erson upon a speeding-up system for
delivery vans invented by an American specialist and it made Blenker
flush with admiration and turn as if for sympathy to Lady Harman to
realize how a modification in a tailboard might mean a yearly saving in
wages of many thousand pounds. "The sort of thing they don't
understand," he said. And then Sir Isaac told of some of his own little
devices. He had recently taken to having the returns of percentage
increase and decrease from his various districts printed on postcards
and circulated monthly among the district managers, postcards endorsed
with such stimulating comments in red type as "Well done Cardiff!" or
"What ails Portsmouth?"--the results had been amazingly good; "neck and
neck work," he said, "everywhere"--and thence they passed to the
question of confidential reports and surprise inspectors. Thereby they
came to the rights and wrongs of the waitress strike.

And then it was that Lady Harman began to take a share in the
conversation.

She interjected a question. "Yes," she said suddenly and her
interruption was so unexpected that all three men turned their eyes to
her. "But how much do the girls get a week?"

"I thought," she said to some confused explanations by Blenker and
Charterson, "that gratuities were forbidden."

Blenker further explained that most of the girls of the class Sir Isaac
was careful to employ lived at home. Their income was "supplementary."

"But what happens to the others who don't live at home, Mr. Blenker?"
she asked.

"Very small minority," said Mr. Blenker reassuring himself about his
glasses.

"But what do they do?"

Charterson couldn't imagine whether she was going on in this way out of
sheer ignorance or not.

"Sometimes their fines make big unexpected holes in their week's pay,"
she said.

Sir Isaac made some indistinct remark about "utter nonsense."

"It seems to me to be driving them straight upon the streets."

The phrase was Susan's. Its full significance wasn't at that time very
clear to Lady Harman and it was only when she had uttered it that she
realized from Horatio Blenker's convulsive start just what a blow she
had delivered at that table. His glasses came off again. He caught them
and thrust them back, he seemed to be holding his nose on, holding his
face on, preserving those carefully arranged features of himself from
hideous revelations; his free hand made weak movements with his dinner
napkin. He seemed to be holdi