Mary Minds Her Business by George Weston (page 4)

Three of the visitors looked at each other.

“Imagine a tired woman,” continued Mary, “standing over that stove–perhaps expecting another baby before long. She has been washing all morning and now she is cooking. The room is damp with steam, the ceiling dotted with flies. Then imagine a child crawling around the floor, its mother too busy to attend to it, and you’ll get an idea of where some of these children in the nursery would be–if they weren’t here. Mind,” she earnestly continued, “I’m not saying that home life for poor children doesn’t have its advantages, but we mustn’t forget that it has its disadvantages, too.”

She led them next to the kindergarten.

A recess was on and the children were out in the play-ground–some swinging, some sliding down the chutes, others playing in a merry-go-round which was pushed around by hand.

“Every other hour they have for play,” said Mary. “In the alternate hours the teachers read to them, talk to them, teach them their letters, teach them to sing and give them the regular kindergarten course. If they weren’t here,” she said, half turning to Professor Marsh, “most of them would probably be playing on the street.”

The next place they visited was the dining room–which occupied the upper floor of one of the great buildings which Mary’s father had planned. But to look at it, you would never have suspected the original purpose for which the place had been intended. It was a dining room that any hotel would be glad to call its own, with its forest-colour decorations, its growing palms and ferns on every side.

“The compartments around the walls are for the families,” explained Mary. “It is, of course, optional with those who work here whether they use the dining room or not. We supply all food at cost. This was this morning’s breakfast.”

The bill of fare is too long to quote in full, but the visitors noted that it included a choice of fruit, choice of cereal, choice of tea, coffee, milk or cocoa–and for the main dish, either fish, ham and eggs, oyster stew or small steak.

“What you have seen so far,” said Mary, “is a side issue. Many of our workers are young women not yet married, others have some one at home to look after the children. In fact the woman with a baby or little children is in the minority, but I thought it only right to provide for them–for a number of reasons–“

“Including sympathy?” smiled one of the ladies.

Mary gave her a grateful glance.

“We will now have an inspection of our real work here,” she said, “–the same being the manufacture of bearings.”

The first room they entered was the ground floor of one of the buildings which housed the automatic department. At the nearer machines were long lines of women stamping out the metal discs which held the balls and rollers in their places.

“When these machines were operated by men,” said Mary, “it required considerable strength to throw the levers. But by a very simple improvement we changed the machines so that the lightest touch on the handle is sufficient to do the work. We also put backs on the stools–and elbow rests–and racks for the feet–“

They followed her glances to each of these changes but their attention soon turned to the business-like speed and precision with which each woman did her work.

“Women, of course, are naturally quick,” said Mary as though reading their thoughts. “You know what they can do on a typewriter, for instance–or on a sewing machine. As you can see, it is much simpler to operate one of these automatic machines than it is to typewrite a legal document–or make a dress.”

Together they looked up the long aisle at the double line of workers in their creams and browns, their fingers deftly placing the blanks in position and removing the finished discs. Somewhere, unseen, a phonograph started playing a lively tune.

“Where do they get their flowers?” asked one of the guests, noticing that each woman was wearing a rose or a carnation.

“They find them in their locker rooms every morning,” said Mary. “They usually sing when the phonograph plays,” she added, “but perhaps they feel nervous–at having company–“

This was confirmed when they left the room, for as they stood in the hallway first a hum was heard behind them here and there, and soon a mellow toned chorus arose.

“They certainly seem happy,” said one of the visitors.

“They are,” said Mary. “And, indeed, why shouldn’t they be? Their work is light and interesting; they are paid well; and more than anything else, I think, they all know they are making something useful–something tangible–something they can look upon with satisfaction and pride.”

They ascended a stairway and suddenly the scene changed. Below, the work had been cast as though in a light staccato key, but here the music for the machinery had a more powerful note.

“These are the oscillating grinders,” said Mary, raising her voice above the skirling symphony. “It isn’t everybody who can run them.”

She wondered whether her visitors caught the unconscious air of pride which many of the women wore in this department. At one end of the room a steady stream of rough castings came flowing in, while at the other end an equally steady volume of finished cones went flowing out. Mary had always liked to watch the oscillators and as she stood there, her guests temporarily forgotten, her eyes filled with the almost human movements of the whirling machines, her ears with the triumphant music of the abrasive wheels biting into the metal, that same unconscious air of pride fell upon her, too, and although she didn’t know it, her glance deepened and her head went up–quite in the old Spencer manner.

“Is their work fairly accurate?” asked one of the visitors, breaking the spell.

“Let’s go and see,” said Mary, leading the way.

The cones left the grinders upon an endless conveyor which carried them to an inspection room. Here at long tables were lines of attentive women, each with a set of gauges in front of her. The visitors stopped behind one of these inspectors just as she picked up a cone to put it through its course of tests.

First she slipped it into a gauge to see if it was too large. A pointer on a dial before her swung to “O.K.” Almost without stopping the motion of her hand, she inserted it into another gauge to see if it was too small. Again the pointer swung to “O.K.” The third test was to verify the angle of the cone, and for the third time the pointer said “O.K.” The next moment the cone had been dropped into a box and another was going through the same course.

“How many have been rejected today?” asked one of the visitors.

“Two,” said the inspector.

These two unfortunates lay on a rack in front of her. Interrupting her work she picked up one of them. At the second operation the pointer turned to a red segment of the dial and a bell rang.

“I don’t hear many bells ringing,” commented the visitor, quizzically looking around the room.

Mary smiled with quiet pleasure.

“Next,” she said, “I’m going to take you to a department where women never worked before.”

She led the way to one of the tempering buildings–a building equipped with long lines of ovens–each as large as a baker’s oven–where metal cones were heated instead of rolls.

“Here, too, as you will see,” said Mary, “we have tried to reduce the element of human error as far as possible. In each oven is an electric thermometer and when the bearings have reached the proper degree of heat, an incandescent bulb is automatically lighted in front of the oven…. See?”

They made their way to the oven where a white light had appeared. A woman-worker had already opened the door and was pulling a lever. As though by magic, a bunch of castings, wired together, came travelling out of their heat bath and were immediately lowered into a large tank which held the tempering liquid.

“What would have happened if the oven hadn’t been opened when the white light appeared?” asked another of the visitors.

“In five minutes a red lamp would have been automatically lighted,” said Mary “–a signal for the forewoman to come and take charge of the oven.”

“And suppose the red lamp had been disregarded?”

“In five minutes more an alarm bell would have started. You would have heard it over half the factory–and it would have kept ringing until the superintendent herself had come and stopped it with a key which only she is allowed to carry.”

“Is that the bell now?” he asked, as a mellow chime came from one of the distant buildings.

“No,” smiled Mary, listening, “that’s the lunch bell. In another ten minutes I shall have a surprise for you.”

At the end of that time, they made their way to the dining room, which was already filled with eager women. In one corner was a private room, glass-partitioned. As Mary followed her guests toward it, the full, subdued strains of the Crusader March suddenly sounded in harmonious greeting from the other end of the room.

“Ah!” said the most distinguished visitor, turning to look. “Men at last!”

Mary let him look and then she beamed with pleasure at his glance of appreciation.

“Our own orchestra–one hundred pieces,” she said. “This is their first public appearance.”

Oh, but it was a red-letter day for Mary!

Whether it was the way she felt, or because the sound became softened and mellowed in travelling the length of the dining room, it seemed to her that she had never heard music so sweet, had never listened to sounds that filled her heart so full or lifted her thoughts so high.

The climax came at the end of the dessert. A shy girl entered, a small leather box in her hand.

“I have a souvenir for your visitor, Miss Spencer,” she said, and turning to him she added, “We made it with our own hands, thinking you might like to use it as a paper weight–as a reminder of what women can do.”

The box was lined with blue velvet and contained a small model of the Spencer bearing, made of gold, perfect to the last ball and the last roller. The visitor examined it with admiration–every eye in the dining room (which could be brought to bear) watching him through the glass partition.

“If I ever received a more interesting souvenir,” he said, “I fail to recall it. Thank you, and please thank the others for me. Tell them how very much I appreciate it, and tell them, too, if you will, that here in this factory today I have had my outlook on life widened to an extent which I had thought impossible. For that, too, I thank you.”

Of course they couldn’t hear him in the main room, but they could see when he had finished speaking. They clapped their hands; the band played; and when he arose and bowed, they clapped and played louder than before. And a few minutes later when the party left the dining room to the strains of El Capitan, it seemed to Mary that after the closing chord she heard two vigorous beats of the drum–soul expression of Mrs. Kelly, signifying “That’s us!”

The visitors departed at last, and Mary returned to her office to find other callers awaiting her.

The first was Helen, togged to the nines.

