Children of the rich -- Fiction; Industrial relations -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction
"I don't understand it," he said, unsteadily.
"Your class never does," she replied, not sharply, not as a retort, but
merely as one states a fact to give enlightenment.
"My father," she said, "was killed leading the strikers at Homestead.
... The unions educated me."
"What is this man--this speaker--trying to do? Stir up a riot?"
She smiled. "No. He is an organizer sent by the National Federation.
... They're going to try to unionize our plant."
"Unionize?"
"Bonbright Foote, Incorporated," she said, "is a non-union shop."
"I didn't know," said he, after a brief pause. "I'm afraid I don't
understand these things.... I suppose one should know about them if he
is to own a plant like ours." Again he paused while he fumbled for an
idea that was taking shape. "I suppose one should understand about his
employees just as much as he does about his machinery."
She looked at him with a touch of awakened interest. "Do you class men
with machinery?" she asked, well knowing that was not his meaning. He
did not reply. Presently he said:
"Rangar told you you were to be my secretary?"
"Yes, sir," she said, using that respectful form for the first time.
The relation of employer and employee had been re-established by his
words. "Thank you for the promotion."
"You understand what this is all about," he said. "I shall want to ask
you about it.... Perhaps you even know the man who is speaking?"
"He boards with my mother," said she. "That was natural," she added,
"my father being who he was."
Bonbright turned and looked at the speaker with curiosity awakened as
to the man's personality. The man was young--under thirty, and handsome
in a black, curly, quasi-foreign manner.
Bonbright turned his eyes from the man to the girl at his side. "He
looks--" said Bonbright.
"How?" she asked, when it was apparent he was not going to finish.
"As if," he said, musingly, "he wouldn't be the man to call on for a
line smash in the last quarter of a tough game."
Suddenly the speech came to an end, and the crowd poured on.
"Good night," said the girl. "I must find Mr. Dulac. I promised I would
walk home with him."
"Good night," said Bonbright. "His name is Dulac?"
"Yes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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