a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes.
For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the 'natives,' and so in every crisis he has got to do what the 'natives' expect of him... A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know ...
He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.
When the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys.
