“A lesson lasts the workingman just so long as his belly is empty, and rarely influences him after his first full meal. The Union is already working up to a demand for increased wages. Times are good, and they know it. We must face an increase of wages, and I want that increase to come voluntarily from the company, and not under compulsion. You may depend upon me to do nothing rash, but I want the power to announce such increase at any moment.” The power to act promptly was given him, and he was assured that, in the event of another strike, the whole strength of the company would be behind him; but he was besought by Mr. Hope to avoid trouble if it were possible to do so. After the meeting Sartwell went down to Eastbourne, and, with his daughter, took a long walk on the breezy downs. “Well, girlie,” he said, after telling her of the firm’s generosity, “you are an heiress now, on a small scale. I have made over that thousand pounds to you, and as it is really worth ten thousand, I think it is a good deal of money for a little girl like you to accumulate before she comes of age.” “But I’m not going to accept it, father!” cried Edna. “I’ll make it all over to you again.” “Then we shall play battledore and shuttlecock with the stock. I generally have my own way, Edna, so you may as well give in gracefully to the inevitable. Besides, this comes as a sort of windfall; I didn’t reckon on it, so you don’t leave me a penny poorer than I was a month ago. I’ve laid by a bit of money in my time, and have at last got rid of a fear that has haunted me all my life--the fear of a poverty-stricken old age. That’s why I draw such deep, satisfying breaths of this splendid air from the sea. Grey hair came, Edna, before the goal was in sight, but it’s in sight now, my girl.” “I’m so glad, father,” she said, drawing down his head and kissing him. “Then you will take the windfall, Edna?” “I will take it on one condition, father.” “And what is the one condition?” “That if I ever do anything you disapprove of, you will let me give it back to you.” The girl was gazing far out at the line where the blue sky and the bluer sea met. Her father glanced at her sharply for a moment. “Put into English, what does that mean, Edna?” “You never can tell what a woman will do, you know.” “Granted, my dear. But you’re not a woman; you’re merely my little girl.” The little girl sighed. “I feel very much grown up, and very old sometimes.” “Oh, we all do at eighteen. Wait till you’re forty; then you’ll know what real youth is. If you were a boy now, instead of being a girl, you would have serious doubts about the existence of the Deity, and the most gloomy ideas regarding mankind generally. Why should I disapprove of anything you do?” “Oh, I don’t know. Mother always predicts that our stubborn wills will cross some time, and----”