Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-04

cween the employers ana She workmeu. the rich and the poor, his mind was slow in com ing to conclusion. He admitted most that even Curran said, while he listened, but how to help it was the question he ever asked him. self. Surely nobody was profited by flying in the face of great economical laws. But then, what were laws and what were falla- ciesa Well, if he did not know what was right. could he not follow his fathers urgent wishesl Was he making generous return for the love his father had lavished on him. if he should disobey him now9 As he sat there his vivid imagination pictured the cor poration in operation. Some little injustice was being done and he mentions it to the overseer ''Them's orders; you must see the superintendent. He could see it all so plainly. He knocks at the superintendent's door and is re- ceived with the attention due the chief stockholders son; he sees his bland, smiling face his sleek, well paid snile He speaks of the rule which perhaps works to rob some particular set of hands wholly without their fault. 'sBut have no authority to change it. though it does seem hard better see the agent" Philip imagines his discouraged step, IS he makes his way to the agent to be re- ferred to set of indifferent directors, who :'really know nothing about the matter, but do not feel like running against the in terests of the stockholders"
 While Philip sat trying to grasp his duty of that moment, he became conscious that it was very still and that no one seemed dis posed to follow him. Not few impatient faces were turned askance toward him. He rose and crossed the room to go out, but al- | most at the door be 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 go elsewhere, where it can make more profit? Now you get small wages 1 for long hours, but in the other cases you might lose work altogether" Then he looked l anxiously around and added hurriedly: ! "Mind, don't say do this or that; will not ask anything of you. But if there is loss it l will be on you"
 When he left the hall he felt like walking about a little while, to calm his mind. He chose the route that would lead past the little 1 tenement house where they had fed him with cold potatoes. It was only month ago. He looked in through the windows The sick woman yet lay on the sofa, the same soiled plaid shawl for her coverlet; there was the same bare deal table, and a pair of dingy chairs before it. The 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, end the backless wooden chair that had to serve for washstand. and his low bed, with the girls shawl for his counterpane 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 a pain in his heart, pain for the wrongs of tho millions of the sops of toll who have never come into their inheritance. He turned up 1 the road that led to his own home on the hill ne could see the gleam of bright light from his fathers study, where with his smootI, faced lawyer, he was perfecting his plans for the morrow. And then he seemed to hear spoken in the meeting echoing oddly ill hia ear. Had he undutifully sacrificed his father to his help, and would it be from his fault the strike he feared would come to- morrows Could his father point his trem- bling fingers at him when the mills should stop, and the prospective stockholders do l cline tho investment tomorrow and say ':My own son is to blame. With ono 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. An what fear for capital, it always shifts its burden upon labor.
 A woman's form came quickly out of z shadow, and laid hand on his arm. It was 1 Jane Graves, with shawl over her head servant girl fashion, but was it the ghastlJ effect of moonlight on her face that made i so pale'
 "Wasn't you at Miss Ellingsworth's thi evening?"
 "Why, yes," he looked at her in astonish ment, "and was just going there again." 1 "I didn't know but she might be with you I was at my fathers, and when came back I couldn't find her, and her hat and shaw were gone."
 ''She has gone out with her father, per haps," suggested Philip, startled more by he | manner than her words.
 "But he has been up at MT. Breton's all tn evening. And you know she never goes ou alone"
 "Sometimes she does," he said, as he wen with the girl. II met her quite away fror home one night, but she seemed good dea 1 frightened"
 ''When was it!" Jane Graves stopped shor' and when he had told her a quick, involur tary cry escaped her lips, and after tha
 he had almost to run to keep up with nel Now and then he tried to laugh at the te l l TOTS this foolish servant girl had put into h mind. But could it be Bertha had taken al other evening walk7 She was too beautifl
 for theexposures of common life. Was heave
 envious of such happiness as he had expecte
 in their reconciliation Why not strike hin
 then, and not hera Why, it might have bee
 she had tried to overtake him, to call hi1
 back. "Hurry faster" he muttered, catcl
 ing the girls arm roughly.
 CHAPTER XIII.
 CLASS PREJUDICE.
 But the house looked so sedate and altt
 gether respectable that 1t seemed impossibl but that everything was as usual inside. I'll
 door stood invitingly open, as it should on sue
 a balmy summer evening, the light tin
 bountifully out on the walk. A G.. pl
 surely would have left some sign, som
 fatal mark somewhere to curdle ones bloc from afar. How foolish of this black eye
 maiden and him to rush at the top of the speed in an agony of suspense only to fin Bertha sitting at the parlor table mild eye | and serene as he had used to know her! Sf