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And yet, when you came to study his face you found it wonderfully human even with a trace of granite humor in it. Bonbright was really curious to meet this man, whose story had reached him even in Harvard University. Here was a man who, in ten years of such dogged determination as affected one almost with awe, had turned a vision into concrete reality.
His destination, Shop One, was smaller, but huge enough. The boy led Bonbright to a short, fat man. in unbelievably grimy overalls and black, visored cap. "Mr. Maguire," he shouted, "here's a man and a note from the boss." Then he scurried away.
"All the decency in the world," Bonbright said, "isn't in union men, workingmen.... Because I have more money than you you want to believe anything of me.... You're even willing to believe it of her.... I can love as well as if I were poor.... I can honor and respect the girl I want to marry as well as if I carried a union card.... That is TRUE."
A lonely boy thrown with an attractive girl is a fertile field for the sowing of love. But Bonbright was not in love with Hilda.... The idea did not occur to him. There was excellent reason though he had not arrived at a realization of it, and this excellent reason was Ruth Frazer. He had ventured to accept Ruth's impulsive invitation to come to see her.
Lightener nodded with satisfaction. "Well, then I've kind of taken a shine to you. You're a young idiot, all right, but there's something about you.... Let's start off with this: You've got something that's apt to get you into hot water. Either it's fool curiosity or genuine interest in folks. I don't know which. Neither fits into the Bonbright Foote formula.
I have set an arbitrary minimum of five dollars because there must be some basis to work from...." The meeting was silent. It was nonplused. It was listening to the impossible. Every man, every employee, should be paid five dollars a day! "Does that mean common labor?" "It means everyone," said Bonbright.
"My father," she said, "was killed leading the strikers at Homestead. ... The unions educated me." "What is this man this speaker trying to do? Stir up a riot?" She smiled. "No. He is an organizer sent by the National Federation. ... They're going to try to unionize our plant." "Unionize?" "Bonbright Foote, Incorporated," she said, "is a non-union shop."
I'm all wrapped up in family traditions and precedents so I can't wriggle like an Indian baby.... Even THIS wouldn't be so rotten if it were myself they were thinking about. But they're not. I'm only an incident in the family, so far as this goes.... It's Bonbright Foote VIII they're fussing about.... It's my duty to see to it there's a Bonbright Foote VIII promptly."
He did not speak with heat or in excitement, but very gravely, very determinedly. His father saw the determination, and wavered. "Georgia," he said, again. "No," said Mrs. Foote. "The Family the business." said Mr. Foote, uncertainly. "I'd see the business ended and the Family extinct before I would tolerate that girl.... If Bonbright marries her he does it knowing how I feel and how I shall act.
It was the occasional friendly smile that affected him. One such smile from an older workman, a man of intelligent face, of shrewd, gray eyes, caused Bonbright to move from his place to the man's side. "I don't know your name, of course," he said, diffidently. "Hooper," said the man, pleasantly. "The men seem to know me," Bonbright said. "I was a little surprised. I only came yesterday, you know."
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