_Through the crowd_ THE KING _passes alone and unrecognised_, _and disappears through double doors of heavily carved teak wood_. _He has hardly passed when_ MAH PHRU, _a very lovely girl_, _enters in distress_. _She whispers that she desires an audience of the King who has come amongst them_. _The few who hear her shrug their shoulders_, _smile_, _and pass on_. _They are incredulous_. _She goes from group to group_, _but the people turn from her with disdain_. _Then the great doors open_, _and_ THE KING _is seen_. _The girl throws herself_, _Oriental fashion_, _in his path_. _Her beauty and her pathos arrest his attention and he waves aside those who would interfere_. _She implores_ THE KING'S _protection_. _She is willing to be his slave_. _He listens with deep attention_. _She explains that since her father's death she has been continuously persecuted by the village people on the double count of her Italian blood and her poverty_. _The girl invites him to come to her hut in the forest and verify what she says_. _With a gesture he signifies that he will follow where she leads_. _She rises_. _The crowd gathers round_--_all are hushed to silence_. THE KING, _as one entranced_, _puts aside all who would in any way interfere_. _The girl precedes him_, _going from the Pagoda towards the night_. _When she reaches the great staircase_, _she beckons_, _Oriental fashion_, _with downward hand_. _The scene should_, _in grouping and colour_, _make for rare beauty_. SCENE III _A humble dhunni-thatched hut_, _set amidst the whispering grandeur of the jungle_, _with its mighty trees_, _its trackless paths_, _its indescribable silence_. _The curtain discovers_ MAH PHRU _and_ THE KING, _who expresses his amazement at the loneliness and the poverty of her lot_. _She explains that poverty is not what frightens her_, _but the enmity of those who live yonder_, _and who make it almost impossible for her to sell her cucumbers or her pineapples_. THE KING'S _gaze never leaves the face or figure of the girl_. _He declares that he will protect her_--_that he will build her a home here in the shadow of the loneliness around them_. _He has two years of an unfettered freedom_--_for those years he can command his life_. _He loves her_, _he desires her_--_they will find a Paradise together_. _The girl trembles with joy_--_with fear_--_with surprise_. "And after two years?" _she asks_. "Death," _he answers_. ACT II SCENE I _The jungle once more_. _Time_: _noonday_. _In place of the hut is a building_, _half Burmese_, _half Italian villa_, _of white Chunam_, _with curled roofs rising on roofs_, _gilded and adorned with spiral carvings and a myriad golden and jewel-encrusted bells_. _On the broad verandahs are thrown Eastern carpets_, _rugs_, _embroideries_.