I did not have to wait to reach India for that great and exciting moment
when one is first called "Sahib." I was addressed as "Sahib," to my
mingled pride and confusion, at Marseilles, by an attendant on the
steamer which I joined there. Later I grew accustomed to it, although
never, I hope, blasé; but to the end my bearer fascinated me by alluding
to me as Master--not directly, but obliquely: impersonally, as though
it were some other person that I knew, who was always with me, an _alter
ego_ who could not answer for himself: "Would Master like this or that?"
"At what time did Master wish to be called?"
And then the beautiful "Salaam"!
I was sorry for the English doomed to become so used to Eastern
deference that they cease to be thrilled.