go through
life makin' people smash crockery like that," growled the lugubrious
waiter.)

"When I think of these men, and of the formation of the Telegraph
Construction and Maintenance Company (_Applause_), and the successful
laying of the 1866 cable, and the picking-up and completion of the old
cable," (_Loud cheers_),--("Hm! a decanter gone this time. _Will_ you
take your foot out of the soup tureen, sir," from the lugubrious man,
and an impatient "hush!" from Robin.)

"When I think of all these things, and a great deal more that I cannot
venture to inflict on the indulgent company (_Go on_!) I feel that the
toast which I have the honour to propose deserves a foremost place in
the toasts of the day, and that you will heartily respond to it, namely,
Success to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, for that
Company has laid scores of cables since its formation, and has now
successfully commenced, and will doubtless triumphantly complete, the
laying of the cable which we have met to celebrate to-day--the fourth
great enterprise, I may remark, which the Company has undertaken--the
cable that is soon to connect India with England."

The merchant sat down amid thunders of applause, during which the
reckoning of breakages was lost, and finally abandoned by the lugubrious
waiter.

At first Robin and Sam listened with great interest and profound
attention, and the former treasured in his memory, or made pencil notes
of, such facts and expectations as the following:--That only nine months
previously had they commenced the construction of the cable which was
now about to be laid; that Captain Halpin in the Great Eastern had laid
the French Atlantic cable; that in a few weeks they hoped to connect
Bombay with Malta, and two months later with England; that, a few months
after that, England would be connected with the Straits of Malacca and
Singapore. "In short," said one gentleman at the close of his speech,
"we hope that in 1871 India will be connected, chiefly, by submarine
telegraph, with China, Australia, Europe, and America, and that your
morning messages will reach home about the same hour at which they are
sent from here, allowing, of course, for the difference in time; and
that afternoon and evening messages from Europe will be in your hands at
an early hour next morning."

At this point the heat and unpleasant fumes around him began to tell
upon Robin, and he suggested that they had better go on de