Part 9 (1/2)

”Well,” she said, ”I'm vexed with you and Tom, as well as with that man.

I wish he hadn't come now when we are nice and comfortable and you are both earning good wages--at least when the steamers come in.”

Ingleby shook his head reproachfully. ”You have spoiled it,” he said.

”Hasn't she, Tom? A young woman who frowns in that imperial fas.h.i.+on talking of wages!”

Leger only laughed as, turning over among the fir-needles, he filled his pipe again; but Hetty was still a trifle angry.

”Of course, I don't understand you,” she said. ”I never do, but it's a good thing I've more sense than either of you. Now, you know what came of listening to speeches of that kind in England, and you're doing the same thing again. I've no sympathy with that man. Everybody has enough to eat and looks contented and comfortable. Why does he come here worrying them?”

Leger smiled. ”I'm not sure that the contentment of ignorance is the blessing some people would like us to believe. You see, when one doesn't know what he's ent.i.tled to he's apt to be satisfied with a good deal less, while when men like Hall Sewell point out that you don't get half as much as you ought to you are apt to believe them.”

Ingleby laughed, though, as Sewell's writings had stirred him to intense appreciation, even in England, he was not altogether pleased with the little twinkle in his comrade's eyes. He was quick to fire with enthusiasm, while it occurred to him that Leger was a trifle too addicted to looking at both sides of a question, and occasionally admitting the weak points of his own case with dry good-humour. He had also a shrewd suspicion that Leger was a cleverer man than himself.

”Well,” he said, looking at Hetty, ”if you are content to carry plates to saw-mill hands and wharf-labourers, it's more than I am to see you do so.”

”Why shouldn't I?” and Hetty, who flashed a covert glance at him, noticed the tinge of heightened colour in his face and was not displeased at it. ”They are all of them very civil to me, and the one who can get nothing to do as a doctor----”

”Oh, yes!” said Ingleby curtly, ”I've noticed his confounded a.s.surance.

Every time I see you going round with his dinner I feel I'd like to poison him.”

Leger looked up again with the twinkle in his eyes showing plainer still.

”You haven't answered her, and I'm not sure you can,” he said. ”She put the whole thing in a nutsh.e.l.l when she asked--why shouldn't she.”

Ingleby was silent, but he fidgeted, and Leger grinned.

”Don't you find it a little difficult to cling to aristocratic prejudices--though I don't know how you became possessed of them--and believe in democratic theories at the same time?” he said. ”One would fancy they were bound to run up against each other occasionally.”

Just then an urchin with a satchel on his back came along.

”Hall Sewell's latest speeches,” he said. ”Fourth edition of 'The New Brotherhood' and 'The Grip of Capital.'”

”Give me them all,” said Ingleby. ”How much do you want?”

”A quarter,” said the lad, handing him several flimsy pamphlets, and while Hetty glanced at him severely Leger laughed.

”Twenty-five cents!” he said. ”It would have purchased a packet of caramels for Hetty.”

”We might manage both,” said Ingleby. ”I'm sorry I didn't think of it earlier, Hetty. But you haven't yet told me your opinion of the man himself.”

Hetty glanced at the man upon the fire-stump. He was dressed as a workman in blue jean, which seemed to her a piece of affectation, since when workmen of that city take their recreation they usually do so attired in excellent clothing; but he had a lithe, well-proportioned figure, and it became him, though neither his face, which was bronzed by exposure, nor his hands were quite in keeping with it. It was a forceful face, with keen, dark eyes in it, but the mouth was hidden by the long moustache. Hall Sewell was, in his own sphere, a famous man whose printed speeches had been read with appreciation in Europe, and he had not long ago played a leading part in a great labour dispute. He had just finished speaking and another man was somewhat apologetically addressing the a.s.sembled populace.

Hetty, who surveyed him critically, shook her head. ”If you buy me any sweets now I'll throw them away,” she said. ”Well, he's a good-looking man.”

”Oh,” said Ingleby. ”He's good-looking! Can't you get beyond that, Hetty?”

Hetty pursed her lips up reflectively. ”Well, why shouldn't he be? It's a pleasure to see a man of that kind. There are so few of them. Still, I'll try to go a little further. Of course, he's clever. At least, everybody says so, but there's something wanting. I think he's weak.”

”Weak!” said Ingleby indignantly. ”You're wide of the mark this time, Hetty. I've read every line he has had printed, and any one could feel the uncompromising strength in it. They've put him in prison and tried to buy him, but nothing could keep a man of that kind from delivering his message.”