“Somehow she heard they were here,” thought Mary, “and she came down thinking to meet them. She thought surely I would bring them in here again.” But her next reflection made her frown a little. “–Partly that, I guess,” she thought, “and partly to see Burdon, as usual.”

A knock on the door interrupted her, and Joe entered, bearing two cards.

“These gentlemen have been waiting since noon,” he announced, “but they said they didn’t mind waiting when I told them who was with you.”

The cards bore the name of a firm of public accountants.

“Oh, yes,” said Mary. “Show them in, please, Joe. And ask Mr. Burdon if I can see him for a few minutes.”

If you had been there, you might have noticed a change pass over Helen. A moment before Burdon’s name was mentioned she was sitting relaxed and rather dispirited, as you sometimes see a yacht becalmed, riding the water without life or interest. But as soon as it appeared that Burdon was about to enter, a breeze suddenly seemed to fill Helen’s sails. Her beauty, passive before, became active. Her bunting fluttered. Her flags began to fly.

The door opened, but Helen’s smiling glance was disappointed. The two auditors entered.

One was grey, the other was young; but each had the same pale, incurious air of detachment. They reminded Mary of two astronomy professors of her college days, two men who had just such an air of detachment, who always seemed to be out of their element in the daylight, always waiting for the night to come to resume the study of their beloved stars.

“I have sent for our treasurer, Mr. Woodward,” said Mary. “Won’t you be seated for a few minutes?”

They sat down in the same impersonal way and glanced around the room with eyes that seemed to see nothing. By the side of the mantel was a framed piece of history, an itemized bill of the first generation of the firm, dated June 28, 1706, and quaint with its old spelling, its triple column of pounds, shillings and pence.

“May I look at that?” asked one of the accountants, rising. The other followed him. Their heads bent over the document…. It occurred to Mary that they were verifying the addition.

Again the door opened and this time it was Burdon, his dashing personality immediately dominating the room.

Mary introduced the accountants to him.

“With our new methods,” she said, “we probably need a new system of bookkeeping. I also want to compare our old costs with present costs–“

Burdon stared at her, but Mary–half-ashamed of what she was doing–kept her glance upon the two accountants.

“Mr. Burdon will give you all the old records, all the old books you want,” she said, “and will help you in every possible way–“

And still Burdon stared at her–his whole life concentrated for a moment in his glance. And still Mary looked at the two accountants who completed the triangle by looking at Burdon, as they naturally would, waiting for him to turn and speak to them. As Mary watched them, she became conscious of a change in their manner, a tenseness of interest, such as the two astronomers aforesaid might display at the sight of some disturbance in the heavens.

“What do they see?” she thought, and looked at Burdon. But Burdon at the same moment had turned to the accountants, his manner as large, his air as dashing as ever.

“Anything you want, gentlemen,” he said, “you have only to ask for it.”

When Mary reached home that evening, you can imagine how Aunt Patty and Aunt Cordelia listened to her recital, their white heads nodding at the periods, their cheeks pink with pride. Now and then they exchanged glances. “Our baby!” these glances seemed to say, and then turned back to Mary with such love and admiration that finally the object of this pantomime could stand it no longer, but had to kiss them both till their cheeks turned pinker than ever and they gasped for breath.

That night, when Mary went to her room and stood at the window, looking out at the world below and the sky above, she threw out her arms and, turning her face to the moonlight, she felt that world-old wish to express the inexpressible, to put immortal yearnings into mortal words.

Life–thankfulness for life–a joy so deep that it wasn’t far from pain–hoping–longing-yearning … for what? Mary herself could not have told you–perhaps to be one with the starlight and the scent of flowers–to have the freedom of infinity–to express the inexpressible–

For a long time she stood at the window, the moon looking down upon her and bathing her face in its radiance…. Insensibly then the earth recalled her and her thoughts began to return to the events of the day.

“Oh, yes,” she suddenly said to herself, “I knew there was something…. I wonder why the accountants stared at Burdon so….”

CHAPTER XXVIII

Far away, that same moon was watching another scene–a ship on the Southern sea throbbing its way to New York.

It was a steamer just out of Rio, its drawing rooms and upper decks filled with tourists doubly happy because they were going home.

On the steerage deck below, in the apron of a kitchen worker, a man was standing with his elbows on the rail–an uncertain figure in the moonlight. Once when he turned to look at the deck above, a lamp shone upon him. If you had been there you would have seen that while a beard covered much of his face, his cheeks were wasted and his eyes looked as though he needed rest.

He turned his glance out over the sea again, looking now to the north star and now to the roadway of ripples that led to the moon.

“I wonder if Rosa’s asleep,” he thought. “Eleven o’clock. She ought to be. It’s a good school. She’s lucky. So was I, that the old gentleman didn’t get my letter….”

On the deck above, a violin and harp were accompanying a piano.

“That’s where I ought to be–up there,” he thought, “not peeling potatoes and scouring pans down here. All I have to do is to go up and announce myself….” He smiled–a grim affair. “Yes, all I have to do is to go up and announce myself…. They’d take care of me, all right!”

He lifted his hand and thoughtfully rubbed his beard.

“As long as I stick to Russian, I’m safe. Nicholas Rapieff–nobody has suspected me now for fifteen years. Paul Spencer’s dead–dead long ago. But, somehow or other, I have taken it into my head that I would like to see the place where he was born….”

His glance were on the ripples that led to the moon.

“I wonder if the orchard is still back of the house,” he thought, “and the winesap tree I fell out of. I wonder if old Hutch is dead yet. I remember he carried me in the house, and the very next week I knocked the clock down on him…. I wonder if that swimming hole is still there where the river turns below the dam. That was the best of all…. I remember how I liked to lie there–an innocent kid–and dream what I was going to do when I was a man…. Lord in Heaven, what wouldn’t I give to dream those dreams again….”

On the upper deck the dance had come to an end.

“Time to turn in,” thought Paul.

He crossed to the steerage door and a moment later the moon was shining on an empty deck.

CHAPTER XXIX

As time went on, it became increasingly clear to Mary that Wally wasn’t happy–that the “one great thing in life” for him was turning out badly. Never had a Jason sailed forth with greater determination to find the Golden Fleece of Happiness, but with every passing week he seemed to be further than ever from the winning of his prize.

Mary turned it over in her mind for a long time before she found a clue to the answer.

“I believe it’s because Helen has nothing useful to occupy her mind,” she thought one day; and more quickly than words can describe the fancy, she seemed to see the wives at each end of the social scale–each group engaged from morning till night on a never-ending round of unproductive activities, walkers of treadmills, drudges of want and wealth.

“They are in just the same fix–the very rich and the very poor,” she thought, “grinding away all day and getting nowhere–never satisfied–never happy–because way down in their hearts they know they’re not doing anything useful–not doing anything that counts–“

Her mind returned to Helen’s case.

“I’m sure that’s it,” she nodded. “Helen hasn’t found happiness, so she goes out looking for it, and never thinks of trying the only thing that would help her. Yes, and I believe that’s why so many rich people have divorces. When you come to think of it, you hardly ever heard of divorces during the war–because for the first time in their lives a lot of people were doing something useful–“

Hesitating then she asked herself if she ought not to speak to Helen.

“I didn’t get any thanks the last time I tried it,” she ruefully remarked. “But perhaps if I used an awful lot of tact–“

She had her chance that afternoon when Helen dropped in at the office on her way back from the city.

“Shopping–all day–tired to death,” she said, sinking into the chair by the side of the desk. “How are you getting on?”

Mary felt like replying, “Very well, thank you…. But how are you getting on, Helen?…. you and Wally?”

Somehow, though, it sounded dreadful, even to hint that everything wasn’t as it should be between Wally and his wife.

“Besides,” thought Mary, “she’d only say, ‘Oh, all right,’ and yawn and change the subject–and what could I do then?” She answered herself, “Nothing,” and thoughtfully added, “It will take a lot of tact.”

Indeed there are some topics which require so much tact in their presentation that the article becomes lost in its wrappings, and its presence isn’t even suspected by the recipient.

“How’s Wally?” asked Mary.

“Oh, he’s all right.”

“When I saw him the other day, I thought he was looking a bit under.”

“Oh, I don’t know–“

As Mary had guessed, Helen patted her hand over her mouth to hide a yawn. “How’s Aunt Patty and Aunt Cordelia?” she asked.

Mary sighed to herself.

“What can I do?” she thought. “If I say, ‘Helen, you know you’re not happy. Folks never are unless they are doing something useful,’ she would only think I was trying to preach to her. But if I don’t say anything–and things go wrong–“

One of the accountants entered–the elder one–with a sheaf of papers in his hand. On seeing the visitor, he drew back.

