Finally she concluded that her old lover had made them inadvertently in fastening the picture to his wall or mirror frame, and so, pressing her lips warmly to the tiny wounds on the unconscious paper, where she fancied his fingers had rested, she locked both the photo and letter in her desk, and, just as daylight broke, long after the clanging of the locks had ceased and the brightness was withdrawn, she braided her hair as she had worn it so many years ago when the image was made, and, with a long look in the mirror to find a trace of her old self, she turned away to her couch, and disposed herself for an hour of sleep. But the last among her sea of speculations was this: “I wonder who made those pin-holes in my eyes!” CHAPTER XIV. “In the name of God, take heed.” The Hod-Carriers’ Union and Mortar-Mixers’ Protective Association, of San Francisco, adopted a resolution in February, 1894, to fix the rate of wages of its members at $3.00 per day, and admitting no new members for a period of one year. The immediate cause of this resolution was the letting, by certain capitalists, of contracts for the construction of several blocks of buildings on Market Street, including the new post-office building. Phelim Rafferty, in proposing the resolution, said: “The owners and the contractors, Mr. Prisident and gentlemen, are min of large means, sor, yit they propose to pay us, the sons of honest toil, sor, widout whose brawny muscles they could not build at all, sor, they propose to pay us a beggarly $2.00 a day, sor. Why, the min in the public schools who taich the pianny to our gurls, sor, recaive more nor that! Now, sor, if we pass this risolution we put our wages to $3.00 a day, and hould them there. We have the mortal cinch on the contractors, sor, for if any mimber of our union works for less than $3.00 we’ll expel him; and by passin’ this risolution we’ll keep min from the East away, and keep the mimbership in San Francisco shmall, and we’ll be sure of a job. “Faith! the bosses will have to be mighty civil to us to git us at all, sor. And if they thry to put to work min who are not mimbers of the union, their buildings will niver rise out of their cellars, sor, for the other thrades are compilled to sthand by us, sor.” Mr. Lorin French, the millionaire contractor and owner of the great San Francisco Iron Works, read in the journal next morning an account of the action taken by the Hod-Carriers Union and Mortar-Mixers’ Protective Association, and he smiled a grim smile. That day he sent invitations to a number of capitalists and contractors to attend a meeting at his offices, and the result of the conference was the formation of a Manufacturers’ and Builders’ League, of which Mr. Lorin French was chosen permanent president. The daily papers the next morning contained the following advertisement:— WANTED.