wife was pretty and pleasant, which was in his favour too.

The office was by no means altogether composed of steady specimens of
clerkdom, but had a large admixture of lively sparks who, though they
would never set the Thames on fire, brightened and enlivened our
surroundings.

There was one, a literary genius, who had entered the service, I believe
by influence, for influence and patronage were in those days not unknown.
He wrote in his spare time the pantomime for a Birmingham theatre; and
there constantly fluttered from his desk and circulated through the
office, little scraps of paper containing quips and puns and jokes in
prose or verse, or acrostics from his prolific pen. One clever acrostic
upon the office boy, which has always remained in my memory, I should
like for its delicate irony (worthy of Swift himself) to reproduce; but
as that promising youth may still be in the service I feel I had better
not, as irony sometimes wounds. For some time we had in the office an
Apollo--a very Belvidere. He was a glory introduced into railway life by
I know not what influence and disappeared after a time I know not where
or why. A marvel of manly strength and grace and beauty, thirty years of
age or so, and faultlessly dressed. Said to be aristocratically
connected, he was the admiration of all and the darling of the young
ladies of Derby. He lodged in fashionable apartments, smoked expensive
cigars, attended all public amusements, was affable and charming, but
reticent about himself. Why he ever came amongst us none ever knew; it
was a mystery we never fathomed. He left as he came, a mystery still.

There was an oldish clerk whom we nicknamed _Gumpots_. This bore some
resemblance to his surname, but there were other reasons which led to the
playful designation and which I think justified it.