an from the ward." But, as Cicily would have
laughingly protested against this arrant flattery, a sudden thought came
to the President of the new club, and she spoke with an increase of
seriousness: "And, oh, I was forgetting one thing! What do you think
now, Mrs. Hamilton? Carrington's men have been around!" In answer to her
hostess's look of bewildered inquiry, she explained the significance of
the fact: "Yes, Carrington--bad luck to him!--is getting ready to start
another factory, they say; and, so, he wanted to see how many of the
boys he could get." Cicily uttered an exclamation of astonishment,
mingled with alarm, at the news. "Yes, ma'am. I was talking to Mike
McMahon, and telling him that, after all, I thought Mr. Hamilton was on
the level, and that it would be a good thing to take the cut for a
little while. And, then, he got mad, and he blurted out the whole thing
to me. It's Tim Doolin, him what used to work in the Hamilton factory,
and was discharged, and so went over to Carrington's. He's come around
as a sounder. He's been advancing the boys a little on the side, and
promising them good jobs and steady wages, if they'll hold out until
Carrington is ready to use them at his place." The Amazon, who had raced
through her narrative, paused, panting for breath.

Cicily was tense in her chair, with her cheeks flaming indignation, her
golden eyes darkened with excitement.

"So," she exclaimed fiercely, "that's the way they are fighting!
Shameful!"

Cicily was in the throes of a righteous wrath. Unaccustomed to the sharp
practices that are endured almost without rebuke in the world of
business affairs, this revelation of trickery on the part of her
husband's enemies filled her with a disgusted horror. There was in the
girl-wife a strong quality of the protecting maternal love in her
attitude toward her husband. It was in obedience to its impelling force
that she had followed so steadfastly her ambition to help him in his
business, to be his partner. It was the dominance of this feeling that
had caused her to stay on in her husband's house to comfort him, and if
possible to save him, in the time of his tribulation. So, now, this
phase of character caused her to resent as something unspeakably vile
the machinations just revealed to her. There and then, she uttered a
silent vow to worst these sinister foes by fair means or by foul. Her
will commanded their undoing, no matter how unscrupulous the method; and
consci