The relations between these young engaged people seemed strangely cold. In spite of that day's grave work, which had little in common with tender passages, the girl's welcome might have been warmer; perhaps at so troubled a moment it ought to have been warmer, or so the young miner seemed to feel, for he looked hurt, and broke off in the middle of his cordial little speech. Martha did not notice it, however, and he turned hastily from her towards Ulric.
"Well?" asked the latter, pausing in his walk.
Lawrence shrugged his shoulders.
"Just as I told you. To-morrow four hundred of them will report themselves for work, and as many more are hesitating and balancing what to do. You are hardly sure of half now."
This time Ulric did not exclaim violently as was his custom on such occasions. The savage irritation he had shown in the morning about the desertion of a comparatively small number of his followers contrasted oddly with his present almost unnatural calm.
"Hardly half now," he repeated. "And how long will they hold out?"
Lawrence evaded an answer.
"All the younger men are with you. They have been on your side from the first, and they will stand by you still even if there should be trouble at the shafts again to-morrow. Ulric, will you really go such lengths as that?"
"He will go all lengths," said the Manager, standing up. "He will go on until they all drop off from him one by one and he remains quite alone. I told you before, you will never succeed with your senseless demands and your senseless hatred. It was fitting enough towards the father; but in truth and conscience the son has not deserved it. What he offered you was sufficient; I ought to know after all, for I have worked in the mines in my time, and I can feel for my fellows as well as another.
"Most of them would have gladly accepted it too, but they were cried down and threatened, until not a man among them dared move a finger, just because Ulric had set his mind on getting more than was possible. Now it has been going on for weeks, with all the misery and care and want, and it has all been in vain. There comes a day at last when the starving wife and children at home have to be thought of before everything, and that day we have reached now. You have brought us to it, Ulric, and nobody but you; now let there be an end of it." The old man had risen; as he spoke, he fixed on his son a look which had something of menace in it, but even this reproach, which at another time would have aroused Ulric to angry defiance, now failed to ruffle his gloomy composure.