“Don’t let me interrupt you,” whispered Helen to Mary. “I’ll run in and see Burdon for a few minutes–“

Absent-mindedly Mary began to look at the papers which the accountant placed before her–her thoughts elsewhere–but gradually her interest centred upon the matter in hand.

“What?” she exclaimed. “A shortage as big as that last year? Never!”

The accountant looked at her with the same quizzical air as an astronomer might assume in looking at a child who had just said, “What? The sun ninety million miles away from the earth? Never!”

“Either that,” he said, “or a good many bearings were made in the factory last year–and lost in the river–“

“Oh, there’s some mistake,” said Mary earnestly. “Perhaps the factory didn’t make as many bearings as you think.”

Again he gave her his astronomical smile, as though she were saying now, “Perhaps the moon isn’t as round as you think it is; it doesn’t always look round to me.”

“I thought it best to show you this, confidentially,” he said, gathering the papers together, “because we have lately become conscious of a feeling of opposition–in trying to trace the source of this discrepancy. It seems to us,” he suggested, speaking always in his impersonal manner, “that this is a point which needs clearing up–for the benefit of every one concerned.”

“Yes,” said Mary after a pause “Of course you must do that. It isn’t right to raise suspicions and then not clear them up…. Besides,” she added, “I know that you’ll find it’s just a mistake somewhere–“

After he had gone, Helen looked in, Burdon standing behind her, holding his cane horizontally, one hand near the handle, the other near the ferrule. In the half gloom of the hall he looked more dashing–more reckless–than Mary had ever visioned him. His cane might have been a sword … his hat three-cornered with a sable feather in it….

“I just looked in to say good-bye,” said Helen. “I’m going to take Burdon home.”

“I need somebody to mind me,” said Burdon, flashing Mary one of his violent smiles; and turning to go he said to Helen over his shoulder, “Come, child. We’re late.”

“He calls her ‘child’…” thought Mary.

That night Wally was a visitor at the house on the hill–and when Mary saw how subdued he was–how chastened he looked–her heart went out to him.

“It seems so good to be here, calling again like this,” he said. “Does it remind you of old times, the same as it does me?”

But Mary wouldn’t follow him there. As they talked it occurred to her more than once that while Wally appeared to be listening to her, his thoughts were elsewhere–his ears attuned for other sounds.

“What are you listening for!” she asked him once.

He answered her with a puzzle.

“For the Lorelei’s song,” he said, and going to the piano he sang it, his clear, plaintive tenor still retaining its power to make her nose smart and the dumb chills to run up and down her back. She was sitting near the piano and when he was through, he turned around on the bench.

“Have you ever been the least bit sorry,” he asked, “that you turned me down–for a business career?”

“I didn’t turn you down,” she said. “We couldn’t agree on certain things: that’s all.”

“On what, for instance?”

“That love is the one great thing in life, for instance. You always said it was–especially to a girl. And I always said there were other things in a woman’s life, too–that love shouldn’t monopolize her any more than it does a man.”

“You were wrong, Mary, and you know you were wrong.”

“I was right, Wally, and you know I was right. Because, don’t you see?–if love is the only thing in life, and love fails, a person’s whole life is in ruins–and that isn’t fair–“

“It’s true, though,” he answered, more to himself than to her. Again he unconsciously assumed a listening attitude, as one who is trying to catch a sound from afar.

“Wally!” said Mary. “What on earth are you listening for?”

Again it pleased him to answer her with a riddle.

“Italian opera,” he said; and turning back to the keyboard he began–

“Woman is fickle
False altogether
Moves like a feather
Borne on the breezes–“

“Did you ever sing when you were flying?” she asked, trying to shake him out of his mood.

The question proved a happy one. For nearly two hours they chatted and smiled and hummed old airs together–that is to say, Wally hummed them and Mary tried, for, as you know, she couldn’t sing but could only follow the melody with a sort of a deep note far down in her throat, always pretending that she wasn’t doing it and shyly laughing when Wally nodded in encouragement and tried to get her to sing up louder.

“Eleven o’clock!” he exclaimed at last. “That’s the first time in three months–“

Whatever it was, he didn’t finish it, but when he bade her good-bye he said in a low voice, “Young lady, do you know that you played the very Old Ned with my life when you turned me down?”

But Mary wouldn’t follow him there, either.

“Good-bye, Wally,” she said, and just before he went down to his car, she saw him standing on the step, his face turned toward the drive as though still listening for that distant sound–that sound which never came.

The riddle was solved the next morning.

Helen appeared at the office soon after nine and the moment she saw Mary she said, “Has Wally ‘phoned you this morning?”

“No,” said Mary.

Her cousin looked relieved.

“I want you to fib for me,” she said. “You know the way the men stick together…. Well, the women have to do it, too…. At dinner yesterday,” she continued, “Wally happened to ask me where I was going that evening, and I told him I was coming over to see you. And really, dear, I meant it at the time. Instead, a little crowd of us happened to get together and we went to the club.

“Well, that was all right. But it was nearly twelve when I got home, and he looked so miserable that I hated to tell him that I had been off enjoying myself, so I pretended I had been over to see you.”

Mary blinked at the inference, but was too breathless, too alarmed to speak.

“He asked me if I got to your house early,” resumed Helen, “and I said, ‘Oh, about eight.’ And then he said, ‘What time did you leave Mary’s?’ and I said, ‘Oh, about half-past eleven.’

“Of course, I thought everything was all right, but I could tell from something he said this morning that he didn’t believe me. So if he calls you up, tell him that I was over at your house last night–will you?–there’s a dear–“

“But I can’t,” said Mary, more breathless, more alarmed than ever. “Wally was over himself last night–and, oh, Helen, now I know! He was listening for your car every minute!”

Helen stared … and then suddenly she laughed–a laugh that had no mirth in it–that sound, half bitter, half mocking, which is sometimes used as ironical applause for ironical circumstance.

“I guess I can square it up somehow,” she said. “I’ll drop in and see Burdon for a few minutes.”

Before her cousin knew it, she was gone.

“I’ll speak to her when she comes out,” Mary told herself, but while she was trying to decide what to say, the morning mail was placed on her desk and the routine of the day began. Half an hour later she heard the sound of Helen’s car rolling away.

“She went without saying good-bye,” thought Mary. “Oh, well, I’ll see her again before long.”

To her own surprise the events of the last few days worried her less than she expected. For one reason, she had lived long enough to notice that no matter how involved things may look, Time has an astonishing faculty of straightening them out. And for another reason, having two worries to think about, each one tended to take her mind off the other.

Whenever she started thinking about the accountant’s report, she presently found herself wondering how Helen proposed to square it up with Wally.

“Oh, well,” she thought again, realizing the futility of trying to read the future, “let’s hope everything will come out right in the end…. It always has, so far….”

Archey came in toward noon, and Mary went with him to inspect a colony of bungalows which she was having built on the heights by the side of the lake.

Another thing that she had lived long enough to notice was the different effect which different people had upon her. Although she preserved, or tried to preserve, the same tranquil air of interest toward them all–a tranquillity and interest which generally required no effort–some of the people she met in the day’s work subconsciously aroused a feeling of antagonism in her, some secretly amused her, some irritated her, some made her feel under a strain, and some even had the queer, vampirish effect of leaving her washed out and listless–psychological puzzles which she had never been able to solve. But with Archey she always felt restful and contented, smiling at him and talking to him without exertion or repression and–using one of those old-fashioned phrases which are often the last word in description–always “feeling at home” with him, and never as though he had to be thought of as company.

They climbed the hill together and began inspecting the bungalows.

“I wouldn’t mind living in one of these myself,” said Archey. “What are you going to do with them?”

But that was a secret. Mary smiled inscrutably and led the way into the kitchen.

I have called it a kitchen, but it was just as much a living room, a dining room. A Pullman table had been built in between two of the windows and on each side of this was a settee. At the other end of the room was a gas range. When Wally opened the refrigerator door he saw that it could be iced from the porch. Electric light fixtures hung from the ceiling and the walls.

“Going to have an artists’ colony up here?” teased Archey, and looking around in admiration he repeated, “No, sir! I wouldn’t mind living in one of these houses myself–“

They went into the next room–the sitting room proper–unusual for its big bay window, its built-in cupboards and bookshelves. Then came the bathroom and three bed-rooms, all in true bungalow style on one floor.

When they had first entered, Mary and Archey had chatted freely enough, but gradually they had grown quieter. There is probably no place in the world so contributive to growing intimacy as a new empty house–when viewed by a young man and a younger woman who have known each other for many years–

The place seems alive, hushed, expectant, watching every move of its visitors, breathing suggestions to them–

“Do you like it?” asked Mary, breaking the silence.

Archey nodded, afraid for the moment to trust himself to speak. They looked at each other and, almost in haste, they went outside.

