musingly;
"but there's not much more stock to come and go upon, and these
two share-sharks, Jobson and Grabbie, I know, will be in the market
to-morrow. We must not let them have the whip-hand of us. I think upon
the whole, Dunshunner, though it's letting them go dog-cheap, that we
ought to sell half our shares at the present premium, while there is a
certainty of getting it."

"Why not sell the whole? I'm sure I have no objections to part with
every stiver of the scrip on such terms."

"Perhaps," said Bob, "upon general principles you may be right; but then
remember that we have a vested interest in the line."

"Vested interest be hanged!"

"That's very well; at the same time it is no use to kill your salmon in
a hurry. The bulls have done their work pretty well for us, and we
ought to keep something on hand for the bears; they are snuffing at it
already. I could almost swear that some of those fellows who have sold
to-day are working for a time-bargain."

We accordingly got rid of a couple of thousand shares, the proceeds of
which not only enabled us to discharge the deposit loan, but left us
a material surplus. Under these circumstances a two-handed banquet was
proposed and unanimously carried, the commencement of which I distinctly
remember, but am rather dubious as to the end. 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