"Yes! with the strike," he answered after a pause. "I went into the whole thing from the beginning, and I found that those particular factories had been working at a loss for the last three years. I showed the accounts to the men, and pointed out that under the circumstances no master could be expected to accede to a demand for a rise in wages. They wouldn't listen--I suppose, really, they couldn't listen, so I closed the works, gave them each a month's pay in their pockets, and told them I hoped they'd find a better master. I couldn't do anything else in common fairness. It comes to that in the end." He walked to the window moodily and looked out, then turned to them with one of his sudden brilliant smiles. "And you, good people? What have you decided; but perhaps I had better give you a short outline of what St. Helena's Hospital is to be." "In the first place, Woods is to be the Secretary and Treasurer, and all that sort of thing, with a staff under him. There is to be no governing body, but the money will be vested in a trust, and the whole staff of the hospital shall form a general committee. This will ensure the appointment of really reliable persons all through. Sister Ann--you saw her--she has every diploma under the sun, and is as hard as nuts--is, for the present, head under you, Ramsay, of the nursing department. You are head, for the present, of the medical and surgical, with help as required, and Helen here is to boss the whole lot of you in housekeeping--it is really what you are cut out for, you know, Helen, though you did fuss over the _chauffeur_ dinners." "But I don't quite see why," began Peter Ramsay argumentatively, "all this has to be done. If it was to provide me----" Ned Blackborough interrupted him. "It was to supply you--and the world," he said almost sarcastically--"with a place in which there were no vested interests. It was to provide you--and a few other working men and women--with a place here they could work without let or hindrance, where they were responsible for the whole show--yes! even for those who were to come after them. Don't bring in any one, Ramsay, because he is a brilliant operator; pay him, if you like, to come in and operate, but keep your staff good men and true, who will try to secure an apostolic succession of good men and true. Then--then no one will quarrel over a pint of beer! Do you accept?" "I accepted from the very beginning, Ned," said Helen quickly; "the moment I saw the Newfoundland dog, I----" Ned laughed. "I thought of bringing your father's retriever; but he wasn't warranted with children--so I got that bumbler." Peter Ramsay was taking his turn at the window, looking out with eyes that had a blur in them. Suddenly he wheeled---- "Yes! I accept, Lord Blackborough, and--and may Heaven do so and to me and more also if----" He wrung Ned's hand instead of finishing his sentence. Lord Blackborough threw himself into the armchair and stretched out his legs in relief.