understand it was never your
own creation, Mr. Gibson; that you inherited this factory from your
father.

GIBSON: Oh, no, I didn't.

NORA [_challenging_]: _What!_ [_She checks herself._] I beg your pardon!

GIBSON: The piano factory I inherited from my father was about one third
this size.

MIFFLIN [_genially; always genial_]: Nevertheless, you inherited it. We
know that everything grows with the times, naturally. Let us simply
state that it was a capitalistic family inheritance.

NORA [_under her breath but emphatically_]: Yes!

MIFFLIN: Up to the time of your inheriting it, you, I suppose, had led
the usual life of pleasure of the wealthy young man?

GIBSON: I'd been through school and college and through every department
of the factory. That wasn't hard; it was a pretty run-down factory, Mr.
Mifflin.

MIFFLIN: And then at your father's death the lives and fortunes, souls
and bodies of all these workmen passed into your hands?

GIBSON: Not quite that; there were only forty-one workmen, and nineteen
of them didn't stay when father died. They got other jobs before I could
stop them.

MIFFLIN: And how many men have you now?

GIBSON: I believe there are one hundred and seventy-five on the pay roll
now.

MIFFLIN: One hundred and seventy-five [_with gusto_] labourers!

GIBSON: Some of them are; some of them are orators.

MIFFLIN [_jovially_]: Ah, I'm afraid that's hard on Miss Gorodna.

GIBSON [_quietly_]: She's both.

MIFFLIN: I understand you are _not_ fighting the labour unions?

GIBSON: No. The workmen themselves declined to unionize the factory.

MIFFLIN: Mr. Gibson, when your father began manufacturing "The Gibson
Upright"--

GIBSON: He didn't. He made a very fine piano--and only a few of them. It
was "The Gibson Upright" that saved the factory. You see, with this
model we began to get on a quantity-production basis. That's why the
business has grown and is growing.

MIFFLIN: You mean that "The Gibson Upright" is the reason for the
present great prosperity of this plant?

GIBSON: Yes.

MIFFLIN: Now be careful, Mr. Gibson; I'm going to ask a trap question.
[_Wagging his pencil at him._] What is the reason for "The Gibson
Upright?"

GIBSON: Do you mean who designed it?

MIFFLIN: Oh, no, no, no! I mean who _makes_ them? If someone asked you
if you're the man that makes "The Gibson Upright" wouldn't you say
"Yes?"

GIBSON: Certainly!

MIFFLIN [_triumphantly_]: Ah, there you fell into t