mango is ripe it will fall. When the 
 Wundauk's cup is full he will drink it and die." 
 
 " Betting," said Bimli, feeling in his pocket for a 
 four-anna bit, " is not legal, but sometimes it is lucky. 
 Let's have four annas on." 
 
 " Make it a rupee," said Bindasery, who never 
 passed a whole day without winning or losing a 
 wager. 
 
 " Right ! Prophesy, and I'll give you a month 
 before I rub your nose in the dirt for a liar." 
 
 " Give me my lota," said Bindasery, and Suddhu 
 handed him his brass pot which shone brighter than 
 burnished gold. Bindasery held it up to his face, 
 and for several moments seemed absorbed in the
 
 250 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 admiration of his own features, but he at length put 
 the lota down, and, clearing his throat, spoke in the 
 tone of a man who had visited the valley of the shadow 
 of death and was shaken in body and soul. 
 
 " You want to know what I saw ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " There was no blood not a speck." 
 
 " Ah !" 
 
 " Wait a bit. But, my God ! how ever many 
 funerals ? I counted four, and I stopped. Don't 
 hurry me. One was a Christian's, for Cruncher saheb 
 was reading the service ; the others were not so 
 clear, but there were hpoongyis in abundance, and 
 there was all the ghastly tumasha that accompanies 
 the cremation of a monk." 
 
 " Nothing clearer ?" 
 
 " I tell you they will all be dead in a month, and 
 forgotten in less than two." 
 
 " The bargain holds. We shall see."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 In those days Government House, in Rangoon, was a 
 teakwood shanty standing in a park that was more or 
 less of a jungle; but its kindly hospitalities were dis- 
 pensed by an officer of the type that the Empire is 
 famous for having produced, for he was a born ruler 
 of men, infecting others with his own strong sense of 
 duty, and in a long service had never been known 
 to have failed to uphold what is best in the traditions 
 of English public life. Sir Summer Lyte-Ning was an 
 Etonian of the pre- Mutiny days, when the Company's 
 college at Hail ey bury was still the preparatory school 
 of the Indian Civil Service, but in his subsequent 
 contact with the modern civilian there was never 
 exhibited the smallest symptom of " side," though he 
 doubtless shared the sympathies of his caste and their 
 foreboding that the democratization of the service 
 might be good for its members, but not for the Empire 
 at large. That his fears were to a large extent un- 
 realized no one confessed with greater frankness than 
 himself ; but it was in matters like Walworth's that he 
 saw dangers which, if unattended to, might culminate 
 in the total discrediting of British rule, and he decided 
 to bring his virtuous hand down hard on an immoral 
 custom that was condoned as mitigating life in the 
 
 251
 
 252 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 tropics. He sent for Walworth, but though he was 
 clear and persuasive, there was no tone of harshness 
 in the interview. 
 
 " I wanted to see you, Bubbles," said Sir Summer, 
 shaking hands, " on a delicate matter touching the 
 relations that exist between the younger generation 
 of Englishmen and the ladies of the country. You 
 don't mind, do you, if I speak my mind rather freely ?" 
 
 " Not a bit, sir. In fact ' 
 
 " That's all right. I'm sure your own strong 
 common sense will show you how unwise such rela- 
 tions are from every possible point of view. It 
 isn't good for the service, for the lady, for yourself, 
 and as for the children it's simply diabolical. Then 
 we're a Christian nation, and there's no part of the 
 Empire where our missionaries are so held up as here, 
 where whatever a white man unpacks when he opens 
 his portmanteau it isn't sexual morality. You had a 
 missionary at Pegu ?" 
 
 " I never met him, but he's there. I hear so." 
 
 " Don't laugh, but his society has spent a fortune 
 on the country, and it has made three converts. They 
 work out at thirty-three thousand pounds a piece ! 
 Pretty expensive when you feel that one or two of them 
 might lapse. But quite apart from the religious 
 aspect, it is a grave concern, and I have decided that 
 these rashly-made connections shall cease." 
 
 " You have my willing co-operation, sir, but the 
 difficulty is how to begin." 
 
 " You surely haven't a large family like Cruncher ?" 
 
 " Oh no. But the lady's views on the proposed 
 dissolution of partnership don't agree with my own."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 253 
 
 " I understand it's only a question of money." 
 
 ' ' Not with her. Her people are enormously wealthy. 
 In her case it was ambition, and at moments it looks 
 to me like the breach of an honourable contract to 
 turn her out ; in fact, worse than that, for I can never 
 put her in the position in which she was." 
 
 " But you agree as to the necessity ?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " The hard cases of individuals cannot prevail over 
 the general good that's one of the curses of all 
 government. You can assure Mrs. Bubbles that she 
 has my deepest sympathy, and it'll be a great privilege 
 if I'm allowed in any humble way to mitigate her 
 suffering, but for the good of the service she must 
 regard you hi future as nothing more than a friend." 
 
 " I see no way unless I leave the house, and that 
 would appear rather like desertion. How would 
 desertion, sir, in the circumstances appear to the im- 
 pressionable Burman ?" 
 
 " Believe me, he wouldn't care a damn. He hasn't 
 a single moral susceptibility, and even for an Eastern 
 latitudinarian is a prodigy. There's no country in the 
 world where you can be married at chota hazri and 
 divorced before breakfast but Burma, and your separa- 
 tion from Mrs. Bubbles would be merely regarded as 
 due to some sudden dislike. Possibly to the discovery 
 of some latent defect, and, my dear Bubbles, women 
 can be clever in concealing such a thing." 
 
 " It's a great comfort to me to know that I should 
 not be held hi contempt for what I myself at times 
 think rather a shady thing." 
 
 " That's your singularity. But even the best
 
 254 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Governments have occasionally to do things which 
 make them blush and you are part of a Government 
 that has never had a better." 
 
 " I have broached the subject to my girl, and am 
 educating her up to the notion that a readjustment is 
 to be desired." 
 
 " Just as I should have wished. It doesn't do to be 
 brusque, and if it will soothe her feelings it is always 
 in my power to satisfy the ambition of her male rela- 
 tives. Has she a brother ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Father ? Yes. Well, possibly a K.S.M. would 
 be a salve, and attending a durbar would raise the 
 family to just the height they wanted to reach." 
 
 " I can't vouch for that, but I can promise that 
 Minkale and I will be nothing more than friends." 
 
 " Capital. Now about your own future." 
 
