Yes, precisely to you. I know you’ve often let bygones be bygones when a man was in real straits. THE CHAMBERLAIN. Well, in a way, I must thank you for your good opinion—especially at a time like this; but nevertheless—— MONSEN. Won’t you tell me, Chamberlain, what sets you against me? THE CHAMBERLAIN. Oh, what would be the use? MONSEN. It might lead to a better understanding between us. I’ve never stood in your way that I know of. THE CHAMBERLAIN. You think not? Then let me tell you of one case in which you have stood in my way. I founded the Iron-works Savings Bank for the benefit of my employees and others. But then you must needs set up as a banker; people take their savings to you—— MONSEN. Naturally, sir, for I give higher interest. THE CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, but you charge higher interest on loans. MONSEN. But I don’t make so many difficulties about security and so forth. THE CHAMBERLAIN. That is just the mischief of it; for now we have people making bargains to the tune of ten or twenty thousand dollars,[18] though neither of the parties has so much as a brass farthing. That is what sets me against you, Mr. Monsen. And there is another thing too that touches me still more nearly. Do you think it was with my good will that my son flung himself into all these wild speculations? MONSEN. But how can I help that? THE CHAMBERLAIN. It was your example that infected him, as it did the others. Why could you not stick to your last? MONSEN. Remain a lumberman, like my father? THE CHAMBERLAIN. Was it a disgrace to be in my employment? Your father made his bread honourably, and was respected in his own class. MONSEN. Yes, until he’d almost worked his life out, and at last went over the waterfall with his raft. Do you know anything of life in that class, Chamberlain? Have you ever realised what the men have to endure who toil for you deep in the forests, and along the river-reaches, while you sit comfortably at home and fatten on the profits? Can you blame such a man for struggling to rise in the world? I had had a little more schooling than my father; perhaps I had rather more brains too—— THE CHAMBERLAIN. Very likely. But by what means have you risen in the world? You began by selling brandy. Then you bought up doubtful debts, and enforced them mercilessly;—and so you got on and on. How many people have you not ruined to push yourself forward! MONSEN. That’s the course of business; one up, another down. THE CHAMBERLAIN.