"There's only one railroad scheme on foot this spring that I know anything about, and that's for a branch of the Massachusetts Outside Railroad through Wachusett. That isn't in the Legislature either."
"That's the one. It's going to be in the Legislature. There's going to be an attempt to change the route."
"Change the route?"
"Yes, so it will go through—but will you promise not to tell this to a living mortal?"
"Of course."
"I suppose," she said, regarding her slipper intently, "that I really ought not to tell you; but I can't help it somehow. Your name is to be used."
"My name?"
"Yes, the men who are planning the thing say that it will be so evident that you'd want the road to go this new way, that if you vote with the Wachusett interest they'll swear you are bought."
"Swear I'm bought? Pooh! Tom Greenfield is too well known for that sort of talk to hold water."
"But through your own town"—