e." She looked for a moment at the wall. "I expect
it's not a love story you're after--so I'll leave that part of it out.
Papa was mad when I broke the news--and I can't say I blame him. He was
the richest man in town, the railroad lawyer of the place--and he had
meant that I should go to a polishing school in St. Louis.

"Well, I did go to St. Louis, but I was eloping at the time and I became
Jim's wife. We had a hard fight for a year or two, but we made up our
minds we'd make it go. Jim got a job on a skyscraper which was going up
at that time. I got him his breakfast at six every morning and he got
home about seven at night, and right after supper he went at his
Blackstone and dug into it all evening. As a rule he got to bed at one,
and five hours' sleep was all he had--with a few hours extra Sundays.

"I knew a girl from home in St. Louis whose husband was making money
fast. But Jim was too proud to make use of my friends or go to her home
when we were invited. We missed three card parties on that account. But
she helped me get some pupils and I gave piano lessons. When my baby was
born I had to quit--but I thought we were out of the woods by then, for
Jim was made foreman of his gang and was raised to a hundred dollars a
month. We moved from our boarding house into a flat. I hired a young
Swedish girl and began to feel that I knew where I was.

"But then the building workers struck. Jim had always been popular with
his men, and now he wanted his boss to give them half of what they asked
for. But his boss didn't see it that way at all, and he and Jim had
trouble. The next week Jim decided he wouldn't manage what he called
'scabs.' So he left his employment, went in with the men and made the
strike a great success. That left him leader of their union. The salary
they paid him was eighty dollars instead of a hundred--so I let our
Swedish girl go.

"He said his new position would give him more time to study law. But it
didn't turn out quite that way. He got so wrapped up in his union
affairs that he had no time for his law books. One day I put them up on
a shelf and found he didn't notice it."

Eleanore suddenly tightened at this, a quick sympathy came into her
eyes. Sue gave a restless little sigh.

"He'd be out at meetings most every night," Mrs. Marsh continued. "At
the end of the year he was one of three leaders in a strike of all the
building trades in town. All work of that kind in the city was stopped
and