 " I'm perfectly content, thank you." 
 
 " Wouldn't you like to go to India ? There are few 
 things so nice as the secretariat at Simla, unless it is 
 the charge of a district; but you grow out of the 
 latter. I got so fond of the Home Office that I 
 should have been there now if they hadn't turned me 
 out." 
 
 " I'm afraid just for the moment I have no ambition 
 outside my own little hut, unless it is to return with 
 a consciousness of failure to the refuge of failures." 
 
 " Where's that ?" 
 
 " Oxford." 
 
 " Well, of course," said Sir Summer, " I did intend 
 you to take my suggestion to heart seriously, but not 
 so as to make you feel that you'd been a failure. Far
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 255 
 
 from it. Believe me, we have the highest opinion of 
 your abilities." 
 
 Walworth left his Chief Commissioner after tiffin, 
 feeling that there was something wrong somewhere, 
 but exactly where he found it difficult to say. He 
 knew that if he had been suspected as an official at 
 home of keeping Mary Anne, he would not have been 
 hospitably received in the house of his chief and 
 offered promotion in Her Majesty's service. But 
 Mary Ann and Minkale were very different persons, 
 and the consequences that followed the seduction of 
 the former in no way resembled those that flowed 
 from the ruin of the latter. Yet Minkale was, in his 
 view, a much higher creation than Mary Ann. This 
 was not the first time that the problem had vexed his 
 soul, but he had certainly never before had it pre- 
 sented to his mind with such force ; and when he men- 
 tioned his possible return to Oxford as a tattered and 
 torn wreck of Imperialism, he was giving expression 
 to an idea that had certainly driven its roots deeper 
 even than he had suspected. He was, in fact, be- 
 ginning to be disgusted with everything and every- 
 body, including himself, and that is notoriously a time 
 when one's alma mater appears to offer the only 
 haven where the troubled are at rest. 
 
 He had arranged to call for Minkale at the house of 
 Monsieur le Blanc in Voyle Road, and it was there 
 that he drove. Monsieur had been a persona grata at 
 Theebaw's Court at a time when the British representa- 
 tive was not only out of favour, but the recipient of 
 many tokens of the King's ill-will, and it seemed 
 natural, therefore, for Minkale's parents to have culti-
 
 256 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 vated the Frenchman's society. Anyhow, the old 
 friendship had survived the metamorphosis of Man- 
 dalay into an Imperial city, and both Monsieur and 
 Madame gave Minkale a very cordial welcome. They 
 had somehow come to hear that Walworth and Min- 
 kale were not hitting it off, and were grieved, and 
 Monsieur in particular resolved that he would restore 
 the entente with the diplomatic skill for which he had 
 come to be known at an Oriental Court. 
 
 But Walworth regarded the barest reference to the 
 matter as an impertinence, and the assaults of dip- 
 lomacy were like the play of a popgun on the walls of 
 a fortress, and, indeed, of about equal effect. Min- 
 kale seemed loth to say good-bye, but on a hint from 
 Walworth she rose, and was kissed by Madame on 
 both cheeks as she said farewell. In any other mood 
 Walworth would never have given the incident a 
 second thought, but just then he was at concert-pitch, 
 and the lightest touch produced the fullest tones of a 
 soul that was over-strung. 
 
 " No English woman," he said to himself, " would 
 have demeaned herself by kissing a black woman. 
 And yet why demeaned ?" 
 
 Minkale was busy with her own thoughts on the 
 drive to the hotel, so that nothing interrupted the 
 current of Walworth's speculations on racial likes and 
 dislikes. 
 
 " Minkale was right when she boiled things down 
 to the snobbery of English sentiment," he reflected, 
 " and is it a right feeling to give into when it's a 
 question of our happiness or misery ?" 
 
 He cast his mental eye back over the short years
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 257 
 
 of his own experience in the country, and he saw the 
 servile mark of respect known as the " shiko " insisted 
 on by the official and unofficial European alike; he 
 saw myooks who were magistrates sitting on a mat 
 at his door; he remembered the ex-Ministers of Thee- 
 baw lounging in the Deputy Commissioner's veranda 
 at Mandalay while the latter was developing his nega- 
 tives ; and he had himself put to sundry club uses the 
 royal palace, of which scarce a single room or hall was 
 roped off from the vandal of Imperial invasion. Then 
 he asked himself: "Were there not Princesses and 
 Princes who were pensioners on pittances, and had 
 once a month to prove their existence to the district 
 officials by whom the pensions were disbursed ?" 
 
 "It's perfectly damnable!" he said aloud; and, 
 putting his arm round Minkale, kissed her in the 
 gharry, while a landaulette of English ladies drove 
 past him in a whirl of gay laughter. 
 
 Minkale was delighted, but she was afraid that it 
 was only another of Walworth's many and inconsistent 
 moods, but she reciprocated with a prayer that this 
 mood, at any rate, might last. 
 
 " Was the Chief civil ?" she asked, fearing that the 
 reply might be anything but what she would like to 
 know. 
 
 " He asked after you." 
 
 "MaLe! Whatever for ?" 
 
 "As to whether you had any brother that he could 
 be of service to. He has a kind heart, and, looking 
 about for worthy decores, put Moung Ba Shin down 
 for a K.S.M. without any suggestion from me." 
 
 Minkale's intuitive mind jumped at once to the 
 
 17
 
 258 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 truth that it was intended to let her down gently, 
 and the cloud that was beginning to lift from her 
 mind resettled. 
 
 There was time, and as Minkale specially wished it, 
 they drove to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, then con- 
 cealing its noble proportions within some bamboo 
 scaffolding while the ravages of air and water were 
 being repaired with golden hands. Walworth him- 
 self was not deeply interested in religion, but he 
 helped Minkale as they mounted the worn and dirty 
 steps to buy a bundle of tapers, which he let her light 
 at her favourite shrine while he strolled round the 
 edifice and examined the various representations of 
 Gautama, always cold and contemplative. Men and 
 women knelt and their lips moved, but what was it 
 they said ? 
 
 " They are a damned rum people," he said to 
 himself. " There isn't even the little finger of a god 
 in their worship, and yet they pray !" 
 