“He’ll never get over that trick of blushing,” thought Mary. At the end of the hall was a closet door with a mirror set in it. She caught sight of her own cheeks. “Oh, dear!” she breathed to herself. “I wonder if I’m catching it, too!”

Once outside, Archey began talking with the concentration of a man who is trying to put his mind on something else.

“This work up here was a lucky turn for some of the strikers,” he said. “Things are getting slack again now and men are being laid off. Here and there I begin to hear the old grumbling, ‘Three thousand women keeping three thousand men out of jobs.’ So whenever I hear that, I remind them how you found work for a lot of the men up here–and then of course I tell them it was their own fault–going on strike in the first place–just to get four women discharged!”

“And even if three thousand women are doing the work of three thousand men,” said Mary, “I don’t see why any one should object–if the women don’t. The wages are being spent just the same to pay rent and buy food and clothes–and the savings are going into the bank–more so than when the men were drawing the money!”

“I guess it’s a question of pride on the man’s part–as much as anything else–“

“Oh, Archey–don’t you think a woman has pride, too?”

“Well, you know what I mean. He feels he ought to be doing the work, instead of the woman.”

“Oh, Archey,” she said again. “Can’t you begin to see that the average woman has always worked harder than the average man? You ask any of the women at the factory which is the easiest–the work they are doing now–or the work they used to do.”

“I keep forgetting that. But how about this–I hear it all the time. Suppose the idea spreads and after a while there are millions of women doing work that used to be done by men–what are the men going to do?”

“That’s a secret,” she laughed. “But I’ll tell you some day–if you’re good–“

The friendly words slipped out unconsciously, but for some reason her tone and manner made his heart hammer away like that powerful downward passage of the Anvil Chorus. “I’ll be good,” he managed to say.

Mary hardly heard him.

“I wonder what made me speak like that,” she was thinking. “I must be more dignified–or he’ll think I’m bold….” And in a very dignified voice indeed, she said, “I must be getting back now. I wish you’d find the contractor and ask him when he’ll be through.”

She went down the hill alone. On the way a queer thought came to her. I sha’n’t attempt to explain it–only to report it.

“Of course it isn’t the only thing in life–that’s ridiculous,” she thought. “But sooner or later … I guess it becomes quite important….”

CHAPTER XXX

A few hours later, Mary was sitting in her office, thinking of this and that (as the old phrase goes) when a knock sounded on the door and the elderly accountant entered.

“We have finished the first part of our work,” he said, “that dealing with factory costs. I will leave this with you and when you have read it, I would like to go over it with you in detail.”

It was a formidable document, nearly three hundred typewritten pages, neatly bound in hard covers. Mary hadn’t looked in it far when she knew she was examining a work of art.

“How he must love his work!” she thought, and couldn’t help wondering what accidental turn of life had guided his career into the field of figures.

“How interesting he makes it!” she thought again. “Why, it’s almost like a novel.”

Brilliant sentences illuminated nearly every page. “This system, admirable in its way, is probably a legacy from the past, when the bookkeepers of Spencer & Son powdered their hair and used quill pens.–” “Under these conditions, a stock clerk must become a prodigy and depend upon his memory. When memory fails he must become a poet, for he has nothing but imagination to guide him.” “Thus one department would corroborate another, like two witnesses independently sworn and each examined in private–“

The back of the volume, she noticed, was filled with tables of figures. “This won’t be so interesting,” she told herself, turning the leaves. But suddenly she stopped at one of the open pages–and read it again–and again–

“Comparative Efficiency of Men’s Labour and Women’s Labour,” the sheet was headed. And there it was in black and white, line after line, just how much it had cost to make each Spencer bearing when the men did the work, and just how much it was costing under the new conditions.

“There!” said Mary, “I always knew we could do it, if the women in Europe could! There! No wonder we’ve been making so much money lately–!”

She took the report home in triumph to show to her aunts, and when dinner was over she carried the volume to her den, and never a young lady in bye-gone days sat down to Don Juan with any more pleasurable anticipation than Mary felt when she buried herself in her easy chair and opened that report again.

She was still gloating over the table of women’s efficiency when Hutchins appeared.

“Mr. Archibald Forbes is calling.”

Archey had news.

“The men had a meeting this afternoon,” he said. “They’ve been getting up a big petition, and they are going to send another committee to Washington.”

“What for?”

“To press for that boycott. Headquarters put them off last time, but there are so many men out of work now at other factories that they hope to get a favourable decision.”

“I’ll see Judge Cutler in the morning,” promised Mary, and noticing Archey’s expression, she said, “Don’t worry. I’m not the least alarmed.”

“What bothers me,” he said, “is to have this thing hanging over all the time. It’s like old What’s-his-name who had the sword hanging over his head by a single hair all through the dinner.”

The sword didn’t seem to bother Mary, though. That comparative table had given her another idea–an idea that was part plan and part pride. When she reached the office in the morning she telephoned Judge Cutler and Uncle Stanley.

“A directors’ meeting–something important,” she told them both; and after another talk with the accountant she began writing another of her advertisements. She was finishing this when Judge Cutler appeared. A minute later Uncle Stanley followed him.

Lately Uncle Stanley had been making his headquarters at the bank–his attitude toward the factory being one of scornful amusement.

“Women mechanics!” he sometimes scoffed to visitors at the bank. “Women foremen! Women presidents! By Judas, I’m beginning to think Old Ned himself is a woman–the sort of mischief he’s raising lately!… Something’s bound to crack before long, though.”

In that last sentence you have the picture of Uncle Stanley. Even as Mr. Micawber was always waiting for something to turn up, so Uncle Stanley was always waiting for something to go wrong.

Mary opened the meeting by showing the accountants’ report and then reading her proposed advertisement. If you had been there, I think you would have seen the gleam of satisfaction in Uncle Stanley’s eye.

“I knew I’d catch her wrong yet,” he seemed to be saying to himself. “As soon as she’s made a bit of money, she wants everybody to have it. It’s the hen and the egg all over again–they’ve simply got to cackle.”

Thus the gleam in Uncle Stanley’s eye. Looking up at the end of her reading, Mary caught it. “How he hates women!” she thought. “Still, in a way, you can’t wonder at it…. If it hadn’t been for women and the things they can do he would have had the factory long ago.” Aloud she said, “What do you think of it?”

“I think it’s a piece of foolishness, myself,” said Uncle Stanley promptly. “But I know you are going to do it, if you’ve made up your mind to do it.”

“I’m not so sure it’s foolish,” said the judge. “It seems to me it’s going to bring us a lot of new business.”

“Got all we can handle now, haven’t we?”

“Well, we can expand! It wouldn’t be the first time in Spencer & Son’s history that the factory has been doubled, and, by Jingo, I believe Mary’s going to do it, too!”

Mary said nothing, but a few mornings later when the advertisement appeared in the leading newspapers throughout the country, she made a remark which showed that her co-directors had failed to see at least two of the birds at which she was throwing her stone…. She had the newspapers brought to her room that morning, and was soon reading the following quarter page announcement:

THE FRUITS OF HER LABOUR

For the past six months, Spencer bearings have been made exclusively by women.

The first result of this is a finer degree of accuracy than had ever been attained before.

The second result is a reduction in the cost of manufacture, this notwithstanding the fact that every woman on our payroll has always received man’s wages, and we have never worked more than eight hours a day.

To those who watched the work done by women in the war, neither of the above results will be surprising.

Because of the accuracy of her work, Spencer bearings are giving better satisfaction than ever before.

Because of her dexterity and quickness, we are able to make the following public announcement:

We are raising the wages of every woman in our factory one dollar a day; and we are reducing the price of our bearings ten per cent.

These changes go into effect immediately.

JOSIAH SPENCER & SON, INC.
MARY SPENCER, President.

“There!” said Mary, sitting up in bed and making a gesture to the world outside. “That’s what women can do! … Are you going to boycott us now?”

CHAPTER XXXI

If you can imagine a smiling, dreamy-eyed bombshell that explodes in silence, aimed at men’s minds instead of their bodies, rocking fixed ideas upon their foundations and shaking innumerable old notions upon their pedestals until it is hard to tell whether or not they are going to fall, perhaps you can get an idea of the first effect of Mary’s advertisement. Wherever skilled workmen gathered together her announcement was discussed, and nowhere with greater interest than in her own home town.

“Seems to me this thing may spread,” said a thoughtful looking striker in Repetti’s pool-room. “Looks to me as though we had started something that’s going to be powerful hard to stop.”

“What makes you think it’s going to spread?” asked another.

“Stands to reason. If women can make bearings cheaper than men, the other bearing companies have got to hire women, too, or else go out of business. And you can bet your life they won’t go out of business without giving the other thing a try.”

