For Gold or Soul? Part 28

The boy's face flushed crimson as he refused the money.

"I wouldn't dare to take it," he muttered sheepishly. "She'd think I stole it."

"Then I'll send it by mail," said Mr. Denton quickly, "and I'll tell her at the same time that we don't mind about the three hundred. We can forgive a boy who only stole to help a sick mother."

"Oh, sir!" cried the boy. But he could get no farther. The next second he was shaking with a storm of sobs. The agony of his repentance had reached its limit. Before he left the building the letter had been posted to his mother through the pneumatic mailing tube that opened in Mr. Denton's office.

Mr. Denton's next duty was to see his buyers. He was still smarting with indignation over that "sweatshop" horror.

In less than an hour he had them all a.s.sembled in the receiving-room, which was piled from end to end with the products of underpaid labor.

His speech to them was short but decidedly to the point. They were to submit the names of the persons or firms whom they bought of, and receive his express commands concerning all further orders.

"I cannot have the souls of these poor creatures on my conscience any longer," he said at the conclusion of his statements. "So, if the public still want these goods, we will make them ourselves and pay those poor seamstresses what they are worth, besides letting them work in cleanly surroundings."

"But, Mr. Denton," spoke up one of the buyers who was a privileged character in the establishment, "that will entail endless work for the cashier's department, as well as work-rooms. As it is now, there is but one bill to pay where by your plan there would be a hundred or more, and, besides, we have no work-rooms to spare; we are already overcrowded."

"I know it," replied Mr. Denton, sadly, "and as I am well aware that reformation, like charity, should 'begin at home,' I must wait a little before putting my plan into action."

"My girls will never work with those people, I am sure," remarked the foreman of the work-rooms. "You have no idea what sticklers they are for caste. Why, as poor as they are, they turn up their noses at those beneath them!"

Mr. Denton smiled grimly at this information.

"They share that failing with the whole human family," he said, slowly.

"Only a few are exempt from this feeling of scorn; they are the few who have learned to love their fellow-beings, however," he went on more cheerfully, "we who have set them this example of thoughtlessness and neglect must try to undo what we have done by patient precept and example."

His hearers stared at him, but they were too polite to reply. It was their opinion that the man had suddenly became deranged. They did not doubt for a moment that they would go on as usual.

After a few more arguments as to the impracticability of his suggestions, the men dispersed, casting meaning glances at each other.

Once beyond his hearing, they talked the startling situation over. Not one of them had ever heard of a similar occurrence.

Mr. Denton went back to his office to think a little. When he reached it he found Mr. Day pacing the floor as he waited for him.

"So your decision is final," he bellowed, as Mr. Denton entered. "You have fully decided to make a fool of yourself and wreck the firm, and all because you have not head enough to keep your religion out of business!"

Mr. Denton's face flushed, but he spoke as calmly as ever.

"If religion is needed anywhere, it is needed in business," he said quietly. "If I am a fool at all it is because I did not find it out sooner."

"Very well, then," roared Mr. Day. "I refuse to submit to such nonsense!

Furthermore, as Mr. Forbes will not hear of dissolution, I shall expect you and him to buy me out at once! I will sell my right, t.i.tle and interest for one hundred thousand dollars."

"But that is four times what you put in," said Mr. Denton, quickly, "and as you have already been paid a large interest on your investment, your price is exorbitant; are you too angry to see it?"

"I should have gotten that out of it before the expiration of the partnership. It is that figure or nothing," said Mr. Day, doggedly, "and, mind, I will fight against dissolution, tooth and nail, Mr.

Denton. I would be as mad as you are if I did not do so!"

"Then I will pay you that amount at once, Mr. Day," said the gentleman.

"I will give you a check on my personal bank account and acquire your interest as a private investment. Your price is too exorbitant to permit my purchasing it for the firm, but we will attend to the details when Mr. Forbes is present."

CHAPTER XXVI.

SOME STARTLING CHANGES.

As the days went by the employees of the big department store became gradually aware that something had happened. The first intimation came from the daily papers, in which was given a more or less truthful account of Mr. Day's withdrawal from the firm on the grounds that he disapproved of his senior partner's new business methods.

What these methods were it remained to be seen. The clerks were hopeful of some reforms, but for a while they only wondered and waited.

Miss Fairbanks stopped at Faith's counter early one morning, when the store was comparatively empty, and began talking to her in an unusually affable manner.

"There's something going to happen here soon," she said, confidently.

"And, in my opinion, it's going to be pretty serious. Either Mr. Denton has got religion, or else he's gone crazy, for he's giving us buyers a lot of orders nowadays that will mean the failure of the firm if we are obliged to obey them."

"Why, what are they, Miss Fairbanks?" Faith asked in surprise. Miss Jones came up also and listened for the answer.

"Well, in the first place, we are not to beat down the drummers any more, but are to offer them fair prices on all our orders. Then we are to learn, if possible, who makes the goods that we buy, for Mr. Denton says he does not want to make a profit out of some poor woman's work while she is going half clothed and perhaps sick and starving."

"Why, the man is stark mad," said Miss Jones, in amazement. "As if it was any concern of his what other people work for!"

"I think he is quite right," remarked Faith, very soberly. "I can understand how he feels, and I think he is very brave to give such orders."

"Then he says," went on Miss Fairbanks, "that there are to be new arrangements for you girls. You are to be relieved every two hours for about twenty minutes. That means, of course, that he is going to hire a lot of new help, and I, for one, am sorry, for there'll be blunders by the hundred."

"Oh, perhaps not," said Faith, brightly. "I hope not, anyway, for your sake, Miss Fairbanks. I know just how annoying it is for you, who have so many clerks to look after."

Miss Fairbanks looked at her gratefully, but with a little surprise. It was not often that one of her girls expressed any sympathy for her.

"Then, there's to be a full hour at luncheon," continued the buyer after a minute, "and the best of all is that we are to have a new lunch-room.

No more eating in that rat hole down in the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"Well, that is good news," said Miss Jones delightedly. "Really, I begin to think that the millennium is coming!"

"Or the Kingdom of G.o.d," said Faith, very happily. "There is no doubt in my mind but that Mr. Denton has become a Christian."

Both women stared at her as she spoke, but, for a wonder, neither of them scoffed at her statement.

Miss Fairbanks recovered herself first and asked a very natural question.

"What do you mean by saying that he has become a Christian? Why, Mr.

Denton has been a member of the church ever since I can remember."

"Alas!" sighed Faith sadly. "That doesn't always signify, Miss Fairbanks. He may have accepted Christ but not Christ's spirit; but it is plain now that the very essence of G.o.dliness is awakening within him.

If this is so I can predict that there will be great changes in this store and that every one will be for the comfort of its toilers."