 What they did, in fact, engage in was not so much 
 prayer as the recital of precepts in which the cardinal 
 virtues are for ever embalmed, and the contemplation 
 of which is believed to be of great moral efficacy. 
 That was all that held Minkale as Walworth, passing 
 a blind man playing on his harmonicon, approached a 
 favourite but at that time neglected spot favourite 
 with Englishmen alone, for it was there that many 
 of the heroes of 1852 were buried, but not forgotten. 
 He stood rooted to the spot, and his active mind 
 wondered whether it was right to make a Christian 
 sepulchre of a Buddhist Holy of Holies, but the only 
 answer he could think of was that " it was of a piece
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 259 
 
 with our damned snobbery." Walworth's indignation 
 at the burial of his countrymen on the Pagoda plat- 
 form is very commonly shared by globe-trotters, but 
 there is no foundation for it in the Buddhist heart and 
 mind. 
 
 Minkale's devotions ended, she made the usual pur- 
 chases of curios, not for herself, but on the off-chance 
 that Walworth might like to send his mother specimens 
 of Burmese lacquer, and his little sisters the quaint 
 dolls that are a tangle of strings and legs or it may 
 be arms. 
 
 The road home was by the royal waters of Dal- 
 housie Park, famous for its profusion of flowers, for 
 its well-cut and ever-green lawns, and, above all, for 
 its views of the Shwe Dagon, as seen by day or by 
 night, and Minkale was touched by the quiet beauty 
 of the scene. 
 
 " Did I feel within," she thought, " what Nature is 
 without, then would I gladly build a thousand Shwe 
 Dagons !" 
 
 Walworth's mind was far, far away. He was at the 
 House, and in his memories of college found the 
 lavender that can still sprinkle the wanderer's life, 
 though he be discouraged and downcast by a sense of 
 isolation in distant lands.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WALWORTH'S house at Prome was an unsightly barn, 
 situate in a hollow below the road facing the river, 
 but Zeta, with her characteristic energy, had taken 
 it in hand, and by the time the Wundauk Min arrived 
 it was decently comfortable, if not exactly in appear- 
 ance a gentleman's residence. Both Cruncher and 
 Zeta were shocked at Minkale's appearance. They 
 had known her as a beautiful girl, full of girlish glee, 
 and looking on life as made for enjoyment alone; but 
 the Minkale they now beheld was a silent and sorrowful 
 woman, who had morally and spiritually grown old 
 and grey in a single night, and whose expression was 
 that of despair. Walworth, too, had lost the buoyancy 
 of youth, and spoke the serious language of Commis- 
 sioners who are accustomed to speak and not be 
 spoken to. 
 
 " You look after Minkale," said Cruncher, addressing 
 Zeta, while he himself drove Walworth off to his study, 
 where their privacy was not likely to be invaded, and 
 where it was his intention to get to the bottom at 
 once of the causes of a difference between Walworth 
 and his wife which in his view threatened to be the 
 ruin of both. 
 
 " I'm afraid," said Cruncher, making a modest 
 
 260
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 261 
 
 beginning, " that the climate's begun to get at you. 
 It was the same with me, and I felt mildewed in body 
 and soul ; but the conclusion I came to was that if left 
 to itself climate alone would never kill. It was its 
 damned accomplices." 
 
 " Who ?" 
 
 " Worry and bother." 
 
 " That's all very well, but when a fellow is in a 
 moribund ward it isn't much good telling him he's 
 sure to recover if he can feel himself cured." 
 
 " Imagination can be both a gift and a curse." 
 
 " Where there's room for it to move about. But 
 with me it's the parallelogram of forces, and no amount 
 of imagination will displace the resultant." 
 
 " I used to dabble in maths," said Cruncher, 
 passing the tin box, which was a patent for keeping 
 cigars dry, " and the subject of forces appeals to a 
 soldier. Perhaps we can dodge them. I've done it 
 many a tune, when the resultant was a judgment 
 summons." 
 
 " Well, of course, Minkale is one." 
 
 " If that's all, you can put your head on your 
 pillow or on her pillow, for the matter of that with 
 an easy mind." 
 
 " I'm afraid I've got to give up that pillow." 
 
 " You're not such a damned fool !" 
 
 " I've pretty well told the Chief I will when it's 
 expedient, or rather when Minkale's got accustomed 
 to an unpleasant notion." 
 
 " It was no business of the Chief's, and a damned 
 impertinence !" said Cruncher angrily. 
 
 " I don't know, Cruncher, whether I'm not just at
 
 262 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 present a pathetic study in psychology. I've been 
 trying to get to the bottom of the reasons for objecting 
 to the custom of the country." 
 
 " There are only the missionary's, and nobody cares 
 a tinker's benediction nowadays for his mildewed 
 principles." 
 
 " The fact that we're a Christian nation doesn't 
 bother me a bit. What I want to know is why it's 
 lowering the service for me to keep Minkale. I 
 thought so when I had an idea that the Burman 
 thought less of me for it. But according to the Chief, 
 the Burman has no morals at all. He's not shocked 
 at the relationship or at the shadiness of its sudden 
 termination. To him it's quite as unimportant as if 
 I wear flannel next my skin or not. But still it matters 
 a great deal to our Imperial prestige." 
 
 " Bunkum !" 
 
 " I've no patience with sophistry, but I've thought 
 till my head ached over this problem, and come to a 
 very comfortless provisional solution. Mind you, I 
 could have understood it if it had been suggested that 
 any lowering of moral standards was bad for me 
 that, in fact, I might go from bad to worse but it's 
 no question of morals at all." 
 
 " I expect he said it was damnation to Minkal6 ?" 
 
 " She's the best judge of that, and my qualms on 
 that score have been removed. No ; all the grounds 
 are political." 
 
 " That's where the children come in." 
 
 " Yes; but that isn't all. The key to our Imperial 
 greatness seems to lie in the fact that we keep a con- 
 quered race at arm's length."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 263 
 
 " Good God ! yes. You wouldn't think of drinking 
 a peg with a Burman." 
 
 " Why not ?" 
 
 " In the first place, he'd get tight, and be damnably 
 familiar and offensive. You'd kill him without com- 
 punction." 
 
 " Still, we can be friendly." 
 
 " Not with a mountain, but with a wide river 
 between us, for the rascal wants a lot of watching. 
 But the Burman's subjection isn't a bit mitigated by 
 his sister's appearance on my staff." 
 
 " No; it brutally emphasizes our racial contempt for 
 him." 
 
 " How ?" 
 
 " We tell him that his girls are good enough for our 
 beds, but that he himself is a pariah who'd defile 
 either our drawing-room sofas or our dining-room 
 chairs." 
 
