THE FOURTH DIMENSION
tree in full bearing. Consider the profit and amusement you would derive from it. If you could see your way to doing this, we could arrange all the details with your lawyer, and it is possible that the Company might bear some of the cost. I have put the matter, I trust, in a nutshell. If you, my dear sir, will interest yourself in building that wall, and will kindly give us the name of your lawyers, I dare assure you that you will hear no more from the Great Buchonian."
"But why am I to disfigure my lawn with a new brick wall?"
"Grey flint is extremely picturesque."
"Grey flint, then, if you put it that way. Why the dickens must I go building towers of Babylon just because I have held up one of your trains—once?"
"The expression he used in his third letter was that he wished to 'board her,'" said my companion in my ear. "That was very curious—a marine delusion impinging, as it were, upon a land one. What a marvellous world he must move in—and will before the curtain falls. So young, too—so very young!"
"Well, if you want the plain English of it, I 'm damned if I go wall-building to your orders. You can fight it all along the line, into the House of Lords and out again, and get your rulings by the running foot if you like," said Wilton, hotly. "Great heavens, man, I only did it once!"
"We have at present no guarantee that you may not do it again; and, with our traffic, we must, in justice to our passengers, demand some form of guarantee. It must not serve as a precedent. All this might have been
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