“Hang it all, there ought to be a law against women working,” said a third.

“You mean working for wages?”

“Sure I mean working for wages.”

“How are you going to pass a law like that when women can vote?” impatiently demanded a fourth.

“Bill’s right,” said another. “We’ve started something here that’s going to be hard to stop.”

“And the next thing you know,” continued Bill, looking more thoughtful than ever, “some manufacturer in another line of business–say automobiles–is going to get the idea of cutting his costs and lowering his prices–and pretty soon you’ll see women making automobiles, too. You can go to sleep at some of those tools in a motor shop. Pie for the ladies!”

“What are us men going to do after a while?” complained another. “Wash the dishes? Or sweep the streets? Or what?”

“Search me. I guess it’ll come out all right in the end; but, believe me, we certainly pulled a bonehead play when we went on strike because of those four women.”

“I was against it from the first, myself,” said another.

“So was I. I voted against the strike.”

“So did I!”

“So did I!”

It was a conversation that would have pleased Mary if she could have heard it, especially when it became apparent that those who had caused the strike were becoming so hard to find. But however much they might now regret the first cause, the effect was growing more irresistible with every passing hour.

It began to remind Mary of the dikes in Holland.

For centuries, working unconsciously more often than not, men had built walls that kept women out of certain industries.

Then through their own strike, the men at New Bethel had made a small hole in the wall–and the women had started to trickle through. With the growth of the strike, the gap in the wall had widened and deepened. More and more women were pouring through, with untold millions behind them, a flowing flood of power that was beginning to make Mary feel solemn. Like William the Thoughtful, she, too, saw that she had started something which was going to be hard to stop….

All over the country, women had been watching for the outcome of her experiment, and when the last announcement appeared, a stream of letters and inquiries poured upon her desk…. The reporters returned in greater strength than ever…. It sometimes seemed to Mary that the whole dike was beginning to crack…. Even Jove must have felt a sense of awe when he saw the effect of his first thunderbolt….

“If they would only go slowly,” she uneasily told herself, “it would be all right. But if they go too fast…”

She made a helpless gesture–again the gesture of those who have started something which they can’t stop–but just before she went home that evening she received a telegram which relieved the tension.

“May we confer with you Monday at your office regarding situation at New Bethel?”

That was the telegram. It was signed by three leaders of labour–the same men, Mary remembered, whom Judge Cutler had seen when he had visited headquarters.

“Splendid men, all of them,” she remembered him reporting. “I’m sure you’d like them, Mary.”

“Perhaps they’ll be able to help,” she told herself. “Anyhow, I’m not going to worry any more until I have seen them.”

That night, after dinner, two callers appeared at the house on the hill.

The first was Helen.

Dinner was hardly over when Mary saw her smart coupe turn in to the garage. A minute later Helen ran up the steps, a travelling bag in her hand. She kissed her cousin twice, quotation marks of affection which enclosed the whisper, “Do you mind if I stay all night?”

“Of course I don’t,” said Mary, laughing at her earnestness. “What’s the matter? Wally out of town?”

“Oh, don’t talk to me about Wally! … No; he isn’t out of town. That’s why I’m here…. Can I have my old room?”

She was down again soon, her eyes brighter than they should have been, her manner so high strung that it wasn’t far from being flighty. As though to avoid conversation, she seated herself at the piano and played her most brilliant pieces.

“I think you might tell me,” said Mary, in the first lull.

“I told you long ago. Men are fools! But if he thinks he can bully me–!”

“Who?”

“Wally!” Mary’s exclamation of surprise was drowned in the ballet from Coppelia. “I don’t allow any man to worry me!” said Helen over her shoulder.

“But, Helen–don’t you think it’s just possible–that you’ve been worrying him?”

A crashing series of chords was her only answer. In the middle of a run Helen topped and swung around on the bench.

“Talking about worrying people,” she said. “What’s the matter with Burdon down at the office lately? What have you been doing to him?”

“Helen! What a thing to say!”

“Well, that’s how it started, if you want to know! I was trying to cheer him up a little … and Wally thought he saw more than he did….”

For a feverish minute she resumed Delibes’ dance, but couldn’t finish it. She rose, half stumbling, blinded by her tears and Mary comforted her.

“Now, go and get your bag, dear,” she said at last, “and I’ll go home with you, and stay all night if you like.”

But Helen wouldn’t have that.

“No,” she said, “I’m going to stay here a few days. I told my maid where she could find me–but I made her promise not to tell Wally till morning–and I’m not going back till he comes for me.”

“I wonder what he saw…” Mary kept thinking. “Poor Wally!” And then more gently, “Poor Helen! … It’s just as I’ve always said.”

Mary was a long time going to sleep that night, thinking of Helen, and Wally and Burdon.

Yes, Helen was right about Burdon. Something was evidently worrying him. For the last few days she had noticed how irritable he was, how drawn he looked.

“I do believe he’s in trouble of some sort,” she sighed. “And he looks so reckless, too. I’m glad that Wally did speak to Helen. He isn’t safe.” And again the thought recurring, “I wonder what Wally saw….”

A sound from the lawn beneath her window stopped her. At first she thought she was dreaming–but no, it was a mandolin being played on muted strings. She stole to the window. In the shadow stood a figure and at the first subdued note of his song, Mary knew who it was.

“Soft o’er the fountain
Ling’ring falls the southern moon–“

“If that isn’t Wally all over,” thought Mary. “He thinks Helen’s here, and he wants to make up.”

But how did he know Helen was there? And why was he singing so sadly, so plaintively just underneath Mary’s window? Another possibility came to her mind and she was still wondering what to do when Helen came in, even as she had come in that night so long ago when Wally had sung Juanita before.

“Wait till morning! He’ll hear from me!” said Helen in indignation.

Wally’s song was growing fainter. He had evidently turned and was walking toward the driveway. A minute later the rumble of a car was heard.

“If he thinks he can talk to me the way he did,” said Helen, more indignant than before, “and then come around here like that–serenading you–!”

“Oh, Helen, don’t,” said Mary, trembling. “…I think he was saying good-bye…. Wait till I put the light on….”

The distress in her voice cheeked Helen’s anger, and a moment later the two cousins were staring at each other, two tragic figures suddenly uncovered from the mantle of light.

“I won’t go back to my room; I’ll stay here,” whispered Helen at last. “Don’t fret, Mary; he won’t do anything.”

It was a long time, though, before Mary could stop trembling, but an hour later when the telephone bell began ringing downstairs, she found that her old habit of calmness had fallen on her again.

“I’ll answer it,” she said to Helen. “Don’t cry now. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

But when she returned in a few minutes, Helen only needed one glance to tell her how far it was from being nothing.

“Your maid,” said Mary, hurrying to her dresser. “Wally’s car ran into the Bar Harbor express at the crossing near the club…. He’s terribly hurt, but the doctor says there’s just a chance…. You run and dress now, as quickly as you can…. I have a key to the garage….”

CHAPTER XXXII

The first east-bound express that left New York the following morning carried in one of its Pullmans a famous surgeon and his assistant, bound for New Bethel. In the murk of the smoker ahead was a third passenger whose ticket bore the name of the same city–a bearded man with rounded shoulders and tired eyes, whose clothes betrayed a foreign origin.

This was Paul Spencer on the last stage of his journey home.

Until the train drew out of the station, the seat by his side was unoccupied. But then another foreign looking passenger entered and made his way up the aisle.

You have probably noticed how some instinctive law of selection seems to guide us in choosing our companion in a car where all the window seats are taken. The newcomer passed a number of empty places and sat down by the side of Paul. He was tall, blonde, with dusty looking eyebrows and a beard that was nearly the colour of dead grass.

“Russian, I guess,” thought Paul, “and probably thinks I am something of the same.”

The reflection pleased him.

“If that’s the way I look to him, nobody else is going to guess.”

When the conductor came, Paul’s seat-mate tried to ask if he would have to change cars before reaching his destination, but his language was so broken that he couldn’t make himself understood.

“I thought he was Russian,” Paul nodded to himself, catching a word here and there; and, aloud, he quietly added in his mother’s tongue, “It’s all right, batuchka; you don’t have to change.”

The other gave him a grateful glance, and soon they were talking together.

“A Bolshevist,” thought Paul, recognizing now and then a phrase or an argument which he had heard from some of his friends in Rio, “but what’s he going to New Bethel for?”

As the train drew nearer the place of his birth, Paul grew quieter. Old landmarks, nearly forgotten, began to appear and remind him of the past.

“What time do we get there?” he asked a passing brakeman.

“Eleven-thirty-four.”

Paul’s companion gave him a look of envy.

“You speak English well,” said he.

