ion had been inauspiciously
arranged. Upon taxing some around with the discrepancy (as there seemed
to be no more dignified way of evading the responsibility), they were
unable to contend against me that there were, indeed, two, if not more,
distinct varieties of those bearing the rank of captain, and that they
themselves belonged to an entirely different camp, wearing another
dress, and possessing no authority to display the symbol of the letters
S.A. upon their necks. With this admission I was content to leave the
matter, in no way accusing them of actual duplicity, yet so withdrawing
that any of unprejudiced standing could not fail to carry away the
impression that I had been the victim of an unworthy artifice, and had
been lured into their society by the pretext that they were other than
what they really were.

With the bitter-flavoured memory of this, and other in no way dissimilar
episodes, lingering in my throat, it need not be a matter of conjecture
that for a time I greeted warily all who bore a title, a mark of rank,
or any similar appendage; who wore a uniform, weapon, brass helmet,
jewelled crown, coat of distinctive colour, or any excessive superfluity
of pearl or metal buttons; who went forth surrounded by a retinue, sat
publicly in a chair or allegorical chariot, spoke loudly in the highways
and places in a tone of official pronouncement, displayed any feather,
emblem, inscribed badge, or printed announcement upon a pole, or in any
way conducted themselves in what we should esteem to be fitting to
a position of high dignity. From this arose the absence of outward
enthusiasm with which I at first received Sir Philip's extended
favour; for although I had come to distrust all the reasonable signs of
established power, I distrusted, to a much more enhanced degree, their
complete absence; and when I observed that the one in question was never
accompanied by a band of musicians or flower-strewers, that he mingled
as though on terms of familiar intercourse with the ordinary passers-by
in the streets, and never struck aside those who chanced to impede
his progress, and that he actually preferred those of low condition to
approach him on their feet, rather than in the more becoming attitude
of unconditional prostration, I reasoned with myself whether indeed he
could consistently be a person of well-established authority, or whether
I was not being again led away from my self-satisfaction by another
obliquity of ba