THE TRIP TO BOMBAY. 
.'to proceed on his journey, bade his friends good bye, 
he would =ncit see them in the morning, perhaps never 
would again. However he slept well, and the boy 
had to rap rather. hai d at the door next morning before 
receiving any reply. We need not describe the coach 
journey down ; .most^of our old friends know all about 
that, all about the bad breakfast at Ambepussa and 
'the feeling of freshness and delight caused by the first 
glance at the sea. Our patient ate a good dinner, en- 
joyed the fresh fish, went to bed early, slept sound, 
and had a ride or drive round the Oalle Face 
before breakfast next morning ; after breakfast there 
.w^as no lounging about, but a carriage was ordered, 
.and he made a whole round of visits, and in the 
• evening went out to dine. This sort of thing went 
on for a few days. One afternoon just as he w’as dress- 
ing for dinner a post-letter was put into his hands ; 
he at once recognized the handwriting of Mr. Smith. 
It will naturally be supposed that he at once tore open 
the letter to see what was wrong, for something must 
have ^one amiss ; hadn’t he been away for three days? 
He did nothing of the sort, did not even open it, but 
tossed it aside on a corner of the di essing, table with the 
exclamation: “Bother that fellow Smith. He need 
not have been in such a hurry scribbling away before 
I am well off ; it is not likely anything can have gone 
wrong already, I ’ll read it to-morrow morning. Boy, 
send out for a carriage immediately.” 
To-morrow morning duly turned up, and some friends 
- also turned up at the morning coffee and cigar, then a 
ride out, then breakfast, and Smith’s letter w^as either 
forgotten or at all events still unopened ; at last he re- 
membered that it might be advisable to read it ; it w as 
not a long one, only a few lines as he had been ordered 
to write, and wishing to know what his employer’s 
wishes were with regard to that road trace, which he 
had promised to consider of and let him know. But 
Mr. Easy had no heart now for roads and traces, so he 
wrote Mr. Smith just to do what he considered best, 
and no doubt it would be the best. During the times 
of which we write our costly pearl, the steamer Pearl, 
was not in existence, as this vessel did not arrive for 
the coasting trade till July 1858, so a voyage i^’ouiid the 
Island was not at all times or easily to be got, so we 
cannot say how our sick man proceeded to sea All 
we know .about it is^ that Mr. Smith in due cours(3 
received a letter -dated Bombay, intimating that the 
patient was quite restored to health, that he was afraid 
the climate of Ceylon did not agree with him, and that 
really he did not know when he would be back. Not 
.'a word was.said about the estate, roads, or traces, whicli 
so.;astonished Smith that he went over to Mr. Pereaii’s 
