y're equal. Well, perhaps they are--at this moment. Some day,
the crisis will come. Then, you'll have to choose. It's a new triangle,
Charles--the twentieth-century triangle in America: the wife, the
husband and the business. But remember: when the choice comes for us, I
shall not be an Aunt Emma!"

The manner of his wife, as well as her words, disturbed the husband
strangely. Never had she seemed more appealing in her loveliness, never
more daintily alluring to the eye of a man; yet, never had she seemed to
hold herself so coldly aloof, to be so impersonally remote. He felt a
longing to draw her again into the gentle trustfulness of the maiden who
had gloried in his love.

"What do you want me to do, dear?" he questioned. "I told you that you
could help me. I let you help."

Cicily seated herself again before she replied. When, at last, she
spoke, her voice was listless:

"Yes; you let me spend some of my own money for luxuries. It seems that
I could have used it to better advantage in helping to pay the men their
wages, and thus save you from a possible strike."

"No," was the serious response. "At best, that would have been only a
makeshift--putting off the evil day. No; this thing must be fought out,
once for all. We are running at a loss. To take money from you would be
merely to waste it. Let me tell you, too, that there isn't a chance in
the world for the Hamilton factory in the event of a strike."

Cicily seized on the admission as favoring her side of the argument.

"Then, you must not cut the wages," she declared, with spirit. "You must
fight Morton and Carrington."

"How can one man fight the trust?" Hamilton questioned, in return. "No,
I'm caught between the two millstones: Morton, Carrington, the trust,
above; the men, labor, below. To live, I must cut into the men. That's
business."

"Now, I know it isn't right," Cicily exclaimed. "Tell me," she
continued, bending forward in her eagerness, until he could watch the
beating pulse of her round throat, "if I were to give you all my money,
couldn't you fight, and yet keep up the wages? I have quite a lot, you
know. It was accumulating, uncle said, all the time while I was growing
up." She refused to be convinced by her husband's shake of the head in
negation. "I've met a lot of their women and children, in these last few
weeks, while I have been--playing at being in business. None of the
families have any more than enough for their needs--I know! Some