“No, sir. Live with my sister.”
“Engaged perhaps?”
“Not on twenty-three and six.”
Difficult to use the well-rehearsed arguments and the violent phrases to a courteous man, who showed so much personal interest. If he would but raise his voice or show defiant want of sympathy.
“But some of us are married, sir,” Erb went on, “and some of us have children, and I tell you straight, when the rent is paid, and when the children’s clothes are bought and just the necessaries of life are purchased, there’s precious little left over. You can’t realise perhaps, sir, what it means to look at every penny, and look at it hard, before it’s paid away.”
“Pick up a bit, don’t you, you carmen?”
“An occasional twopence,” cried Erb, “and think what a degrading thing it is for some of us to accept voluntary contributions from those placed in a more fortunate position in life?”
“Never knew a railway man object to it before,” mused the Chief.
“You’re thinking of the old school, sir. Men are beginning to recognise that capital can’t do without them, and capital must therefore fork out accordingly. This memorial which you hold at the present time in your ’and, sir, contains a moderate appeal. If that moderate appeal is refused, I won’t be answerable for the consequences.”
“And yet, I take it, you know more about the consequences than anyone else?”