This branch was my own idea. I brought the project before
the board, and have myself superintended the execution of it up to the
present time."
"You are an East Anglian director, I presume?"
"My interest in the company," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, "is threefold.
I am a director; I am a considerable shareholder; and, as head of the
firm of Dwerrihouse, Dwerrihouse, and Craik, I am the company's
principal solicitor."
Loquacious, self-important, full of his pet project, and apparently
unable to talk on any other subject, Mr. Dwerrihouse then went on to
tell of the opposition he had encountered and the obstacles he had
overcome in the cause of the Stockbridge branch. I was entertained with
a multitude of local details and local grievances. The rapacity of one
squire; the impracticability of another; the indignation of the rector
whose glebe was threatened; the culpable indifference of the
Stockbridge townspeople, who could _not_ be brought to see that their
most vital interests hinged upon a junction with the Great East Anglian
line; the spite of the local newspaper; and the unheard-of difficulties
attending the Common question,--were each and all laid before me with
a circumstantiality that possessed the deepest interest for my
excellent fellow-traveller, but none whatever for myself.
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