Paul didn’t like that, and took refuge behind one of those Slavonic indirections which are typical of the Russian mind–an indirection hinting at mysterious purpose and power.

“There are times in a life,” said he, “when it becomes necessary to speak a foreign language well.”

They looked at each other then, and simultaneously they nodded.

“You are right, batuchka,” said the blonde giant at last, matching indirection with indirection. “For myself, I cannot speak English well–ah, no–but I have a language that all men understand–and fear–and when I speak, the houses fall and the mountains shake their heads.”

His eyes gleamed and he breathed quickly–intoxicated by the poetry of his own words; but Paul had heard too much of that sort of imagery to be impressed.

“A Bolshevist, sure enough,” he thought.

A familiar landscape outside attracted his attention.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” he thought. “Yes, there’s the road … and there’s the lower bridge…. I hope that old place at the bend of the river’s still there. I’ll take a walk down this afternoon, and see.”

At the station he noted that his late companion was being greeted by a group of friends who had evidently come to meet him. Paul stood for a few minutes on the platform, unrecognized, unheeded, jostled by the throng.

“The prodigal son returns,” he sighed, and slowly crossed the square….

Late in the afternoon a tired figure made its way along the river below the factory. The banks were high, but where the stream turned, a small grass-covered cove had been hollowed out by the edge of the water.

“This is the best of all,” thought Paul after he had climbed down the bank and, sinking upon the grass, he lay with his face to the sun, as he had so often lain when he was a boy, dreaming those golden dreams of youth which are the heritage of us all.

“I was a fool to come,” he told himself. “I’ll get back to the ship tomorrow….”

For where he had hoped to find pleasure, he had found little but bitterness. The sight of the house on the hill, the factory in the hollow below the dam, even the faces which he had recognized had given him a feeling of sadness, of punishment–a feeling which only an outcast can know to the full–an outcast who returns to the scene of his home after many years, unrecognized, unwanted, afraid almost to speak for fear he will betray himself….

For a long time Paul lay there, sometimes staring up at the sky, sometimes half turning to look up the river where he could catch a glimpse of the factory grounds and, farther up, the high cascade of water falling over the dam–the bridge just above it….

Gradually a sense of rest, of relaxation took possession of him. “This is the best of all,” he sighed, “but I’ll get back to the ship tomorrow….”

The sun shone on his face…. His eyes closed….

When he opened them again it was dark.

“First time I’ve slept like that for years,” he said, sitting up and stretching. Around him the grass was wet with dew. “Must be getting late,” he thought. “I’d better get under shelter.”

On the bridge above the dam he saw the headlights of a car slowly moving. In the centre it stopped and the lights went out.

“That’s funny,” he thought. “Something the matter with his wires, maybe.”

He stood up, idly watching. After a few minutes the lights switched on again and the car began to move forward. Behind it appeared the approaching lights of a second machine.

“That first car doesn’t want to be seen,” thought Paul. At each end of the bridge was an arc lamp. As the first car passed under the light, he caught a glimpse of it–a grey touring car, evidently capable of speed.

Paul didn’t think of this again until he was near the place where he had decided to pass the night. At the corner of the street ahead of him a grey car stopped and three men got out–his blonde companion of the train among them, conspicuous both on account of his height and his beard.

“That’s the same car,” thought Paul, watching it roll away; and frowning as he thought of his Russian acquaintance of the morning he uneasily added, “I wonder what they were doing on that bridge….”

CHAPTER XXXIII

The next morning Wally was a little better.

He was still unconscious, but thanks to the surgeon his breathing was less laboured and he was resting more quietly. Mary had stayed with Helen overnight, and more than once it had occurred to her that even as it requires darkness to bring out the beauty of the stars, so in the shadow of overhanging disaster, Helen’s better qualities came into view and shone with unexpected radiance.

“I know…” thought Mary. “It’s partly because she’s sorry, and partly because she’s busy, too. She’s doing the most useful work she ever did in her life, and it’s helping her as much as it’s helping him–“

They had a day nurse, but Helen had insisted upon doing the night work herself. There were sedatives to be given, bandages to be kept moist. Mary wanted to stay up, too, but Helen didn’t like that.

“I want to feel that I’m doing something for him–all myself,” she said, and with a quivering lip she added, “Oh, Mary… If he ever gets over this…!”

And in the morning, to their great joy, the doctor pronounced him a little better. Mary would have stayed longer, but that was the day when the labour leaders were to visit the factory; so after hearing the physician’s good report, she started for the office.

At ten o’clock she telephoned Helen who told her that Wally had just fallen off into his first quiet sleep.

“I’m going to get some sleep myself, now, if I can,” she added. “The nurse has promised to call me when he wakes.”

Mary breathed easier, for some deep instinct told her that Wally would come through it all right. She was still smiling with satisfaction when Joe of the Plumed Hair came in with three cards, the dignity of his manner attesting to the importance of the names.

“All right, Joe, send them in,” she said. “And I wish you’d find Mr. Forbes and Mr. Woodward, and tell them I would like to see them.”

“Mr. Woodward hasn’t come down yet, but I guess I know where Mr. Forbes is–“

He disappeared and returned with the three callers.

Mary arose and bowed as they introduced themselves, meanwhile studying them with tranquil attentiveness.

“The judge was right,” she told herself. “I like them.” And when they sat down, there was already a friendly spirit in the air.

“This is a wonderful work you are doing here, Miss Spencer,” said one.

“You think so?” she asked. “You mean for the women to be making bearings?”

“Yes. Weren’t you surprised yourself when your idea worked out so well?”

“But it wasn’t my idea,” she said. “It was worked out in the war–oh, ever so much further than we have gone here. We are only making bearings, but when the war was on, women made rifles and cartridges and shells, cameras and lenses, telescopes, binoculars and aeroplanes. I can’t begin to tell you the things they made–every part from the tiniest screws as big as the end of this pin–to rough castings. They did designing, and drafting, and moulding, and soldering, and machining, and carpentering, and electrical work–even the most unlikely things–things you would never think of–like ship-building, for instance!

“Ship-building! Imagine!” she continued.

“Why, one of the members of the British Board of Munitions said that if the war had lasted a few months longer, he could have guaranteed to build a battleship from keel to crow’s-nest–with all its machinery and equipment–all its arms and ammunition–everything on it–entirely by woman’s labour!

“So, you see, I can’t very well get conceited about what we are doing here–although, of course, I am proud of it, too, in a way–“

She stopped then, afraid they would think she was gossipy–and she let them talk for a while. The conversation turned to her last advertisement.

“Are you sure your figures are right?” asked one. “Are you sure your women workers are turning out bearings so much cheaper than the men did?”

“They are not my figures,” she told them. “They are taken from an audit by a firm of public accountants.”

She mentioned the name of the firm and her three callers nodded with respect.

“I have the report here,” she said–and showed them the table of comparative efficiency.

“Remarkable!” said one.

“It only confirms,” said Mary, “what often happened during the war.”

“Perhaps you are working your women too hard.”

“If you would like to go through the factory,” said Mary, “you can judge for yourselves.”

Archey was in the outer office and they took him with them. They began with the nursery and went on, step by step, until they arrived at the shipping room.

“Do you think they are overworked?” asked Mary then.

The three callers shook their heads. They had all grown rather silent as the tour had progressed, but in their eyes was the light of those who have seen revelations.

“As happy a factory as I have ever seen,” said one. “In fact, it makes it difficult to say what we wanted to say.”

They returned to the office and when they were seated again, Mary said, “What is it you wanted to say?”

“We wanted to talk to you about the strike. As we understand your principle, Miss Spencer, you regard it as unfair to bar a woman from any line of work which she may wish to follow–simply because she is a woman.”

“That’s it,” she said.

“And for the same reason, of course, no man should be debarred from working, simply because he’s a man.”

They smiled at that.

“Such being the case,” he continued, “I think we ought to be able to find some way of settling this strike to the satisfaction of both sides. Of course you know, Miss Spencer, that you have won the strike. But I think I can read character well enough to know that you will be as fair to the men as you wish them to be with the women.”

“The strike was absolutely without authority from us,” said one of the others. “The men will tell you that. It was a mistake. They will tell you that, too. Worse than a mistake, it was silly.”

“However, that’s ancient history now,” said the third. “The present question is: How can we settle this matter to suit both sides?”

“Of course I can’t discharge any of the women,” said Mary thoughtfully, “and I don’t think they want to leave–“

“They certainly don’t look as if they did–“

“I have another plan in mind,” she said, more thoughtfully than before, “but that’s too uncertain yet…. The only other thing I can think of is to equip some of our empty buildings and start the men to work there. Since our new prices went into effect we have been turning business away.”

“You’ll do that, Miss Spencer?”

“Of course the men would have to do as much work as the women are doing now–so we could go on selling at the new prices.”