 " Walworth ! Damn it, you don't want bugs and 
 fleas in your house, and a black man belching garlic 
 and onion in your face ! Your notions of Empire are 
 upside down." 
 
 " I cannot and will not believe that our Imperial 
 greatness lies in cutting the Burman by day, while 
 it's permissible to consort with his daughter by night; 
 and if that's pure and undefiled Imperialism east of 
 Suez, then Walworth Bubbles goes." 
 
 " My God ! Goes where ?" 
 
 " Back to a humbler life, but there's no humbug in 
 it to Oxford." 
 
 " And resign ?" 
 
 " I've got my papers in my pocket. I brought
 
 264 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 them with me, but thought I'd give you a chance of 
 correcting my views, but you've only combated them 
 with the sentiments of the old school of caste and 
 colour. Will you forward this to the Commissioner ? 
 It's my resignation." 
 
 Cruncher tore the paper up without reading it, and 
 flung it into his waste-paper basket. 
 
 " As I didn't read it, Walworth, I can't say what 
 was in the document; but what I can promise is that 
 you'll have all the opportunity you want to consider 
 a very grave step before you take it. Now, how do 
 you think your resignation will affect Minkale ?" 
 
 " If I stay out I shall be pointed out as a degenerate 
 civilian gone fanti; if I take her home, they'd get 
 wind that she'd been my mistress; if I stay in the 
 service, she goes out. The position is hopeless." 
 
 " All because of that meddlesome ass, Lyte-Ning !" 
 
 " One must keep step with one's chief your military 
 nature tells you that." 
 
 " While you've been talking, Walworth, I've been 
 thinking, and it seems to me that it's sentiment in 
 either case, and that you've no right to say that I'm 
 wrong." 
 
 " That depends on the criterion, and if we don't 
 agree as to that, then our differences are irreconcil- 
 able." 
 
 Cruncher had to assent to that. 
 
 " We were brought up in different schools," said 
 Cruncher, losing hope that there was any prospect of 
 agreement. 
 
 " Mine was, and is, the democratic school of Ripon 
 and Ilbert."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 265 
 
 " How sad !" 
 
 " And they got their marching orders right enough. 
 They struck a blow for equality, and got it back with 
 interest. So far, Cruncher, they have both survived 
 the combat, but which do you think will live the 
 longer ?" 
 
 " Do you mean the Empire or the Ripon school ? 
 Good God ! the damned school was spat on by every 
 white man in India, and hustled out of practical politics, 
 and here you are holding the fusty threadbare old 
 thing up to the light again !" 
 
 " It'll come up again, and come up top. However, 
 that is only a side-issue. The point is whether, with 
 my opinions, I should go or stay ?" 
 
 Farther down the same road, and in another house 
 sat Minkale and Zeta on the carpet of the former's 
 sitting-room, just the picture of a conference in 
 tears. 
 
 " It really began with our marriage," said Minkale, 
 going back to the very beginning, as she believed it 
 to be. " Before ever we got to Mandalay on our 
 honeymoon, he said he had ruined me; but I laughed 
 his fears away, and he took a rosier view of an Anglo- 
 Burman marriage. But then we went to the palace, 
 and found thrones put to vulgar uses hi fact, had it 
 been Cromwell, he couldn't have shown less respect 
 for national feeling, and that went straight to Wai- 
 worth's heart. He kept saying, if that was Im- 
 perialism, this was no country for him, and I was 
 frightened; for if he left, where should I be ?" 
 
 " But he could take you, dear, and in England they 
 have broader views."
 
 266 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 "That's what I thought; but he said I should be 
 loathed as a leper in England for living with him 
 before I was his legal wife." 
 
 " So that Burma didn't suit him, and England 
 didn't suit you. What madness ! And he is such a 
 nice fellow ! I had quite made up my mind, my 
 dear, to run off with him myself when he fell in love 
 with you." 
 
 " I thought so, too, once, but alas !" 
 
 " Oh, but this is only a freak, and it will pass," 
 said Zeta, taking Minkale's hand hi her own lovingly. 
 
 " It will never pass," said Minkale, breaking down. 
 " I once thought it would when he had got into the 
 usual groove, and perhaps he might; but " 
 
 " But what, dearest ?" said Zeta in alarm, feeling 
 that some revelation was at hand. 
 
 " I'm never supposed to read his home letters, but 
 he left one lying about that arrived by the mail yester- 
 day, and it ended up ' with love, yours affectionately, 
 May.' And the writer urged him to go home at 
 once." 
 
 May was Walworth's sister-in-law, but Minkale 
 thought she must be his fiancee, and the suggestion 
 roused a sleeping lioness in her bosom. 
 
 " It would have been bad enough," she continued, 
 " had he been frank about it. We take that risk, for 
 we know that in most cases an Englishman's love for 
 his home takes him back, and he does not return alone. 
 But the baseness of his deceit ! He's a hypocrite, and 
 I'm sure he's laughing in his sleeve at the way he's 
 taken the unsophisticated Burmese girl in." 
 
 " I vow there's some mistake !"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 267 
 
 " None ! It's obvious he was betrothed to May 
 when he treacherously slobbered me over with his 
 professions of love. He now talks of resigning. Well, 
 all I've got to say is he'd better get out of the country 
 quick, or he'll never go." 
 
 " Minkale dear, you're mad to talk like that !" 
 
 " Then it's the fault of my tongue, for my mind 
 was never saner." 
 
 As Minkale said this, her eyes shone and her cheeks 
 flushed with a wild passion, and, seizing Zeta by the 
 shoulders, she shook her violently, adding : 
 
 " My love has now turned to hate. From May to 
 Minkale, and from Minkale to May, what was it but 
 the path of lust and deceit ?" 
 
 " Come, Minkale, you mustn't talk like that." 
 
 " I can act much worse !" 
 
 " You've been a good deal alone, dear, and that's 
 good for nobody. If I found that Cruncher was 
 engaged, I just flirted with anybody that happened 
 to be handy, and it kept all worry and brooding out 
 of my mind. You must do the same thing, and you 
 know Ko Tun Min is here ?" 
 
 " He won't look at his creator now. I asked him to 
 come and see me when I was in great distress, but he 
 treated me like dirt." 
 
 " He's repented since." 
 
 " Has he ?" 
 
 " Oh yes; he'll see you at any time." 
 
 " At any time ! Where does he live ?" 
 
