"That man is a villain," Connery had said when they left the factory. "It will be war between you, and you had better get him out if it is possible."
Floyd sighs now, thinking of all the perplexities. What is Mr. St. Vincent like? Will there be trouble in this direction as well?
He has deputed Connery to find him some efficient mechanician to go over the factory and see what can be done. Surely Wilmarth cannot oppose anything for their united interest, unless, indeed, he means to ruin if he cannot rule. There is a misgiving in Floyd's mind that he is purposely allowing everything to depreciate with a view of getting it cheaply into his own hands. Floyd has the capacity of being roused, "put on his mettle," and now he resolves, distasteful as it is, to fight it through.
CHAPTER VI.
There is a ripe season for everything: if you slip that, or anticipate it, you dim the grace of the matter.—Bishop Hackett.
A rather curious lull falls in factory affairs. Mr. Wilmarth is gone almost a fortnight. Floyd makes the acquaintance of the superintendent, and finds him an intelligent man, but rather opposed to the new system of machinery.
"We were making money before," he says. "I like to let well alone, but Mr. Grandon, your father, was wonderfully taken with St. Vincent's ideas. They're good enough, but no better than the old. We gain here, and lose there. Of course if it was all as St. Vincent represents, there would be a fortune in it,—carpet weaving would be revolutionized. But I am afraid there is some mistake."
Mr. Lindmeyer comes up and spends two days watching the working. He is very much impressed with some of the ideas. If he could see Mr. St. Vincent.
Mr. St. Vincent is ill, but expects to be sufficiently recovered to return soon.