Part 8 (2/2)

Having sacrificed to this principle, he felt free to add as a gratuitous concession to politeness: ”You are perhaps not aware that I am Mrs.

Westmore's lawyer, and one of the executors under her husband's will.”

He dropped this negligently, as though conscious of the absurdity of presenting his credentials to a subordinate; but his manner no longer incensed Amherst: it merely strengthened his resolve to sink all sense of affront in the supreme effort of obtaining a hearing.

”With that stuffed canary to advise her,” he reflected, ”there's no hope for her unless I can a.s.sert myself now”; and the unconscious wording of his thought expressed his inward sense that Bessy Westmore stood in greater need of help than her work-people.

Still he hesitated, hardly knowing how to begin. To Mr. Tredegar he was no more than an underling, without authority to speak in his superior's absence; and the lack of an official warrant, which he could have disregarded in appealing to Mrs. Westmore, made it hard for him to find a good opening in addressing her representative. He saw, too, from Mr.

Tredegar's protracted silence, that the latter counted on the effect of this embarra.s.sment, and was resolved not to minimize it by giving him a lead; and this had the effect of increasing his caution.

He looked up and met the lawyer's eye. ”Mrs. Westmore,” he began, ”asked me to let her know something about the condition of the people at the mills----”

Mr. Tredegar raised his hand. ”Excuse me,” he said. ”I understood from Mrs. Westmore that it was you who asked her permission to call this evening and set forth certain grievances on the part of the operatives.”

Amherst reddened. ”I did ask her--yes. But I don't in any sense represent the operatives. I simply wanted to say a word for them.”

Mr. Tredegar folded his hands again, and crossed one lean little leg over the other, bringing into his line of vision the glossy tip of a patent-leather pump, which he studied for a moment in silence.

”Does Mr. Trus...o...b..know of your intention?” he then enquired.

”No, sir,” Amherst answered energetically, glad that he had forced the lawyer out of his pa.s.sive tactics. ”I am here on my own responsibility--and in direct opposition to my own interests,” he continued with a slight smile. ”I know that my proceeding is quite out of order, and that I have, personally, everything to lose by it, and in a larger way probably very little to gain; but I thought Mrs. Westmore's attention ought to be called to certain conditions at the mills, and no one else seemed likely to speak of them.”

”May I ask why you a.s.sume that Mr. Trus...o...b..will not do so when he has the opportunity?”

Amherst could not repress a smile. ”Because it is owing to Mr. Trus...o...b..that they exist.”

”The real object of your visit then,” said Mr. Tredegar, speaking with deliberation, ”is--er--an underhand attack on your manager's methods?”

Amherst's face darkened, but he kept his temper. ”I see nothing especially underhand in my course----”

”Except,” the other interposed ironically, ”that you have waited to speak till Mr. Trus...o...b..was not in a position to defend himself.”

”I never had the chance before. It was at Mrs. Westmore's own suggestion that I took her over the mills, and feeling as I do I should have thought it cowardly to s.h.i.+rk the chance of pointing out to her the conditions there.”

Mr. Tredegar mused, his eyes still bent on his gently-oscillating foot.

Whenever a sufficient pressure from without parted the fog of self-complacency in which he moved, he had a shrewd enough outlook on men and motives; and it may be that the vigorous ring of Amherst's answer had effected this momentary clearing of the air.

At any rate, his next words were spoken in a more accessible tone. ”To what conditions do you refer?”

”To the conditions under which the mill-hands work and live--to the whole management of the mills, in fact, in relation to the people employed.”

”That is a large question. Pardon my possible ignorance--” Mr. Tredegar paused to make sure that his hearer took in the full irony of this--”but surely in this state there are liability and inspection laws for the protection of the operatives?”

”There are such laws, yes--but most of them are either a dead letter, or else so easily evaded that no employer thinks of conforming to them.”

”No employer? Then your specific charge against the Westmore mills is part of a general arraignment of all employers of labour?”

”By no means, sir. I only meant that, where the hands are well treated, it is due rather to the personal good-will of the employer than to any fear of the law.”

”And in what respect do you think the Westmore hands unfairly treated?”

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