Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1888-03-03


was very sin and that no one seemed dis
posed to follow him Not a few impatient
faces were turned askance toward him He
rose and crossed the room to go out, but al
most at the door he hesitated He must say
something.
Perhaps it is not all quite as plain as you
think. If by higher wages or shorter hours
you made the profit ON the mills smaller, are
you not afraid other mills would leave US be-
hind, being able to sell cheaper, or else the
capital invested 60 elsewhere, where it can
make more profit. Now you get small wages
for long hours, hut in the other cases you
might lose work altogether" Then he looked
anxiously around and added hurriedly:
''Mind, don't say do this or that; l win not
ask anything of you. But if there is loss it
will be on YOU
When he left the hall he felt like walking
about little while, to calm his mind He
chose the route that would lead past the little
tenement house where they had fed him with
cald potatoes. It was only month ago. He
Isoked in through the windows The sick
Woman yet lay on the sofa, the same soiled
9laid shawl for her coverlet; there was the
tame bare deal table, and pair of dingy
chairs before it. Tho desolation made his
heart sick. Then he looked up at the windows
of the attic chamber where he had slept that
other night. Itwas all dark, but he imagined
the glaring white walls, with the queer little
block of a looking glass hanging there, and
the backless wooden chair that had to
serve for washstand and his low bed,
with the girls shawl for his Counterpart.
What great things he had dreamed,
that night, he should do for the new cause
that had fired his heart, new to him, but old
as civilization. He turned away with pain
in his heart, pain for the wrongs of the
millions of the sons of toll who have never
come into their inheritance. He turned up
the road that led to his own home on the hill;
he could see the CLEAN of bright light from
his fathers study, where with his smooth
faced lawyer, he was perfecting his plans for
the morrow. And then he seemed to hear
his own words and his own tone as he had
spoken in the meeting echoing oddly in his
ear. Had he undutifully sacrificed his
father to his help, and would it be from his
fault the strike he feared would come to-
morrow? Could his father point his trem-
bling fingers at him when the mills should
stop, and the prospective stockholders do
cline the investment tomorrow and say:
''Afy own son is to blame. With one word
he could have prevented it,"
Then Philip turned his back TO the lights
that seemed to reproach him intolerably and
walked slowly down the hill again. Ali
what fear for capital, it always shifts its
burden upon labor.
A woman's form came quickly out of a
shadow, and laid hand on his arm. 1t was
Jane Graves, with u shawl over her head,
servant girl fashion, but was it the CHASTITY
effect of moonlight on her face that made it
SO pales
''Wasnt you at Miss Ellingsworth's this
evening ~
''Why, yes,n he looked at her in astonish-
ment, "and was just going there again."
81 didn't know but she might be with you.
[ was at my fathers, and when l came back,
l couldn't find her, and her hat and shawl
were goAe,n
''She has gone out with her father, per-
haps," suggested Philip, startled more by her
manner than her words.
''But he has been up at Mr.. Breton's all the
evening. And you know she never goes out
alone"
"Sometimes she does,n he said as he went
with the girl. ~ met her quite away from
homo one night, but she seemed good deal
frightened"
"When was it," Jane Graves stopped short,
and when he had told her quick, involun-
tary cry escaped her lips, and after thst
he had almost TO run to keep up with ner.
Now and then he t,ied to laugh at the ter
rors this foolish servant girl had put into his
mind But could it be Bertha had taken an
other evening walk! She was too beautiful
for the exposures of common life. Was heaven
envious of such happiness as he had expected
in their reconciliation? Why not strike him,
then, and not her9 Why, it might have been
she had tried to overtake him, to call him
back. "Hurry faster, he muttered, catch
ing the girls arm roughly.