dust
always affect the lungs?"

"It's likely to, where there is the least phthisical tendency. But of
course the harm could be immensely reduced by taking up the old rough
floors which hold the dust, and by thorough cleanliness and
ventilation."

"What does the company do in such cases? Where an operative breaks down
at twenty-five?"

"The company says there was a phthisical tendency."

"And will they give nothing in return for the two lives they have
taken?"

"They will probably pay for Dillon's care at the hospital, and they have
taken the wife back as a scrubber."

"To clean those uncleanable floors? She's not fit for it!"

"She must work, fit for it or not; and there is less strain in scrubbing
than in bending over the looms or cards. The pay is lower, of course,
but she's very grateful for being taken back at all, now that she's no
longer a first-class worker."

Miss Brent's face glowed with a fine wrath. "She can't possibly stand
more than two or three months of it without breaking down!"

"Well, you see they've told her that in less than that time her husband
will be at work again."

"And what will the company do for them when the wife is a hopeless
invalid, and the husband a cripple?"

Amherst again uttered the dry laugh with which he had met her suggestion
of an emergency hospital. "I know what I should do if I could get
anywhere near Dillon--give him an overdose of morphine, and let the
widow collect his life-insurance, and make a fresh start."

She looked at him curiously. "Should you, I wonder?"

"If I saw the suffering as you see it, and knew the circumstances as I
know them, I believe I should feel justified--" He broke off. "In your
work, don't you ever feel tempted to set a poor devil free?"

She mused. "One might...but perhaps the professional instinct to save
would always come first."

"To save--what? When all the good of life is gone?"

"I daresay," she sighed, "poor Dillon would do it himself if he
could--when he realizes that all the good _is_ gone."

"Yes, but he can't do it himself; and it's the irony of such cases that
his employers, after ruining his life, will do all they can to patch up
the ruins."

"But that at least ought to count in their favour."

"Perhaps; if--" He paused, as though reluctant to lay himself open once
more to the charge of uncharitableness; and suddenly she exclaimed,
looking about her: "I didn't notice we had walked so far down Maplewood
Avenue!"