第38章

``It seems to me that, in our own interest, we ought to do what we can to make the poor live better.As you say, it's positively dangerous to go about in the tenement part of town--and those people are always coming among us.For instance, our servants have relatives living in Cooper Street, where there's a pest of consumption.''

Old Hastings nodded.``That's part of Davy Hull's reform programme,'' said he.``And I'm in favor of it.The city government ought to make them people clean up.''

``Victor Dorn wants that done, too--doesn't he?'' said Jane.

``No,'' replied the old man sourly.``He says it's no use to clean up the slums unless you raise wages--and that then the slum people'd clean themselves up.The idea of giving those worthless trash more money to spend for beer and whisky and finery for their fool daughters.Why, they don't earn what we give 'em now.''

Jane couldn't resist the temptation to say, ``I guess the laziest of them earn more than Davy Hull or I.''

``Because some gets more than they earn ain't a reason why others should.'' He grinned.``Maybe you and Davy ought to have less, but Victor Dorn and his riff-raff oughtn't to be pampered....

Do you want me to cut your allowance down?''

She was ready for him.``If you can get as satisfactory a housekeeper for less, you're a fool to overpay the one you have.''

The old man was delighted.``I've been cheating you,'' said he.

``I'll double your pay.''

``You're doing it just in time to stop a strike,'' laughed the girl.

After a not unknown fashion she was most obedient to her father when his commands happened to coincide with her own inclinations.

Her ardor for an excursion into the slums and the tenements died almost with Victor Dorn's departure.Her father's reasons for forbidding her to go did not impress her as convincing, but she felt that she owed it to him to respect his wishes.Anyhow, what could she find out that she did not know already? Yes, Dorn and her father were right in the conclusion each reached by a different road.She would do well not to meddle where she could not possibly accomplish any good.She could question the servants and could get from them all the facts she needed for urging her father at least to cut down the hours of labor.

The more she thought about Victor Dorn the more uneasy she became.She had made more progress with him than she had hoped to make in so short a time.But she had made it at an unexpected cost.If she had softened him, he had established a disquieting influence over her.She was not sure, but she was afraid, that he was stronger than she--that, if she persisted in her whim, she would soon be liking him entirely too well for her own comfort.

Except as a pastime, Victor Dorn did not fit into her scheme of life.If she continued to see him, to yield to the delight of his magnetic voice, of his fresh and original mind, of his energetic and dominating personality, might he not become aroused--begin to assert power over her, compel her to--to--she could not imagine what; only, it was foolish to deny that he was a dangerous man.``If I've got good sense,'' decided she, ``I'll let him alone.I've nothing to gain and everything to lose.''

Her motor--the one her father had ordered as a birthday present--came the next day; and on the following day two girl friends from Cincinnati arrived for a long visit.So, Jane Hastings had the help she felt she perhaps needed in resisting the temptings of her whim.

To aid her in giving her friends a good time she impressed Davy Hull, in spite of his protests that his political work made social fooling about impossible.The truth was that the reform movement, of which he was one of the figureheads, was being organized by far more skillful and expert hands than his--and for purposes of which he had no notion.So, he really had all the time in the world to look after Ellen Clearwater and Josie Arthur, and to pose as a serious man bent upon doing his duty as an upper class person of leisure.All that the reform machine wished of him was to talk and to pose--and to ride on the show seat of the pretty, new political wagon.

The new movement had not yet been ``sprung'' upon the public.It was still an open secret among the young men of the ``better element'' in the Lincoln, the Jefferson and the University clubs.

Money was being subscribed liberally by persons of good family who hoped for political preferment and could not get it from the old parties, and by corporations tired of being ``blackmailed''

by Kelly and House, and desirous of getting into office men who would give them what they wanted because it was for the public good that they should not be hampered in any way.With plenty of money an excellent machine could be built and set to running.

Also, there was talk of a fusion with the Democratic machine, House to order the wholesale indorsement of the reform ticket in exchange for a few minor places.