Burmese Days

Flory does not seek out Elizabeth for the rest of the day. He heads to the club after dinner, finding only Ellis and Westfield, who have recently returned from the jungle and who are both in a bad mood. Ellis is furious that the editor of the Patriot has only received a four-month sentence, spewing racist insults against Veraswami. Flory responds angrily to Ellis, causing Westfield to lose his temper with Flory and tell him not to start “talking like a damned Hyde Park agitator” (167). Westfield reminds Flory of the five tenets of the pukka sahib: keep up prestige, use a firm hand, white men must stick together, don’t give the natives an inch, and maintain esprit de corps. As the two men insult him, Flory’s mind wanders, anxious to see Elizabeth. Flory announces that he will propose Veraswami, a better man than many whites, for membership.

The Lackersteens enter and Flory is surprised to see them much better dressed than usual. Seeing Elizabeth dressed so fashionably, Flory is even more afraid of her, noting that she never answers him directly in the group conversation. When the others go to play cards, Flory finally sees an opportunity to speak to Elizabeth privately. He asks what he has done to offend her, but she acts cold and distant while denying that anything is wrong. Flory attempts in vain to get her to explain what has happened, but realizes that “he was, as usually, making it worse with every word he said” (170). Finally, Elizabeth admits that she heard that Flory is keeping a Burmese mistress (something her aunt revealed, after realizing that Verrall would be a wealthier suitor) and walks past him, leaving Flory speechless. Unable to bear returning to the group, Flory climbs over a railing on the veranda to escape.

Standing on the riverbank, Flory feels that he deserves what has happened to him since he has had sex with hundreds of native women while in Burma. As he exits, Flory hears someone repeating pike-san pay-like (“give me the money”) and is shocked to see Ma Hla May, who keeps saying the phrase louder and louder. She threatens to scream loudly enough for the club to hear, so Flory gives her his remaining 25 rupees and a gold cigarette case. As he reaches his house gate, Flory turns around and sees that Ma Hla May has been watching him the entire time. He wonders why she is blackmailing him, “almost, indeed, as though someone else were egging her on” (175).

The next day, Flory returns to his work camp in the jungle. Ellis has already begun to invent wild scandals about Flory, insulted that he called Veraswami better than whites. Mrs. Lackersteen, who starts intensely disliking Flory after learning that Verrall is part of the nobility, is eager to listen to Ellis’s tales. Elizabeth realizes that she is bored and irritated by Flory, not because of his Burmese mistress, but because he is highbrow, “her deadliest word” (176), like her mother’s friends in Paris.

At camp, many things have gone wrong in Flory’s absence, so Flory keeps busy during the day. Many of the workers have deserted, their opium supply secretly cut off by U Po Kyin, so Flory has Veraswami send him some illegally obtained opium. He sends Elizabeth a letter, but she ignores it. At night, he is severely depressed as the reality of his situation sits in. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has still never seen Verrall up-close. He refuses to visit the club, ignoring Lackersteen’s formal invitation, and does not bother to present himself to Macgregor. Verrall has his men clear a space near his home and spends his days practicing his polo strokes and ignoring the Europeans. This causes Westfield, Ellis, and Macgregor to hate him.

Verrall is the youngest son of an English peer who cares about little besides clothes and horses. While his family is not rich, he indulges himself by never paying a bill unless he receives a legal writ forcing him. Verrall joined a British cavalry regiment in India, but transferred to the Indian army as it gave him more freedom to play polo. After two years in India, his debts are so massive that he transferred into the Burmese Military Police, quickly growing to detest the country and applying to return to his old regiment. Because he is only in the country for a month, he has no intention of getting involved with the low status Europeans, whom he despises for their soft living, boozing, and womanizing.

After a week, Elizabeth is still unable to make Verrall’s acquaintance. Every morning and evening, she and her aunt walk to and from the club and see Verrall playing polo, but he always ignores them. The women are upset because Lackersteen has to return to the jungle soon and they will have to go with him. Mrs. Lackersteen insists on taking a shortcut through the field that will force Verrall to meet them. Annoyed, Verrall greets them reluctantly, and is surprised to see Elizabeth’s young, pretty face—he had assumed there were no young women in Kyauktada. Mrs. Lackersteen invites him to the club and Verrall makes a rare apology, enchanted with Elizabeth’s beauty, and promises to visit that evening.

Verrall follows through on his promise, arriving that evening before anyone else. When Ellis arrives, the butler complains that Verrall has beaten him. Ellis angrily confronts Verrall for damaging club property: “it’s our job to kick the servants, not yours” (183). However, Ellis withers under Verrall’s intense gaze and backs down. Verrall and Elizabeth spend the evening dancing beautifully as the older men watch with envy. When they finally stop dancing, Verrall bids a brief goodnight to the Lackersteens, but ignores everyone else as he leaves.

