He took her hand; she looked up shyly. "Do you think me foolish, George?"
"Fond used to mean foolish," he answered. "We'll call you fond. Jim must succeed with you to back him!" And he kissed her hand.
"Thank you," said Beth, doubtless referring to the encouragement. "Thank you so much, George! Good-night."
"Poor little thing!" said Mather, as he seated himself after she had gone. "She's not happy, Judith."
"It's Jim," she answered.
"Have you any influence over him?" he asked. "If you have, make him work."
"I noticed," she remarked, "that you did not tell Beth that she has no cause for worry. Is he not satisfactory?"
"It may be inexperience," he answered, "it may be just Jim; I haven't decided yet. The work isn't hard, for the foreman looks after everything mechanical, yet our product is much less than it should be. All I need to do is to go and sit in the Chebasset office for an hour, without opening the door into the mill, and if the men know I'm there we turn out six hundred pounds more that day."
The statement was not surprising, as Judith compared Jim with the man before her. "You think he will not suit."