he sat behind a huge desk in an office large enough for three american presidents ( if you were to accuse me of exaggerating , you would not be wrong , but the office dimensions were verily huge , so i am forgiven ) , all wood-paneled , expensive antique furniture , photographs of factories and ships and ancestral business personages on the walls , and various photographs of himself smiling and shaking hands with men who , one supposed , were important ones , maybe elected birdbrains .