How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #10
Through the afternoons he and the Hindu boy would mount guard in the shop, sitting dumb behind a carpet-bale or a screen and watching Mr Lurgan's many and very curious visitors. There were small Rajahs, escorts coughing in the veranda, who came to buy curiosities—such as phonographs and mechanical toys. There were ladies in search of necklaces, and men, it seemed to Kim—but his mind may have been vitiated by early training—in search of the ladies; natives from independent and feudatory Courts whose ostensible business was the repair of broken necklaces—rivers of light poured out upon the table—but whose true end seemed to be to raise money for angry Maharanees or young Rajahs. […] At the end of the day, Kim and the Hindu boy—whose name varied at Lurgan's pleasure—were expected to give a detailed account of all that they had seen and heard—their view of each man's character, as shown in his face, talk, and manner, and their notions of his real errand. (9.109)
There's this odd contradiction we've noticed in Kipling's portrayal of appearances in Kim. On the one hand, you are not supposed to be taken in by false appearances—people lie with their clothes and mannerisms all the time in this book, especially Kim himself. But on the other hand, Lurgan trains Kim and the Hindu boy to become skilled at evaluating people precisely based on how they look.
When is it okay in this book to judge by appearances, and when is it not? Who is truly skilled at seeing through disguises and who is not? What differences can you find between characters who are and are not deceived by appearances?