That night, Mrs. Lackersteen helps Elizabeth prepare clothes for a riding expedition on which Verrall has invited her, deciding that Lackersteen should return to the jungle alone so that Elizabeth can court Verrall in Kyauktada.

The heat grows worse and worse, with only Verrall and Elizabeth indifferent to it: “Verrall was too stoical and Elizabeth too happy to pay any attention to the climate” (186). Verrall has made the other Europeans even angrier by coming to the club every evening, ignoring its members and avoiding their attempts at conversation, only dancing with Elizabeth, and then leaving without saying good night to anyone. Elizabeth and Verrall ride almost every evening, though Verrall’s mornings remain “sacred to polo practice” (187). Though Verrall is not much of a talker, Elizabeth loves him for bringing horses into her life, and asks him about them frequently, much as she did with Flory and shooting. Unlike Flory, whom she has now mostly forgotten, save for his birthmark, Verrall never bores her and she is delighted that he hates highbrow things even more than she does. One evening while out for a ride, they embrace and kiss for the first time.

That same evening, Flory decides it is time for him to return to Kyauktada. He feels that everything in his life has become dreary and meaningless without Elizabeth, but is not sure that he has lost her. Flory remembers the leopard skin that he left for one of the prisoners to cure, which he can use as a pretext to see Elizabeth again. He plans to tell her the truth about Ma Hla May, assuming that Elizabeth will forgive him after learning that he threw May out for Elizabeth’s sake. Flory sets off that evening, travels overnight, and heads straight to Veraswami’s in the morning.

Flory and Veraswami have breakfast, and Flory brings up the leopard skin. However, when Veraswami unrolls it, it is completely ruined. The prisoner who escaped earlier was the only one who knew how to cure animal skins properly. Undeterred, Flory heads to the Lackersteens’, where Mrs. Lackersteen greets him coldly, but fetches Elizabeth for him. As Elizabeth walks down the stairs, Flory finds her more beautiful than before. Overcome with emotion, he accidentally knocks over a flower vase. Elizabeth makes friendly small talk and pretends to love the gift, while Flory is unable to say what he has come to say. After a few minutes, Elizabeth gets rid of Flory by saying she is going out riding with Verrall. After Flory leaves, Mrs. Lackersteen orders the servants to burn the reeking leopard skin.

Flory wallows in his misery, agonizing over how Elizabeth treated him. Elizabeth and Verrall ride off, ignoring Flory. An hour later, Flory sees their horses return without riders from the jungle and can’t help but picture the two making love in the jungle. Flory gets completely drunk at home, eventually passing out in his chair. Ko S’la discovers him, carries him to bed, and undresses him. When Flory wakes up at midnight, a native prostitute that Ko S’la has hired greets him. However, when she undresses for sex, Flory instead puts his head on her shoulder and cries.

The next morning, the long-rumored rebellion breaks out. However, by this point, Flory has already gone back to camp and only hears the details several days later when he receives a letter from Veraswami explaining that things went as the doctor predicted. U Po Kyin had successfully convinced the rebels to assemble in the jungle near Thongwa, so he went with Maxwell, a corrupt police inspector, and a dozen constables to raid the village. They found only seven rebels, who were easily defeated. When Macgregor, Westfield, and Verrall arrived, they found Kyin lecturing the villagers, who swore undying loyalty to the government. There was only one death—Maxwell shot a fleeing rebel in the back. Veraswami laments that U Po Kyin successfully presented himself as a hero to the Europeans by claiming he defeated 200 rebels, with even Ellis praising his conduct.

Flory decides to remain in camp until the general meeting where he still intends to propose Veraswami for membership. The heat grows even more intense and Flory becomes sick. He obsesses over even small jobs, making the native workers hate him, and spends all day drunk. He is prone to bouts of rage, even striking Ko S’la at one point. Flory can’t stop thinking about Elizabeth, whom he now hates. He is also intensely envious of Verrall. Flory believes that he got what he deserved since “he had offered himself to a girl who was too young and pretty for him” (200).

Meanwhile, as weeks go past, Elizabeth grows concerned because Verrall has still not proposed marriage even though they spend every evening together. Mrs. Lackersteen worries more and more each time Elizabeth returns from riding without Verrall proposing, “lecturing and threatening Elizabeth in her oblique way” (201) by telling her a story about a white woman in Burma who was forced to take a job as a kitchen maid because she could not find anyone to marry. She mentions that Verrall is leaving when the rains break, but that Flory will be back soon. After being “virtually forgotten for several weeks” (202), the mention of Flory depresses both women. Several days later, Mrs. Lackersteen sends word to her husband to return to town. When he does, he contrives to get Mrs. Lackersteen out of the house and attempts to rape Elizabeth.

At the same time, unbeknownst to anyone (even U Po Kyin), an actual rebellion is brewing.