 " You can see the house from your bedroom 
 window." 
 
 " It's really a better one than ours," said Minkate,
 
 268 THE 'REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 now looking at the ceiling of her own, and wondering 
 when it would come down on the top of them all. 
 " I expect Ko Tun Min is very swallowed up in his 
 own conceit." 
 
 " No," said Zeta, noting with some relief that 
 Minkal6's passion appeared to have passed; " nothing 
 seems to warm his blood. I took him on the river 
 the other day, and never felt it so chilly in my life." 
 
 " I was never very enthusiastic about him." 
 
 Zeta left Minkale, as the latter had professed a 
 desire to unpack and put all Walworth's things out 
 for him before he returned from Cruncher's, and she 
 was not a minute too soon, for he passed Zeta on the 
 way. 
 
 " Who are you flirting with now ?" he asked, but 
 it was not in the old light and airy manner, with the 
 usual merry laugh, and Zeta felt sad at the change 
 that had come over both her friends. 
 
 " Walworth's raving !" said Cruncher, when he saw 
 Zeta shaking the dust off her slippers. 
 
 " So is Minkale, and it's a chorus I don't like." 
 
 " What do you suggest ?" 
 
 " That I go and live with Minkale, while you trot 
 Walworth round the district and do a little shoot- 
 ing." 
 
 " He wants to resign, and I expect his papers must 
 go through in the end; but he's promised to sleep on 
 them for another night." 
 
 " Then it's his last," said Zeta, turning pale with 
 fear. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Minkale is frightfully put out over a letter to
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 269 
 
 Walworth in which she has discovered that he was 
 engaged to a girl at home just when he was honey- 
 mooning with her at Mandalay, and if the passion I 
 saw her in returns, then anything might happen. She 
 was demented, and when the Burmese blood is aflame, 
 it loses all self-control." 
 
 " Walworth can look after himself, and she'd better 
 be wary how she walks." 
 
 That night, before she went to bed, Zeta out of 
 curiosity dropped in on Minkale for a minute; but the 
 latter had just gone to bed, and Walworth was dozing 
 in his long armchair. They were all to have dined 
 together, but both Walworth and Minkale pleaded the 
 tedious journey up as an excuse, and the dinner was 
 postponed.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WAS the fire-god in command when the forces of 
 Nature were creating both Burma and Burman ? 
 The warm blood that courses through the veins of 
 Burmese men and women has a complete analogue in 
 the murky rivers of petroleum that flow in the bosom 
 of their native land, and it cannot be said that the 
 one is more inflammable than the other. A milk-and- 
 water taunt, such as a suggestion that the person 
 addressed is a " proud man," is practically certain in 
 Burma to have a tragic ending; but the provocation 
 Minkale had received and imagined were much greater, 
 and she retired to bed soon after dinner with her blood 
 aflame in the fires of hate and revenge. 
 
 " I shan't be long when my pipe's out," said Wai- 
 worth, as Minkale climbed the hall stairs. 
 
 He threw himself into a long-sleeved chair, and 
 once more let his hungry mind ruminate in Imperial 
 pastures, but with a clearer vision and a feeling that 
 Cruncher was not such a fool as he looked. 
 
 " Had my resignation gone in," he reflected, " it 
 might have been irrevocable; but now I can think 
 things out at my leisure, and perhaps find a suitable 
 place for Minkale in the scheme of Imperial politics." 
 
 The more he thought of it, the more convinced was 
 
 270
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 271 
 
 he that such objections as there were to the popular 
 but immoral custom were due to the fact that Bur- 
 mese girls had taken possession of the orchestra stalls, 
 if not of the boxes, in the Imperial theatre, whereas 
 they should have been contented with the pit, as in 
 the early days of Clive and Hastings, when the " bibi- 
 khana " disclosed no secrets of the harem. He 
 decided he would write to his Chief, and suggest a 
 modus vivendi, which would be inoffensive alike to 
 national sentiment and to the amour propre of 
 officialism. There still remained the vexed question 
 of the aloofness of the white man from the brown, 
 and as to this he was not prepared to succumb to the 
 superior experience of Cruncher; but there could be 
 no doubt that the Empire was far from being an 
 anaemic plant. On the contrary, nothing could have 
 been more vigorous and flourishing, and Walworth 
 began to feel a doubt whether his official predecessors 
 in the long line of descent from John Company's 
 Governors and Lieutenant-Governors had not under- 
 stood and correctly gauged the distance at which a 
 subject is appropriately ruled. He was, in fact, just 
 at that time a not uncommon specimen of Oxford 
 scholarship adrift on Imperial waters with old and 
 obsolete adjuncts of navigation that had done well 
 enough under Greek or Roman skies, but which were 
 quite unsuited to the little surveyed bays and channels 
 of Eastern thought and life. To such men the con- 
 viction that what is is best only comes after a series 
 of bumps, when then: little craft is in danger of being 
 swamped; and Walworth, as he dozed, himself felt 
 that he had been perilously near shipwreck. But
 
 272 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 further he was not prepared to yield, when a lizard, 
 springing at a moth, came heavily down on his nose, 
 and roused him to a sense of the hour and of his 
 promise that he would not be long. 
 
 As he stole into the bedroom on tiptoe he saw that 
 Minkale had, with her usual thoughtfulness, placed a 
 glass of iced water by his bed for him to sip when he 
 awoke hot and thirsty during the night; and, throwing 
 off his clothes hastily, assumed his pyjamas, and 
 turned in with a notion that Minkale was asleep after 
 a trying journey and the still more trying jolt to her 
 feelings from the threatened separation. But he 
 thought he had a pleasant surprise in store for her in 
 the morning, when he proposed to take her fully into 
 his secrets, in the hope that she would see the necessity 
 for taking a less prominent seat. With this hope to 
 comfort him, Walworth was soon asleep and snoring 
 loudly; while Minkale was wide awake, with the fire 
 of hate burning bright in her Burmese blood. As soon 
 as she was sure of his condition, she rose, and, stepping 
 gently, went straight for a blue bottle that stood on a 
 ledge in the wall, from which Walworth had been in 
 the habit of taking and using microscopic quantities 
 when pariah dogs in his neighbourhood wanted poison- 
 ing. She took the bottle, and held it near her heart, 
 as she looked at the youthful form of the man she had 
 once loved, and for a moment she felt she could not 
 do it. Not that she was frightened, or revolted from 
 the criminal character of the deed, or that she was 
 repulsed by its baseness; but just for that instant she 
 recalled her old love for him, and she hesitated. It 
 was only momentary though, for the next second she
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 273 
 
 pictured him kissing May in a passionate embrace, 
 and a sense of her betrayal took possession of her with 
 demoniacal fury. She advanced with quick but noise- 
 less steps to the table on which the glass stood, and, 
 removing the cork from the bottle, jerked in a dose 
 that would have sufficed for a dozen murders. 
 
