, gave dignity to his demeanour and twofold
amplitude to his chest. The horn eye-glass was exchanged for one of
purest gold, the dingy high-lows for well-waxed Wellingtons, the Paisley
fogle for the fabric of the China loom. Moreover, he walked with a
swagger, and affected in common conversation a peculiar dialect which
he opined to be the purest English, but which no one--except a
bagman--could be reasonably expected to understand. His pockets were
invariably crammed with sharelists; and he quoted, if he did not
comprehend, the money article from the "Times." This sort of assumption,
though very ludicrous in itself, goes down wonderfully. Bob gradually
became a sort of authority, and his opinions got quoted on 'Change. He
was no ass, notwithstanding his peculiarities, and made good use of his
opportunity.

For myself, I bore my new dignities with an air of modest meekness. A
certain degree of starchness is indispensable for a railway director, if
he means to go forward in his high calling and prosper; he must abandon
all juvenile eccentricities, and aim at the appearance of a decided
enemy to free trade in the article of Wild Oats. Accordingly, as the
first step toward respectability, I eschewed coloured waistcoats and
gave out that I was a marrying man. No man under forty, unless he is a
positive idiot, will stand forth as a theoretical bachelor. It is all
nonsense to say that there is anything unpleasant in being courted.
Attention, whether from male or female, tickles the vanity; and although
I have a reasonable, and, I hope, not unwholesome regard for the
gratification of my other appetites, I confess that this same vanity is
by far the most poignant of the whole. I therefore surrendered myself
freely to the soft allurements thrown in my way by such matronly
denizens of Glasgow as were possessed of stock in the shape of
marriageable daughters; and walked the more readily into their toils
because every party, though nominally for the purposes of tea, wound up
with a hot supper, and something hotter still by way of assisting the
digestion.

I don't know whether it was my determined conduct at the allocation, my
territorial title, or a most exaggerated idea of my circumstances, that
worked upon the mind of Mr. Sawley. Possibly it was a combination of the
three; but, sure enough few days had elapsed before I received a
formal card of invitation to a tea and serous conversation. Now serious
conversation is a sort of t