Roger Carbury did not believe in the Railway.

He did not believe in Fisker, nor in Melmotte, and certainly not in the Board generally.

Paul Montague had acted in opposition to his advice in yielding to the seductions of Fisker.

The whole thing was to his mind false, fraudulent, and ruinous.

Of what nature could be a Company which should have itself directed by such men as Lord Alfred Grendall and Sir Felix Carbury?
And then as to their great Chairman, did not everybody know, in spite of all the duchesses, that Mr Melmotte was a gigantic swindler?
Although there was more than one immediate cause for bitterness between them, Roger loved Paul Montague well and could not bear with patience the appearance of his friend's name on such a list.