Impressions of Travel 397 



carriages with the best horses to be had in Bombay. 

 In the full, blistering glare of the sun stands a native 

 sweetmeat seller, with wicker stand on his arm, and tray 

 on his head, heaped with a sticky, half-melted colour- 

 scheme in the shape of fearsome sweetmeats. Various 

 officials tramp along the pavement in white drill, which 

 enhances yet more the chocolate hue of their com- 

 plexions. We pass occasional and bewitching groups of 

 natives in brilliant greens and dazzling scarlets, vivid 

 purples and orange yellows, with oiled locks and 

 blackened eyes, their silver necklets, earrings, and 

 anklets jingling musically as they walk, chewing betel- 

 nut meanwhile and spitting occasionally. 



The Bombay cab-horse passes us, with^ a white solar 

 topi on his hot head. Badham and Pile's shop, over- 

 run by off-hand Eurasian attendants, fades from view, 

 where proudly flaunt the fashions of last year, pale with 

 dust, stiff with the pride of an extortionate price. 



The bountiful, beautiful buildings of bumptious, 

 bureaucratic Bombay will soon bristle no more upon 

 the vision ; fancy lingers tenderly over the Yacht Club 

 and its inviting marble hall, its green terrace and broad 

 expanse of ocean beyond, its comfortable wicker-chairs, 

 round tables, pots of tea, and brown bread-and-butter, 

 to be enjoyed in the shade. 



Is the water lapping now against that same broad 

 terrace the stone balustrade we leaned upon ? Does 

 the elite of Bombay still trail its skirts across the turf 

 evening after evening, among the coloured lights, to 

 the fiddles of the Government House band ? 



