Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 3

Eddie Willers heads to dinner in the employees’ underground cafeteria — instead of a building restaurant “patronized by Taggart executives” — because “he felt more at home” in a place that “seemed part of the railroad” (p 62). When Eddie’s path crosses that of a particular worker, they continue “their habit to dine together” where Eddie can “talk as he did not talk anywhere else” and “admit things he would not confess to anyone.”

Entering the cafeteria this evening, Eddie notices the worker and they sit together, allowing Eddie to chatter with the “silent presence” with an “enormous intensity” in the only thing of importance to Eddie Willer: Taggart Transcontinental (p 62). “The Rio Norte Line is our last hope … I’m not any kind of a great man. I couldn’t have built that railroad. If it goes … I’ll have to go with it” (p 62-63). Asked about who will lay the Rio Norte Line’s new rail, Eddie responds, “McNamara, of Cleveland” (p 63).