g her as she posed in
fascinating grace in a big chair. He looked at her--not the look of a
man at a woman, but the look of a busy person at one who is about to
show cause for having asked for a portion of his valuable time. She
laughed--and laughter was her best gesture. "I can never talk to you if
you pose like that," said she. "Honestly now, is your time so
pricelessly precious?"

He echoed her laugh and settled himself more at his ease. "What did
you want of me?" he asked.

"I intend to try to get better hours and better wages for the street
car men," said she. "To do it, I must know just what is right--what I
can hope to get. General talk is foolish. If I go at father I must
have definite proposals to make, with reasons for them. I don't want
him to evade. I would have gotten my information elsewhere, but I
could think of no one but you who might not mislead me."

She had confidently expected that this carefully thought out scheme
would do the trick. He would admire her, would be interested, would be
drawn into a position where she could enlist him as a constant adviser.
He moved toward the edge of his chair as if about to rise. He said,
pleasantly enough but without a spark of enthusiasm:

"That's very nice of you, Miss Hastings. But I can't advise
you--beyond saying that if I were you, I shouldn't meddle."

She--that is, her vanity--was cut to the quick. "Oh!" said she with
irony, "I fancied you wished the laboring men to have a better sort of
life."

"Yes," said he. "But I'm not in favor of running hysterically about
with a foolish little atomizer in the great stable. You are talking
charity. I am working for justice. It will not really benefit the
working man for the company, at the urging of a sweet and lovely young
Lady Bountiful, to deign graciously to grant a little less slavery to
them. In fact, a well fed, well cared for slave is worse off than one
who's badly treated--worse off because farther from his freedom. The
only things that do our class any good, Miss Hastings, are the things
they COMPEL--compel by their increased intelligence and increased unity
and power. They get what they deserve. They won't deserve more until
they compel more. Gifts won't help--not even gifts from--" His
intensely blue eyes danced--"from such charming white hands so
beautifully manicured."

She rose with an angry toss of the head. "I didn't ask you here to
annoy me with impertinences about my