"Oh! Like the rest of 'em, hey? Got no use for me, now. And so I'm summoned to appear in court? I come back home and the first thing you shove at me is this here little notice." He drummed on a desk with the rolled-up paper, but as she sighed he changed his tone. "Well, well," he said, "you've got things all changed since Rimrock was here before."
"Yes," she answered with her old-time pleasantness. "Mr. Jepson did it. I found it like this myself."
"'S that so?" observed Rimrock and gazed at her curiously. "How long ago was that?"
"Oh, back in November. It was about the twentieth. I came to send out the notices."
"Oh! Ah, yes! For the annual meeting. Well, you put a crimp in me then. Just by passing that dividend you dropped me so flat that I lost every dollar I had."
"Very likely," she observed with no sign of regret, "but you should have attended the meeting."
"Attended the meeting!" he repeated angrily. "I had something else to do! But is that any excuse for stopping my dividend and leaving me for Stoddard to clean?"
"If you had come to the meeting," she responded evenly, but with an answering fire in her eyes, "and explained that you needed the money, I might have voted differently. As it was I voted for the smelter."
"The smelter?"
"Why, yes! Didn't you get my letter? We're going to build a smelter."