"I don't know," she said quietly. "I haven't been watching it."
"We'll have to be stricter about it," said Bannon. "These fellows have got to understand that rules are rules."
He spoke with a little laugh, but the remark was unfortunate. The only men who came within the railing were Max and Peterson.
"I may have forgotten it, myself," she said.
"That won't do, you know. I don't know but what I can let you off this time—I'll tell you what I'll do, Miss Vogel: I'll make a new rule that you can come in without wiping your feet if you'll hand in a written excuse. That's the way they did things when I went to school." He turned to go, then hesitated again. "You haven't been out on the job yet, have you?"
"No, I haven't."
"I rather think you'd like it. It's pretty work, now that we're framing the cupola. If you say so, I'll fix it for you to go up to the distributing floor this afternoon."
She looked back at the machine.
"The view ain't bad," he went on, "when you get up there. You can see down into Indiana, and all around. You could see all Chicago, too, if it wasn't for the smoke."
There was a moment's silence.