1 Ulysses
tween his name (assuming he was the person he represented
himself to be and not sailing under false colours after hav-
ing boxed the compass on the strict q.t. somewhere) and the
fictitious addressee of the missive which made him nourish
some suspicions of our friend’s bona fides nevertheless it re-
minded him in a way of a longcherished plan he meant to
one day realise some Wednesday or Saturday of travelling
to London via long sea not to say that he had ever travelled
extensively to any great extent but he was at heart a born
adventurer though by a trick of fate he had consistently
remained a landlubber except you call going to Holyhead
which was his longest. Martin Cunningham frequently said
he would work a pass through Egan but some deuced hitch
or other eternally cropped up with the net result that the
scheme fell through. But even suppose it did come to plank-
ing down the needful and breaking Boyd’s heart it was not
so dear, purse permitting, a few guineas at the outside con-
sidering the fare to Mullingar where he figured on going
was five and six, there and back. The trip would benefit
health on account of the bracing ozone and be in every way
thoroughly pleasurable, especially for a chap whose liver
was out of order, seeing the different places along the route,
Plymouth, Falmouth, Southampton and so on culminating
in an instructive tour of the sights of the great metropo-
lis, the spectacle of our modern Babylon where doubtless he
would see the greatest improvement, tower, abbey, wealth
of Park lane to renew acquaintance with. Another thing
just struck him as a by no means bad notion was he might
have a gaze around on the spot to see about trying to make