So many stories have
lately been circulated to the prejudice of railway directors that I
think it my duty to state that this entertainment was scrupulously
defrayed by ourselves and _not_ carried to account, either of the
preliminary survey, or the expenses of the provisional committee.
Nothing effects so great a metamorphosis in the bearing of the outer
man as a sudden change of fortune. The anemone of the garden differs
scarcely more from its unpretending prototype of the woods than Robert
M'Corkindale, Esq., Secretary and Projector of the Glenmutchkin Railway,
differed from Bob M'Corkindale, the seedy frequenter of "The Crow." In
the days of yore, men eyed the surtout--napless at the velvet collar,
and preternaturally white at the seams--which Bob vouchsafed to wear
with looks of dim suspicion, as if some faint reminiscence, similar to
that which is said to recall the memory of a former state of existence,
suggested to them a notion that the garment had once been their own.
Indeed, his whole appearance was then wonderfully second-hand. Now he
had cast his slough. A most undeniable taglioni, with trimmings
just bordering upon frogs, gave dignity to his demeanour and twofold
amplitude to his chest.
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