“You leave that to us–and to them. If there’s such a thing as pride in the world, a thousand men are going to turn out as many bearings as a thousand women!”

“There’s one thing more,” said the second; “I notice you have raised your women’s wages a dollar a day. Can we tell the men that they are going to get women’s wages?”

They laughed at this inversion of old ideas.

“You can tell them they’ll get women’s wages,” said Mary, “if they can do women’s work!”

But in spite of her smile, for the last few minutes she had become increasingly conscious of a false note, a forced conclusion in their plans–had caught glimpses of future hostilities, misunderstandings, suspicions. The next remark of one of the labour leaders cleared her thoughts and brought her back face to face with her golden vision.

“The strike was silly–yes,” one of the leaders said. “But back of the men’s actions I think I can see the question which disturbed their minds. If women enter the trades, what are the men going to do? Will there be work enough for everybody?”

Even before he stopped speaking, Mary knew that she had found herself, knew that the solid rock was under her feet again.

“There is just so much useful work that has to be done in the world every day,” she said, “and the more hands there are to do it, the quicker it will get done.”

That was as far as she had ever gone before, but now she went a step farther.

“Let us suppose, for instance, that we had three thousand married men working here eight hours a day to support their families. If now we allow three thousand women to come out of those same homes and work side by side with the men–why, don’t you see?–the work could be done in four hours instead of eight, and yet the same family would receive just the same income as they are getting now–the only difference being that instead of the man drawing all the money, he would draw half and his wife would draw half.”

“A four hour day!” said one of the leaders, almost in awe.

“I’m sure it’s possible if the women help,” said Mary, “and I know they want to help. They want to feel that they are doing something–earning something–just the same as a man does. They want to progress–develop–

“We used to think they couldn’t do men’s work,” she continued. “I used to think so, myself. So we kept them fastened up at home–something like squirrels in cages–because we thought housework was the only thing they could do….

“But, oh, how the war has opened our eyes!…

“There’s nothing a man can do that a woman can’t do–nothing! And now the question is: Are we going to crowd her back into her kitchen, when if we let her out we could do the world’s work in four hours instead of eight?”

“Of course there are conditions where four hours wouldn’t work,” said one of the leaders half to himself. “I can see that in many places it might be feasible, but not everywhere–“

“No plan works everywhere. No plan is perfect,” said Mary earnestly. “I’ve thought of that, too. The world is doing its best to progress–to make people happier–to make life more worth living all the time. But no single step will mark the end of human progress. Each step is a step: that’s all…

“Take the eight hour day, for instance. It doesn’t apply to women at all–I mean house women. And nearly half the people are house women. It doesn’t apply to farmers, either; and more than a quarter of the people in America are on farms. But you don’t condemn the eight hour day–do you?–just because it doesn’t fit everybody?”

“A four hour day!” repeated the first leader, still speaking in tones of awe.

“If that wouldn’t make labour happy,” said the second, “I don’t know what would.”

“Myself, I’d like to see it tried out somewhere,” said the third. “It sounds possible–the way Miss Spencer puts it–but will it work?”

“That’s the very thing to find out,” said Mary, “and it won’t take long.”

She told them about the model bungalows.

“I intended to try it with twenty-five families first,” she said, taking a list from her desk. “Here are the names of a hundred women working here, whose husbands are among the strikers. I thought that out of these hundred families, I might be able to find twenty-five who would be willing to try the experiment.”

The three callers looked at each other and then they nodded approval.

“So while we’re having lunch,” she said, “I’ll send these women out to find their husbands, and we’ll talk to them altogether.”

It was half past one when Mary entered the rest room with her three visitors and Archey. Nearly all the women had found their men, and they were waiting with evident curiosity.

As simply as she could, Mary repeated the plan which she had outlined to the leaders.

“So there you are,” she said in conclusion. “I want to find twenty-five families to give the idea a trial. They will live in those new bungalows–you have probably all seen them.

“There’s a gas range in each to make cooking easy. They have steam heat from the factory–no stoves–no coal–no ashes to bother with. There’s electric light, refrigerator, bathroom, hot and cold water–everything I could think of to save labour and make housework easy.

“Now, Mrs. Strauss, suppose you and your husband decide to try this new arrangement. You would both come here and work till twelve o’clock, and the afternoons you would have to yourselves.

“In the afternoons you could go shopping, or fishing, or walking, or boating, or skating, or visiting, or you could take up a course of study, or read a good book, or go to the theatre, or take a nap, or work in your garden–anything you liked….

“In short, after twelve o’clock, the whole day would be your own–for your own development, your own pleasure, your own ideas–anything you wanted to use it for. Do you understand it, Mrs. Strauss?”

“Indeed I do. I think it’s fine.”

“Is Mr. Strauss here? Does he understand it?”

“Yes, I understand it,” said a voice among the men. Assisted by his neighbours he arose. “I’m to work four hours a day,” he said, “and so’s the wife. Instead of drawing full money, I draw half and she draws half. We’d have to chip in on the family expenses. Every day is to be like Saturday–work in the morning and the afternoon off. Suits me to a dot, if it suits her. I always did think Saturday was the one sensible day in the week.”

A chorus of masculine laughter attested approval to this sentiment and Mr. Strauss sat down abashed.

“Well, now, if you all understand it,” said Mary, “I want twenty-five families who will volunteer to try this four-hour-a-day arrangement–so we can see how it works. All those who would like to try it–will they please stand up?”

Presently one of the labour leaders turned to Mary with a beaming eye.

“Looks as though they’ll have to draw lots,” said he… “They are all standing up…!”

CHAPTER XXXIV

The afternoon was well advanced when her callers left, and Mary had to make up her work as best she could.

A violent thunder-storm had arisen, but in spite of the lightning she telephoned Helen.

Wally was still improving.

“I’ll be over as soon as I’ve had dinner,” said Mary, “but don’t expect me early.”

She was hanging up the receiver when the senior accountant entered, a little more detached, a little more impersonal than she had ever seen him.

“We shall have our final report ready in the morning,” he said.

“That’s good,” said Mary, starting to sign her letters. “I’ll be glad to see it any time.”

At the door he turned, one hand on the knob.

“I haven’t seen Mr. Woodward, Jr., today. Do you expect him tomorrow?”

At any other time she would have asked herself, “Why is he inquiring for Burdon?”–but she had so much work waiting on her desk, demanding her attention, that it might be said she was talking subconsciously, hardly knowing what was asked or answered.

It was dusk when she was through, and the rain had stopped for a time. Near the entrance to the house on the hill–a turn where she always had to drive slowly–a shabby man was standing–a bearded man with rounded shoulders and tired eyes.

“I wonder who he is?” thought Mary. “That’s twice I’ve seen him standing there….”

Without seeming to do so, a pretence which only a woman can accomplish, she looked at him again. “How he stares!” she breathed.

As you have guessed, the waiting man was Paul.

For the first time that morning he had heard about the strike–had heard other things, too–in the cheap hotel where he had spent the night–obscure but alarming rumours which had led him to change his plans about an immediate return to his ship. A bit here, a bit there, he had pieced the story of the strike together–a story which spared no names, and would have made Burdon Woodward’s ears burn many a time if he had heard it.

“There’s a bunch of Bolshevikis come in now–” this was one of the things which Paul had been told. “‘Down with the capitalists who prey on women!’ That’s them! But it hasn’t caught on. Sounds sort of flat around here to those who know the women. So this bunch of Bols has been laying low the last few days. They’ve hired a boat and go fishing in the lake. They don’t fool me, though–not much they don’t. They’re up to some deviltry, you can bet your sweet life, and we’ll be hearing about it before long–“

Paul’s mind turned to the blonde giant who had ridden on the train from New York, and the group of friends who had been waiting for him at the station.

“He was up to something–the way he spoke,” thought Paul. “And last night he was in that car on the bridge…. Where do these Bols hang out?” he asked aloud.

He was told they made their headquarters at Repetti’s pool-room, but though he looked in that establishment half a dozen times in the course of the day, he failed to see them.

“Looking for somebody?” an attendant asked him.

“Yes,” said Paul. “Tall man with a light beard. Came in from New York yesterday.”

“Oh, that bunch,” grinned the attendant. “They’ve gone fishing again. Going to get wet, too, if they ain’t back soon.”

For over three hours then the storm had raged, the rain falling with the force of a cloudburst. At seven it stopped and, going out, Paul found himself drifting toward the house on the hill.

It was there he saw Mary turning in at the gate. He stood for a long time looking at the lights in the windows and thinking those thoughts which can only come to the Ishmaels of the world–to those sons of Hagar who may never return to their father’s homes.