 " It is his cup of destiny," she thought as she walked 
 hastily into the veranda, where she had placed a 
 Penang chair from which she could see, without being 
 seen, the success or failure of her devilish planning. 
 
 There she sat down, and, taking an envelope from 
 her writing-table, secreted a crystal for her own 
 destruction, and then rolled it in the waist of her 
 lungyi. 
 
 " So it's this," she said sadly, as she threw her head 
 back, " that rising and shining comes to. He and I 
 were both impelled by the same motives we rose and 
 shone together. But there is a repentance in destiny, 
 and she thought she would dash me from the heaven 
 of my delight, and substitute another star in that 
 firmament, but she shall not. A dethroned goddess 
 I am that I cannot help but I shall pluck the crown 
 from Walworth's brow, and at any rate we can perish 
 together. Life was given for enjoyment, and disap- 
 pointment, sorrow, and shame are its abuse. What 
 remains of it to me is contemptible, and I lay it down 
 without a pang. But where ? Not here. At the feet 
 of Ko Tun Min." 
 
 Minkale smiled as she thought of giving him dead 
 what she would not give him alive, and was not 
 repelled by its ghastly irony. 
 
 Just then Walworth moved, and saying, " It's 
 
 18
 
 damned hot !" seized the tumbler, and had all but 
 finished its contents when he fell back dead. 
 
 Then for the first time the horror of the tragedy 
 struck Minkale's imagination with elemental force, 
 and she shrieked, but there was nobody within ear- 
 shot, and she found herself alone with death. A wild 
 terror seized her, and she fled; but before she was out 
 of the compound she was able to collect her thoughts, 
 and, pausing for a second, she looked back on the 
 dimly-lit bedroom, where she had left not only the 
 corpse of her lover, but her own tempest-tossed and 
 shipwrecked heart, and, waiving a melancholy fare- 
 well, she made for the track that led her to Tun Min's 
 house. 
 
 Tun Min, a victim of insomnia, was pacing his 
 veranda when he saw her form approach by the path 
 that led past the well and the vegetable garden, and 
 he wondered who it might be that was daring enough 
 to think of stealing his tomatoes, when he recognized 
 Minkale", and was almost frozen with fear to the spot 
 where he stood. 
 
 " Ma Le !" he exclaimed, and was overheard by 
 Minkal6, who was now transformed into a very dif- 
 ferent woman from the demon that had gloated over 
 Walworth's approaching doom. 
 
 " I," she said, as she stood in his dining-room, " am 
 a dying woman, and as a good Buddhist Ko Tun Min 
 will not deny me admission." 
 
 He turned up the light, and all but fainted when he 
 noted the ghastly change in the friend of his boyhood. 
 He had known her young, beautiful, buoyant, and 
 majestic, but a short while ago, when he hoped to
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 275 
 
 make her his bride, and now what stood and stooped 
 before him was a scorched and withered shadow of 
 that past. 
 
 Minkale's hair hung down, but there was no longer 
 any suggestion of wildness in her look. Though her 
 pulse still beat, she had passed beyond the latitude 
 where the emotions speak in the voices of joy or sorrow, 
 for, indeed, it was at the gates of Death that she 
 stood. 
 
 They looked at each other for some moments with- 
 out either of them speaking, and then Minkale sat 
 lightly down on the mat by a chair on which she could 
 lean an elbow. 
 
 " You will think it odd," she said, in a tone of per- 
 fect calm, but in a whisper that was weird and of the 
 other world, " that I should come to die where I 
 have refused to live; but, Ko Tun Min, I could not 
 go forth without a word of explanation, without a 
 prayer for forgiveness, without a suggestion for the 
 future, and it will soothe my few remaining moments 
 to know that you had the satisfaction of knowing not 
 only that you were avenged, but that the hand was 
 mine." 
 
 Tun Min was terrified. He had never seen anybody 
 like this, and he wondered whether it was not his 
 duty to let Walworth know where his wife was, and 
 what was her condition; but it occurred to him that 
 the Wundauk might have been suddenly called out. 
 That Minkale's words were intended to convey some 
 disaster to Walworth never entered his mind, dis- 
 tracted as it was by the apparition that sat and 
 whispered in a sepulchral voice.
 
 276 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 " Shall I send for the Wundauk Min ?" he asked. 
 "I'm afraid that Ma Minkale is not very well." 
 
 " There is no one to send," said Minkale, looking 
 around her, " and there is no one to call. Wai worth 
 is dead !" 
 
 " Ma Le !" exclaimed Tun Min, deeply moved. 
 " Someone must swing for it, and we must report the 
 matter at once." 
 
 " No one shall swing for it, and it shall not be 
 reported just yet. Give me a glass of water, and 
 listen to my story, for I am weary and must go." 
 
 " Shall I mix a little whisky with it ?" asked Tun 
 Min, opening his cupboard. 
 
 Minkale' nodded, and the bottle clinked on the 
 tumbler's mouth as Tun Min nervously poured out 
 what even men would have regarded as a liberal 
 
 Peg- 
 
 " Thank you," said Minkale, taking the glass. 
 " Now, let us begin at the beginning. Tell me, was 
 Ko Tun Min ever really in love with me ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " When a monk returns to manhood it isn't always 
 for love, and I knew you had a consuming ambition. 
 Such an ambition is natural to man; is it unnatural to 
 women ? Men brush aside impediments to their 
 ascent, and mayn't women do the same ? Don't tell 
 me that climbing is a game with rules and referees, 
 into which the leaven of English sport has entered. 
 It wasn't very noble for me to have brushed you out 
 of my path, but you'd have done the same with 
 me." 
 
 " Never."
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 277 
 
 " That was what Ko Walworth was just about to 
 do, anyhow. I admit there were more reasons than 
 one in his case his pre-engagement to May at home 
 no longer interests me and it does not touch my 
 argument; but he was prepared to jettison me because 
 of some flamboyant notion of respect to his service 
 and his race. You see, men and women act from the 
 same motives. But did Ko Tun Min really love 
 Minkale 1 , and was he prepared to soar with her into 
 the heavens ?" 
 
