His first feelings were sufficiently disconsolate.
But accustomed from his infancy to conceal his
internal thoughts, he appeared in the course of a
week the gayest and best bred passenger who ever
dared the long and weary space betwixt Old England
and her Indian possessions. At Madras,
where the sociable feelings of the resident inhabitants
give ready way to enthusiasm in behalf of
any stranger of agreeable qualities, he experienced
that warm hospitality which distinguishes the British
character in the East.
Middlemas was well received in company, and
in the way of becoming an indispensable guest at
every entertainment in the place, when the vessel,
on board of which Hartley acted as surgeon's mate,
arrived at the same settlement. The latter would
not, from his situation, have been entitled to expect
much civility and attention; but this disadvantage
was made up by his possessing the most
powerful introductions from General Witherington,
and from other persons of weight in Leadenhall
Street, the General's friends, to the principal
inhabitants in the settlement. He found himself
once more, therefore, moving in the same sphere
with Middlemas, and under the alternative of living
with him on decent and distant terms, or of breaking
of with him altogether.
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