“I was a fool for coming,” he half groaned, tasting the dregs of bitterness. Unconsciously he compared the things that were with the things that might have been.

“She certainly acted like a queen to Rosa,” he thought once.

For a moment he felt a wild desire to enter the gate, to see his home again, to make himself known–but the next moment he knew that this was his punishment–“to look, to long, but ne’er again to feel the warmth of home.”

He returned to the pool-room, his eyes more tired than ever, and found a seat in a far corner. Some one had left a paper in the next chair. Paul was reading it when he became conscious of some one standing in front of him, waiting for him to look up. It was his acquaintance of the day before–the Russian traveller–and Paul perceived that he was excited, and was holding himself very high.

“Good evening, batuchka,” said Paul, and looking at the other’s wet clothes he added, “I see you were caught in the storm.”

“You are right, batuchka,” said the other, and leaning over, his voice slightly shaking, he added, “Others, too, are about to be caught in a storm.” He raised his finger with a touch of grandeur and took the chair by Paul’s side, breathing hard and obviously holding himself at a tension.

“Your friends aren’t with you tonight?”

Again the Russian spoke in parables. “Some men run from great events. Others stop to witness them.”

“Something in the wind,” thought Paul. “I think he’ll talk.” Aloud he said, pretending to yawn, “Great events, batuchka? There are no more great events in the world.”

“I tell you, there are great events,” said the other, “wherever there are great men to do them.”

“You mean your friends?” asked Paul. “But no. Why should I ask! For great men would not spend their days in catching little fishes–am I not right, batuchka?”

“A thousand times right,” said the other, his grandeur growing, “but instead of catching little fishes, what do you say of a man who can let loose a large fish–an iron fish–a fish that can speak with a loud noise and make the whole world tremble–!”

Paul quickly raised his finger to his lips.

“Let’s go outside,” he said. “Some one may hear us here…”

CHAPTER XXXV

At eight o’clock Mary had gone to Helen’s.

“If I’m not back at ten, I sha’n’t be home tonight,” she had told Hutchins as she left the house.

At half past eight Archey called, full of the topic which had been started that afternoon. Hutchins told him what Mary had said.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll wait.” He left his car under the porte cochere, and went upstairs to chat with Miss Cordelia and Miss Patty.

At twenty to ten, Hutchins was looking through the hall window up the drive when he saw a figure running toward the house. The door-bell rang–a loud, insistent peal.

Hutchins opened the door and saw a man standing there, shabby and spattered with mud.

“Is Miss Spencer in?”

“No; she’s out.”

The hall light shone on the visitor’s face and he stared hard at the butler. “Hutch,” he said in a quieter voice, “don’t you remember me?”

“N-n-no, sir; I think not, sir,” said the other–and he, too, began to stare.

“Don’t you remember the day I fell out of the winesap tree, and you carried me in, and the next week I tried to climb on top of that hall clock, and knocked it over, and you tried to catch it, and it knocked you over, too?”

The butler’s lips moved, but at first he couldn’t speak.

“Is it you, Master Paul?” he whispered at last, as though he were seeing a visitor from the other world. And again “Is it you, Master Paul?”

“You know it is. Listen, now. Pull yourself together. We’ve got to get to the dam before ten o’clock, or they’ll blow it up. Put your hat on. Have you a car here?”

In the hall the clock chimed a quarter to ten. The tone of its bell seemed to act as a spur to them both.

“There’s a young gentleman here,” said Hutchins, suddenly turning. “I’ll run and get him right away.”

As they speeded along the road which led to the bridge above the dam, Paul told what he had heard–Archey in the front seat listening as well as he could.

“He didn’t come right out and say so,” Paul rapidly explained, “but he dropped hints that a blind man could see. I met him on a train yesterday–a Russian–a fanatic–proud of what he’s done–!

“As nearly as I can make it out, they have got a boat leaning against the dam with five hundred pounds of TNT in it–or hanging under it–I don’t know which–

“There is a battery in the boat, and clockwork to set the whole thing off at ten o’clock tonight. He didn’t come right out and say so, you understand, and I may be making a fool of myself. But if I am–God knows, it won’t be the first time … Anyhow we’ll soon know.”

It was a circuitous road that led to the dam. The rain was pouring again, the streets deserted. Once they were held up at a railroad crossing….

The clock in the car pointed at five minutes to ten when their headlights finally fell upon the bridge. As they drew nearer they could hear nothing in the darkness but the thunder of the water. The bridge was a low one and only twenty yards up the stream from the falls; but though they strained their eyes to the uttermost they couldn’t see as far as the dam.

“I’ll turn one of the headlights,” said Archey, “and we’ll drive over slow.”

The lamp, turned at an angle, swept over the edge of the dam like a searchlight. Half way over the bridge the car stopped. They had found what they were looking for.

“Why doesn’t it go over?” shouted Archey, jumping out.

“Anchored to a tree up the bend, I guess,” Paul shouted back. “They must have played her down the stream after dark.”

Nearly over the dam was a boat painted black and covered with tarpaulin.

“The explosive is probably hanging from a chain underneath,” thought Paul. “The current would hold it tight against the mason-work.”

“We ought to have brought some help,” shouted Archey, suddenly realizing. “If that dam breaks, it will sweep away the factory and part of the town…. What are you going to do?”

Paul had dropped his hat in the stream below the bridge and was watching to see where it went over the crest. It swept over the edge a few feet to the right of the boat.

He moved up a little and tried next by dropping his coat. This caught fairly against the boat. Then before they knew what he was doing, he had climbed over the rail of the bridge and had dropped into the swiftly moving water below.

“Done it!” gasped Hutchins.

Paul’s arms were clinging around the bow of the boat. He twisted his body, the current helping him, and gained the top of the tarpaulin. Under the spotlight thrown by the car, it was like a scene from some epic drama, staged by the gods for their own amusement–man against the elements, courage against the unknown-life against death.

“He’s feeling for his knife,” thought Archey. “He’s got it!”

Paul ran his blade around the cloth and had soon tossed the tarpaulin over the dam. Then he made a gesture of helplessness. From the bridge, they could see that the stern of the boat was heavily boxed in.

“It’s under there!” groaned Hutchins. “He can’t get to it!”

Archey ran to the car for a hammer, but Paul had climbed to the bow and was looking at the ring in which was fastened the cable that held the boat in place. The strain of the current had probably weakened this, for the next thing they saw–Paul was tugging at the cable with all his strength, worrying it from side to side, kicking at the bow with the front of his heel, evidently trying to pull the ring from its socket.

“If that gives way, the whole thing goes over,” cried Archey. “I’ll throw him the hammer.”

Even as he spoke the ring suddenly came out of the bow; and thrown off his balance by his own effort, Paul went over the side of the boat and in the same moment had disappeared from view.

“Gone …” gasped Hutchins. “And now that’s going after him….”

The boat was lurching forward–unsteadily–unevenly–

“Something chained to the bottom, all right,” thought Archey, all eyes to see, the hammer still in his hand. As they watched, the boat tipped forward–lurched–vanished–followed quickly by two cylindrical objects which, in the momentary glimpse they caught of them, had the appearance of steel barrels.

The two on the bridge were still looking at each other, when Archey thought to glance at the clock in his car.

It was on the stroke of ten.

“That may go off yet if the thing holds together,” shouted Archey. “It was built good and strong….”

They stood there for a minute looking down into the darkness and were just on the point of turning back to the car when an explosion arose from the racing waters far below the dam….

Presently the wind, blowing up stream, drenched their faces with spray…. Splinters of rock and sand began to fall….

CHAPTER XXXVI

The next morning ushered in one of those days in June which make the spirit rejoice.

When Mary left Helen’s, she thought she had never known the sky so blue, the world so fair, the air so full of the breath of life, the song of birds, the scent of flowers.

Wally was definitely out of danger and Helen was nursing him back to strength like a ministering angel, every touch a caress, every glance a look of love.

“Now if Burdon will only leave her alone,” thought Mary as she turned the car toward the factory.

She needn’t have worried.

Before she had time to look at her mail, Joe announced that the two accountants were waiting to see her.

“They’ve been hanging around for the last half hour,” he confidentially added. “I guess they want to catch a train or something.”

“All right, Joe,” she nodded. “Show them in.”

They entered, and for the first time since she had known them, Mary thought she saw a trace of excitement in their manner–such, for instance, as you might expect to see in two learned astronomers who had seen Sirius the dog-star rushing over the heavens in pursuit of the Big Bear–or the Virgin seating herself in Cassiopeia’s Chair.

“We finished our report last night,” said the elder, handing her a copy. “As you will see, we have discovered a very serious situation in the treasurer’s department.”

It struck Mary later that she showed no surprise. Indeed, more than once in the last few days, when noticing Burdon’s nervous recklessness, she