 " Of course I was, and I am," sobbed Tun Min, who 
 was now convulsed with grief. 
 
 " Can you forgive me ?" 
 
 He took her in his arms, and for several seconds 
 there was silence, broken only by the sob of a broken 
 heart. 
 
 " Let us go to Walworth," he said, " and he will 
 restore you to me." 
 
 " I thought you hadn't understood," said Minkale, 
 raising her head from his bosom, " and now you will 
 regard me as a pestilent plague. I have killed Wal- 
 worth, and if he had a soul it stands before his Maker." 
 
 At last the truth in all its hideous nakedness dawned 
 on Ko Tun Min, and that he was harbouring a mur- 
 deress who was none less than his own old sweetheart, 
 for whom all his old love had returned, greatly agitated 
 him. Minkale saw his emotion, and she quietly slid 
 off his knees on to the mat. 
 
 " Don't tell me you killed him !" 
 
 " I did," said Minkale, without the least trace of 
 feeling. " But do not be alarmed for my sake. I 
 myself stand on what Christians call the brink of
 
 278 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 eternity possibly it is naikban and shall soon be 
 beyond the reach of judges and gaolers. There are just 
 a few words more which I wish to say. You still want 
 to rise and shine ?" 
 
 Tun Min shook his head in a paroxysm of grief to 
 indicate that he no longer had such an ambition. 
 
 " Extinguish the desire if it ever returns. Wai- 
 worth and Cruncher discussed your future with brutal 
 frankness. To them there was a lofty heaven for the 
 white man alone, and quite another one much lower 
 down in fact, perilously near to their hell which was 
 reserved for the ' subject ' races. That, Ko Tun Min, 
 is not a firmament in which either you or I would care 
 to rise and shine, and therefore I have chosen to set. 
 My sun goes down. It is time, for its light has gone 
 out." 
 
 She loosened the waist of her lungyi, and calmly 
 removed the envelope, from which she withdrew and 
 swallowed the fatal dose before Tun Min could inter- 
 fere. A mouthful of whisky and water prevented her 
 from choking, and she lay back where she had sat in 
 her dying agony. 
 
 Tun Min fell on her face and neck weeping, and 
 called on her by name and kissed her lips, but Min- 
 kale's soul had fled. He walked the night through as 
 one demented, pausing betimes and kneeling or pros- 
 trating himself before the corpse of his beloved, til] he 
 was found by Cruncher in the morning more mad than 
 sane after a report made by Walworth's servants of 
 the latter's death and of the disappearance of his wife. 
 It appeared to Cruncher that there was no likelier 
 place, in Prome for getting a clue as to Minkale's
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 279 
 
 whereabouts than Tun Min's house, but that he should 
 find her dead in Tun Min's arms had never occurred 
 to him. It was impossible for him to get a coherent 
 explanation from the quondam myook, nor did 
 Cruncher press for one just then; but when Zeta had 
 taken Tun Min home with her, and had put together 
 the disjointed fragments of his story, there was little 
 to add to what Cruncher had correctly surmised. 
 
 Both Cruncher and Zeta were profoundly touched 
 by the cruelty of a tragedy of which they had only 
 just had the slenderest warning, and had dismissed 
 from their respective minds with the contempt we 
 keep for the voice of prophecy. 
 
 " I should never have thought such a thing possible, 
 even in Burma," said Cruncher, who could talk of 
 nothing else. 
 
 " That's where you're wrong," said Zeta. " Burma 
 is the land of love, and therefore of hate. The murder 
 naturally follows." 
 
 Minkale's parents were overwhelmed with grief, 
 and they took her body away to Pegu, where they 
 gave her a funeral which for its sumptuousness had 
 never been surpassed. The procession of offerings 
 was more than a quarter of a mile in length, and 
 among the gifts to the monks was more than the 
 monkish mind could expect or desire. The cortege 
 was characteristically Burmese in the gaiety of its 
 colouring, in the barbarity of its national music, and 
 in the total absence of mourning. In all the wealth 
 of Eastern grandeur with which Minkale was borne 
 to her grave there was but one Western note, and 
 that was the wreath which lay on her oblong coffin,
 
 280 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 and bore the legend, " From a broken heart." The 
 service at the graveside was simple, and consisted of 
 a reading from the Pali texts on the worthlessness of 
 life and the futility of human ambition. Tun Min 
 knew the texts by heart, and as he heard the Bishop 
 recite them in the old familiar voice he felt the repen- 
 tance of a soul that is not "yet lost, and he wept. 
 
 In Prome they buried the exile with the simplicity 
 but with the eternal hope of the Christian service, and 
 Walworth sleeps now in the corner of the cemetery 
 where the padouk thrice in every year gilds his tomb 
 with its golden tears, and whither Zeta never fails to 
 repair on the anniversary of his death and lay the 
 tribute of affectionate friendship.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE Sayadaw had been busy with his secretary all 
 day, discussing the proposals of the Education Depart- 
 ment touching the standards of Pali tests ; but he was 
 now alone, and reclining on a mat spread on the floor 
 of his kyoung, when Tun Min, dressed once more in 
 the yellow robes of a monk, and his head shaven, 
 approached and knelt at the feet of the master. For 
 several moments neither spoke, nor could they have 
 had they tried, for both were deeply moved. U Dharna 
 loved his pupil, and had followed his magisterial career 
 with affectionate interest, seeing in it the likelihood of 
 great moral results to the nation, for it is by the 
 rectitude of its public service that the public progress 
 is accelerated; but the magistrate was again a 
 monk, and the public career was closed for Tun Min, 
 who had for ever turned his back on the Queen's 
 service. 
 
 " There was a time when I could not persuade my 
 son," said the Bishop, still lying prone, with one hand 
 resting on his forehead, " to be a monk; now it would 
 be equally futile for me to propose his return to 
 Imperial office." 
 
 " That is so, my lord," said Tun Min, stooping 
 forward, so that his head touched the floor. 
 
 281
 
 282 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 'Welcome, my son welcome. But tell me, does 
 the past still live in the present ?" 
 
 " The past of love," said Tun Min, now with his 
 emotions under full control, "for a woman and the 
 past of ambition to rise and shine are, my lord, dead, 
 and buried in Ma Minkale's grave." 
 
