charges in detail and refuted them by demonstrating that so far as there had been any coercion, it had proceeded from the leaders of the union, and that the closing down of the mills was due to a humane desire to prevent the violence that had been threatened. The editor concluded by expressing amazement that one gentleman should see fit to attack another publicly upon a matter that could not possibly be construed as of public concern.
Stewart was embittered by this rough rebuke, particularly by the allusion to the ingratitude of his criticism. The arguments which the editor cited did not disturb him; they were based, he knew, upon an inaccurate statement of facts. Tustin's whole account of the trouble had been logical and conclusive enough, and it supported the editor in not one particular. Stewart felt that he would not have resented a proper statement of a differing view; he would merely have set about correcting it. But that his old obligation to Floyd should be thus publicly commented on to his disadvantage appeared to him an insufferable impertinence. It was with such trivialities and irrelevancies that an unprincipled writer would bolster up a weak cause. He reflected that he must endure unfair treatment from the Eagle, which was a bigoted newspaper conducted in the interests of the capitalist class—subsidized, no doubt, by the satraps. Criticise him as it pleased, it should hear from him as long as it would print his letters, and he set to work at once upon a second communication, amplifying and repeating his charges.
At noon he went to the club for luncheon; as he entered the reading-room he saw Floyd there, with his hat n, leaning against the mantel-piece and talking to two men who sat in arm-chairs before him. Floyd glanced at Stewart and then nodded with an easy, careless smile. There was no particular sign of invitation in the recognition, and Stewart hesitated a moment; then he decided that he would show there was no hard feeling and he advanced casually, as he would have done at any time, to
