dined by the fire in her boudoir. It had been very restful. He was still
in love with his wife, although, as in most marriages, there was one who
gave more than the other. In this case it was Grace who gave, and Howard
who received. But he loved her. He never thought of other women. Only
his father had never let him forget her weaknesses.

Sometimes he was afraid that he was looking at Grace with his father's
eyes, rather than his own.

He had put up a hard fight with his father. Not about Grace. That was
over and done with, although it had been bad while it lasted. But his
real struggle had been to preserve himself, to keep his faiths and his
ideals, and even his personality. In the inessentials he had yielded
easily, and so bought peace. Or perhaps a truce, of a sort. But for the
essentials he was standing with a sort of dogged conviction that if he
lowered his flag it would precipitate a crisis. He was not brilliant,
but he was intelligent, progressive and kindly. He knew that his father
considered him both stupid and obstinate.

There was going to be a strike. The quarrel now was between Anthony's
curt "Let them strike," and his own conviction that a strike at this
time might lead to even worse things. The men's demands were exorbitant.
No business, no matter how big, could concede them and live. But Howard
was debating another phase of the situation.

Not all the mills would go down. A careful canvass of some of the other
independent concerns had shown the men eighty, ninety, even one hundred
per cent, loyal. Those were the smaller plants, where there had always
been a reciprocal good feeling between the owners and the men; there the
men knew the owners, and the owners knew the men, who had been with them
for years.

But the Cardew Mills would go down. There had been no liaison between
the Cardews and the workmen. The very magnitude of the business forbade
that. And for many years, too, the Cardews had shown a gross callousness
to the welfare of the laborers. Long ago he had urged on his father the
progressive attitude of other steel men, but Anthony had jeered, and
when Howard had forced the issue and gained concessions, it was too
late. The old grievances remained in too many minds. To hate the Cardews
bad become a habit. Their past sins would damn them now. The strike was
wrong, a wicked thing. It was without reason and without aim. The men
were knocking a hole in the boat that floated them. But--

There