"You do this same thing … for seven hours every day … not to speak of overtime?"
"Yes."
"And how long have you been doing this?"
"About five years."
"And how long will you continue to do it?"
"God knows!"
Hilmer rested both hands on the white cloth. They were shapely hands in spite of their size, with healthy pink nails, except on a thumb and forefinger, which had been badly mangled. "For five years you have worked seven hours every day on this routine … and in order to enlarge your capacity and skill and knowledge you have worked many hours overtime on this same routine, I suppose without any extra pay… It seems to me that a man who only gets a chance to exercise with dumb-bells might keep in condition, but he'd hardly grow more skillful… Of course, that still leaves two theories intact—working for your own advancement … and the interest of your firm. I suppose the advancement has come, I suppose you've been paid for your overtime … in increased salary."
Helen made a scornful movement. "If you call an increase of ten dollars a month in two years an advancement," she ventured, bitterly.
Starratt flushed.
"That leaves only one excuse for overtime. And that excuse is usually a lie. Why should you have the interest of your firm at heart when it does nothing for you beyond what it is forced to do?"