When Edward Henry withdrew his head into the compartment Brindley and
Mr. Garvin, the latter standing at the corridor door, observed that
his spirits had shot up in the most astonishing manner, and in their
blindness they attributed the phenomenon to Edward Henry's delight in
a temporary freedom from domesticity.
Mr. Garvin had come from the neighbouring compartment, which was
first-class, to suggest a game at bridge. Messieurs Garvin & Quorrall
journeyed to London once a week and sometimes oftener, and, being
traders, they had special season-tickets. They travelled first-class
because their special season-tickets were first-class, Brindley
said that he didn't mind a game, but that he had not the slightest
intention of paying excess fare for the privilege. Mr. Garvin told him
to come along and trust in Messieurs Garvin & Quorrall. Edward Henry,
not nowadays an enthusiastic card-player, enthusiastically agreed to
join the hand, and announced that he did not care if he paid forty
excess fares. Whereupon Robert Brindley grumbled enviously that it was
"all very well for millionaires"!... They followed Mr. Garvin into
the first-class compartment, and it soon appeared that Messrs Garvin
& Quorrall did, in fact, own the train, and that the London and North
Western Railway was no more than their washpot.
"Bring us a cushion from somewhere, will ye?" said Mr.
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