THE VISITING Afe^ENt. 
polite; There was no stable on the estate, so Mr. C/s 
horse was sent down to the store, in a corner of 
which he was comfortably tied up, a cooly was orderd 
out to cut a bundle of grass, and Mr. O.’s horse- 
keeper had the horse-feed of paddy and gram tied 
up on his back. 
Mr. C., after stating that his time is limited, says 
lie will look over a part of the estate this afternoon, 
and the other portion in the morning. He said 
nothing all the evenings but talked on miscellaneous 
subjects, and the next morning was up and dressed 
before Mr. Brown. This may be accounted for by his 
bed being none of the best: it was merely a couch 
in the sittingroomt He complained of having slept 
badly, and that it was .very cold, and wished he had 
had another blnnkek Bid he know that Mr. B. had 
no spare blankets, and the very one he had slept 
under was taken off his own- bed, Mr. Brown himself 
had been cold, very cold, but of this he said nothing. 
During their walk over the estate, Mr. C. occasion- 
ally stopped, took out his note-book, and wrote down 
something. He said little, and Mr. Brown was 
quite puzzled : he could not make out whether he 
was pleased, displeased, or indifferent. Mr. C. had put 
on, or perhaps it was natural to him, quite a stoical, 
cold, hard, indifferent look. The store was the last 
object of examination, or rather its contents. It was 
all duly noted down in the little pocket-book : how 
much had been picked, how much despatched, and 
an approximate guess made at what was left in 
the store. 
They reached the bungalow about 11 o’clock for 
breakfast. The boy had used his master’s name and 
credit, and had purchased from the head kangani a 
half-grown fowl, for which the master was pledged 
to pay six shillings. This was roasted, a few slices 
of salt-beef were fried, and this with a good pump- 
kin curry was considered quite a swell breakfast, 
and as much as any visiting agent could reasonably 
expect; at all events a superintendent upon £8 6s. 8d. 
per month could not reasonably be expected to pro- 
vide anything better. 
Mr. Brown had the forethought to send an ex- 
press coolie off after morning muster, to try and 
borrow a couple of bottles: of Bass from Mr. Jones, 
this gentleman had only one bottle in his house, but, 
with true planters’ liberality, and knowing from his 
own personal experience the exigency of the case, 
I he sent it. During breakfast Mr. C. was asked 
if he would take beer, which he said he would. 
Mr, Brown preferred 
fast would make him sleepy for hia afternoon’s work^ 
