Flory, having accepted Burma as his home, sees himself as unavoidably embedded in British Burmese culture: even if he returns to England, he can’t cure his loneliness because people who have never left England won’t understand his experiences or his moral crisis related to British imperialism. Instead, he wants a companion who has both experienced British imperialism
and shares his anti-imperial perspective, not someone like Mrs. Lackersteen who enforces cultural and racial hierarchies by refusing to learn local languages and bullying her non-white servants. This scene thus suggests that Flory will start looking for a companion who fits these criteria—whether he will find such a person in Kyauktada remains to be seen.