He pointed out to her some of the devices used to skimp the building.
"Even the men at work here know it. You can see it by the way they look at me. Why, the thing is a paper box!"
In some of the apartments the rough work was scarcely completed, in others the plasterers were at work; but the story was the same everywhere.
"I can't see how he escaped the Building Department. He's violated the ordinances again and again. But I suppose he knows how to keep the inspectors quiet."
He remembered the Canostota: he had no manner of doubt, now, about those I-beams in the Canostota.
"Francis!" Helen exclaimed with sudden passion; "you won't stand it? You won't let him do this kind of thing?"
The architect shrugged his shoulders.
"It's his building. He bought the plans and paid for them."
She was silent, troubled in her mind by this business distinction, but convinced that wrong was being done. A thing like this, a fraud upon the public, should be prevented in some way.
"Can't you tell him that you will report him to the Building Department?" she asked finally.