Mariana, accompanied by Eliza, soon
after went up; and left the two men facing each other across a neutral
silence. "You manufacture steel, I believe," the elder finally stated.
"The Company does," Polder replied more exactly. "I've been in the open
hearth since I left school," he went on; "it was born in me, I've never
thought of anything else." His tone grew sharp, as if it might occur to
the other to contradict the legitimacy of his pursuit. "I have done well
enough, too," he said pridefully. "Most of them come on from college. I
went from shovelling slag in the pit, the crane, to second helper and
melter; they gave me the furnace after a year and now I am foreman. It
will be better still if a reorganization goes through. Not many men have
a chance at the superintendent's office under thirty-five."
"That is very admirable," Howat Penny said formally. He wondered,
privately, at the far channel into which the original Penny ability had
flowed. There could be no doubt, however objectionable, that James
Polder was the present repository of the family tradition. He had had it
from the source; and the iron had not, apparently, been corroded by
tainted blood. He was forced to admit that a coarser strain had,
perhaps, lent it endurance.
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