 " What is killed by disappointment," said the 
 Bishop, " has no resurrection. But tell me, for the 
 knots of the human heart are not unravelled in the 
 dim light of a hpoongyi kyoung, why were you dis- 
 appointed with your public office ?" 
 
 " My career had come to a full stop." 
 
 " Indeed, no," said the Bishop, sitting up. "I had 
 an audience of the Chief Commissioner only a month 
 or two ago, and he asked me if I had any more Tun 
 Mins to give him, and he spoke as though you had the 
 ball at your feet, and could kick it where and as high 
 as you liked." 
 
 " That, my lord," said Tun Min, unrepentant, " was 
 a shallow pretence. The purple of office is dangled 
 before the Burman's eye, and he is dazzled; but once 
 seated on a myook's stool, he sees the higher offices in 
 a light better adapted to his sight, and it is a true 
 light." 
 
 " What was it you saw ?" 
 
 ''' That the avarice of our rulers spares no morsel 
 that has a flavour for the ruled." 
 
 " Is that why you resigned ?" 
 
 " That is why I resigned." 
 
 " Then my son has acted hastily. Listen ! You 
 are the one survivor of a large family of nigh a dozen 
 children ?"
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 283 
 
 " I am, my lord." 
 
 " And infant mortality in our beloved land is high. 
 The learned doctor says there is no country where it is 
 higher." 
 
 " It is truly sad," said Tun Min, without suspecting 
 what the good Bishop was leading up to. 
 
 " Is it not the child's food that is the cause ? Rear 
 a babe on milk, and he lives; stuff him with dorians 
 and with curries, and he dies. Babes do not thrive 
 on the diet of adults. It is the same in the larger 
 family of government as in the smaller Burmese house- 
 hold. I see you don't agree, but show me a Burman 
 who has excelled in the higher arts of government. 
 You cannot, for Mindoon Min is dead; and what was 
 he?" 
 
 " He was King." 
 
 " He earned much merit, but there is no British 
 Commissioner who is not ten thousand times better 
 qualified to administer a charge." 
 
 " The capacity for ruling must naturally exist 
 among a tribe, a race, or a people." 
 
 " Examine our history," said the Bishop with 
 energy, " and, mind you, they who write history in 
 the East do not dip their pens in the ink of failure 
 overmuch. But what is our record ? The meagre 
 one of a kinwoon mingyi here and there, who could 
 see farther ahead than the rest. That is on one 
 side." 
 
 " And on the other ?" 
 
 " The domination of ignorance, tyranny, lust, with 
 their barbaric accompaniment of cruelty, spoliation, 
 and murder. No, my son, a righteous and well-
 
 28 1 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 ruled people do not pass into the servitude of the 
 stranger." 
 
 " Are we babes beginning to walk ?" asked Tun 
 Min, with a faint suspicion of a smile playing on his 
 lips. 
 
 " We are infants who want to run and jump before 
 we can stand up without support. No, it cannot be. 
 We should take the gifts of our governors with grati- 
 tude." 
 
 " They give nothing," said Tun Min dolefully, 
 " unless it is with a kick." 
 
 " Even kicking," said the Bishop with a smile, 
 " can be good discipline, whether it is the kick of 
 misfortune on your head or of an unripe mangoe in 
 your stomach." 
 
 " But the clout of bad manners," said Tun Min, 
 unconvinced, " is not a discipline; it is a humilia- 
 tion." 
 
 The Bishop looked at Tun Min with pity. 
 
 " Yes, my son, humiliation is a discipline, but at 
 your age and with your rebellious, haughty disposi- 
 tion, I cannot say that it is misprescribed. It is a 
 transient humour though, and in the kyoung it will 
 pass in a night." 
 
 " I stay not in kyoungs, my lord." 
 
 " Are there other places meet for a hpoongyi ?" 
 
 " The retreat of the eternal lord and master." 
 
 " In the chilly caves of mountains ?" 
 
 " Aye." 
 
 " Go thou, with my benediction," said the Bishop, 
 laying his hands on the bent head of his pupil, " into 
 uninhabited hills and forests, and there learn from
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 285 
 
 prayer and fasting the hidden path that leads to the 
 eternal temple of Pure Reason. On her sacrificial 
 altars shalt thou see thine own offering the un- 
 worthy tenement of thy soul that they call thy body. 
 As the serpent sheddeth its skin, so shalt thou return 
 to the manhood of the world with thine own man- 
 hood cast from thee, as did Gautama the divine. 
 May the teachings of the immortal master be thy 
 Light and thy Comfort. Farewell." 
 
 In a lonely cave on the road to Hsipaw in the Shan 
 Hills, Tun Min now sees the years go by as he awaits 
 a solution of the eternal puzzle: " What is Life, and 
 Why are We ?" His only sustenance is occasional, 
 being an alms from some charitable wayfarer, but it 
 is enough, and even in sad contrast with the spiritual 
 food for which his soul hungers, and of which there 
 is never enough. Sometimes the monotony of his life 
 is broken by the intrusion of a panther or a leopard, 
 or it may be a python, hunting his quarry, and fur- 
 tively watching the latter's movements; but asceti- 
 cism has its own aroma, and the recluse finds a sanc- 
 tuary where he might have found a sepulchre had he 
 been of this world. Anchorites of all ages have exer- 
 cised in some mysterious way by mere volition a 
 supreme power over the lower animals, but Ko Tun 
 Min and the Sayadaw, with then: higher gifts and 
 severer discipline, had discovered previously unsus- 
 pected properties of the mind, and to their comfort 
 they could commune one with the other without the 
 paraphernalia of modern Marconi-ism. This, however, 
 was a short-lived pleasure, for the Bishop, heavy with 
 years and piety, had died, and the mighty dynamo of
 
 286 THE REPENTANCE OF DESTINY 
 
 Tun Min's mind had failed to record an impression on 
 the screens of the Great Unknown. 
 
 We leave him alone in his cave as a cold statue, 
 with his eyes fixed on the waving forests, which they 
 see not, and his soul centred on the eternal verities 
 illumined by the pure light of Contentment and 
 Peace. 
 
 On the riverside road at Pegu the tragedy of Min- 
 kale and her lovers is still remembered, and when 
 some wild catastrophe overtakes a proud and im- 
 perious parvenu, the familiar words, " It is the Repen- 
 tance of Destiny," are heard and pondered. 
 
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