What! There was a block of
traffic in Oxford Street; to avoid the block people actually began
to travel under the cellars and drains, and the result was a rise of
rents in Shepherd's Bush! And you say that isn't picturesque!
Suppose you were to study, in this spirit, the property question in
London for an hour and a half every other evening. Would it not give
zest to your business, and transform your whole life?
You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able
to tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the
longest straight street in London is about a yard and a half in
length, while the longest absolutely straight street in Paris
extends for miles. I think you will admit that in an estate agent's
clerk I have not chosen an example that specially favours my
theories.
You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance
(disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's "Lombard
Street"? Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed
it up for ninety minutes every other evening, how enthralling your
business would be to you, and how much more clearly you would
understand human nature.
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