He smiled after that when people
did not raise their hats to him in the street, as he walked from the
station to Business; but he was sufficiently practical for recognize
that it was better not to talk of this to those that only knew him as
Mr. Shap.
Now that he was King in the city of Larkar and in all the desert that
lay to the East and North he sent his fancy to wander further afield.
He took the regiments of his camel-guard and went jingling out of
Larkar, with little silver bells under the camels' chins, and came to
other cities far-off on the yellow sand, with clear white walls and
towers, uplifting themselves in the sun. Through their gates he passed
with his three silken regiments, the light-blue regiment of the
camel-guards being upon his right and the green regiment riding at his
left, the lilac regiment going on before. When he had gone through the
streets of any city and observed the ways of its people, and had seen
the way that the sunlight struck its towers, he would proclaim himself
King there, and then ride on in fancy. So he passed from city to city
and from land to land. Clear-sighted though Mr. Shap was, I think he
overlooked the lust of aggrandizement to which kings have so often
been victims; and so it was that when the first few cities had opened
their gleaming gates and he saw peoples prostrate before his camel,
and spearmen cheering along countless balconies, and priests come out
to do him reverence, he that had never had even the lowliest authority
in the familiar world became unwisely insatiate.
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