Wally came that afternoon, and Mary danced with him--that is to say she danced with him until a freckle-faced apprentice came up from the factory with an envelope addressed in MacPherson's crabbed hand. Mary took one peep inside and danced no more. "If the women can pick it up as quick as the men," she read, "I have counted 1653 places in this factory where they could be working in a few weeks time--that is, if the places were vacant. List enclosed. Respectfully. James O. MacPherson." It was a long list beginning "346 automatics, 407 grinders--" Mary studied it carefully, and then after telephoning to the factory, she called up Judge Cutler. "I wish you would come down to the office in about half an hour," she said, ".... Directors' meeting. All right. Thank you." "What was it dad used to call me sometimes--his 'Little Hustler'?" she thought. "If he could see, I'll bet that's what he would call me now." As she passed through the hall she looked in the drawing room to tell Helen where she was going. Helen was sitting on a chaise lounge and Wally was bending over her, as though trying to get something out of her eye with the corner of a handkerchief. "I don't see anything," Mary heard him saying. "There must be something. It hurts dreadfully," said Helen. Looking again, he lightly dabbed at the eye. "Oh!" breathed Helen. "Don't, Wally!" She took hold of his hand as though to stop him. Mary passed on without saying anything, her nose rather high in the air. Half way down the hill she laughed at nothing in particular. "Yes," she told herself. "Helen--in her own way--I guess that she's a little Hustler ... too ...!" CHAPTER XVI The meeting was held in Mary's office--the first conference of directors she had ever attended. By common consent, Uncle Stanley was chosen chairman of the board. Judge Cutler was appointed secretary. Mary sat in her chair at the desk, her face nearly hidden by the flowers in the vase. It didn't take the meeting long to get down to business. "From last year's report," began the judge, "it is evident that we must have a change of policy." "In what way?" demanded Uncle Stanley. Whereupon they joined issue--the man of business and the man of law. If Mary had been paying attention she would have seen that the judge was slowly but surely getting the worst of it. To stop improvements now would be inviting ruin--They had their hands on the top rung of the ladder now; why let go and fall to the bottom--? What would everybody think if those new buildings stayed empty--? Uncle Stanley piled fact on fact, argument on argument. Faint heart never won great fortune--As soon as the war was over, and it wouldn't be long now--Before long he began to dominate the conference, the judge growing more and more silent, looking more and more indecisive.