“And now,” he said, when they were seated, “let us discuss the question of your salary....”
Daniel interrupted him. “Oh, don’t bother about that. I’ll take whatever the position carries—I don’t suppose it’s much, as it’s a Foreign Office job. I’ve got a small income of my own, you know; and my tastes are simple. Get me as much as you reasonably can, of course; but don’t worry about it.”
Presently Lord Blair spoke of the question of Knighthood, and attempted to persuade him to reconsider his decision; but Daniel was obdurate, and very reluctantly his chief abandoned the project.
“Let me follow my own instincts,” said Daniel. “From the native point of view your adviser on Oriental matters does not need that sort of thing.”
“Don’t you think he does?” asked Lord Blair, rather doubtfully.
“Certainly not. If you’ll let me, I shall turn out all the fine English office furniture from my official room: the desk, and the red leather chairs, and the pictures. They’re all right for a governor, but not for the—what shall I say?—the court philosopher, as I intend to be. I want plain bare walls, bare floors with just a rug or two, and a few chairs. No books, or papers, or maps, or calendars, or clocks.”
“As you wish, my dear Daniel: I rely on you,” said Lord Blair.
“You see,” he continued, “what English pro-consuls in the East so often lack is the go-between, the man who tries to get at the native soul, so to speak. You, as governor, must represent the might and the justice of England; but I must be the voice saying ‘Don’t be afraid: we shall not outrage your religion or your philosophies or your traditions.’ Now I can’t be that if I’m sitting at an American desk, with an eyeglass in my eye, and a stenographer tapping away beside me, and a large office clock ticking on the wall. I should be so unconvincing. Do you see what I mean?”
“Quite, quite,” Lord Blair answered. “I dare say you are right.”
His face, however, belied anything of conviction that he attempted to put into the words. He did not want Daniel to orientalize himself to any marked extent: he wished him to take his place in the English and Continental society of the Residency. He had great ambitions for him, and the idea of training him ultimately to occupy his own exalted position was developing rapidly in his mind. He dreaded anything in the nature of eccentricity: he had the characteristic British dislike of the crank. Yet he could not imagine Daniel as ever becoming unbalanced, for a kind of equilibrium and stability were apparent in all his actions.