Why did Salome turn away to hide the vivid blush that suddenly swept over her face?
“I am sure of that,” she said, presently, with an effort, “I have counted on you from the first. I shall try, by my own personal efforts, to help the factory girls. But I shall depend on you, and you alone, to manage the young men.”
“I shall not fail you,” was all he said, as Salome locked the door of the hall behind them, and they went over the girl’s wing to find the others.
The bedrooms on this wing were like those on the other side. There were ample closets and plenty of light and air and window space. The rooms were not spacious, but they were complete in every respect, and a vast improvement on anything the Shawsheen mill-girls had ever seen.
“I did not want large rooms,” said Salome; “I think it is better to put not more than two girls in a room. I shall put two single beds in each, and fit up the rooms with everything necessary for comfort; then I shall insist that the girls keep their own rooms in the best of order. Oh, you’ll see what a disciplinarian I shall be!”
The third floor was entirely given up to bedrooms, the two wings being entirely separated from each other by the upper portion of the hall which extended to the top of the dome. Every part of the building was beautifully finished, well-lighted, and planned for general, practical convenience.
“There, if I never do anything else,” said Salome, after they had come out of the place, and stood looking back at it, “I shall feel that I have raised a suitable monument to old Newbern Shepard. I believe, if he could have lived until now, that he would have done the same thing himself—only better.”
“He couldn’t, Miss Shepard,” said Villard. “It is absolutely perfect.”
“Yes,” admitted Burnham, “it is. But do you realize, Miss Shepard, what an elephant you’ve got on your hands? It’s going to be a fearful tax on your mind and strength to keep it up, and to carry out half you’ve planned.”
“Well, what were health and strength given me for?” Salome asked, with the abruptness which sometimes characterized her.