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Rh "Truth is, my dear Preston, you don't know what you're doing to-day. The fog has got into your head."

"Do you intend to make a clean sweep of the management, as the papers say?"

"It all depends on yourself, Mr. Preston. I never shove a man against the wall if I can help it. But, on the other hand, I don't enjoy being pushed into a corner myself. Will you join our metals to the rails of your main line?"

"Yes."

"Will you rebuild the station at Oaklands Junction?"

"Yes."

"It is easily given out that this rebuilding was intended from the first, because I surmise that you are a reticent man, Mr. Preston, and take no one into your confidence. May we have a nice corridor train running without a stop from London to Gorham-on-Sea, labelled in lovely gilt letters, 'The Gorham Express'?"

"It will never pay, Lord Stranleigh."

"Give it time, and it will."

"Very well."

Lord Stranleigh turned to the dignified Ponderby, who stood like the Sphinx in the background.

"Ponderby, just ring up Jasper Dent, Press Corporation, Limited. Tell him from me that the rumour about a change in management on the