“Oh, is it? I don’t see how any one can do useful work in a room like this, still I suppose it is good enough to paint in. I found the place easily enough. Trust a neighbourhood to know where there is any extra foolishness going on. Of course you have been cheated in everything you bought. But that’s neither here nor there. I came to talk with you about the business.”
“What business, mater?”
“What business? The business, of course. Your father’s business and yours, for I hope the time will come when you will take more interest in it than you do now. The men, it seems, talk of going on strike.”
“Foolish beggars! What are they going to do that for, and what do you expect me to do? Not to talk to the men, I hope, for I detest the workingman. He’s an ass usually, otherwise he wouldn’t work for the wages he gets. Then he spends what he does make on bad beer and goes home and beats his wife. I can’t reason with the workingman, you know, mater.”
“No, I don’t suppose you can. I sometimes doubt whether you can reason with anybody. It is because the workingman labours that you can idle away your time in a place like this. There are many deserving characters among the working classes, although they are often difficult to find. The men have made-some demands which Sartwell, the manager, won’t even listen to. It seems to me that he is not treating them fairly. He should, at least, hear what they have to say, and if their demands do not cost the firm anything; he should grant them.”
“Mater,” cried the young man, with enthusiasm, “what a head for business you have!”
“I am of a family that became rich through having heads for business,” replied the lady, with justifiable pride. “Now, what I want you to do is to see this man Sartwell; he will pay attention to you because he knows that in time you will be his master, and so he will be civil to you.”
“I’m not so sure of that,” said Barney, doubtfully. “I imagine he thinks me rather an ass, you know.”
“Well, now is your opportunity for showing him you are not, if he has the impertinence to think such a thing. You must see him at his own house and not at the office—here is his address. Tell him to receive the men and make a compromise with them. He is to make concessions that are unimportant, and thus effect a compromise. A little tact is all that is required.”
“From me, or from Sartwell?”