The Iron Woman

o seriously about the affairs of Elizabeth's heart.

e you done to your

ry at Uncle, and bro

at's just the way you used to bite your arm when you were mad. You al

o lifelong acquaintance. The only difference was that now, when she and Blair squabbled, they made up again in new ways; Blair, with gusts of what Elizabeth, annoyed and a little disgusted, called "silliness"; Elizabeth, with strange, half-scared, wholly joyous moments of conscious power. But the "making-up" was far less personal than the fallings-out; these, at least, meant individual antagonisms, whereas the reconciliations were something larger than the girl and boy-something

t joyful, joy

love with Blair." The fact was, Blair was merely a necessary appendage to the joy of being engage

le. Because she was a girl, she bored him quite as often as he bored her. It was because she was a woman that there came those moments when he offended her; and in those moments she had but little persona

n able to relax into a difficult smile when Mrs. Richie ventured a mild pleasantry on the subject. For Mrs. Richie had spoken to Blair, and

let him lounge on the grass at her feet. His adoration of David's mother, begun in his childh

hild, and you are entirely too wise to talk seriously about being engaged to he

his shoulder, and instantly forgetting the smaller pride of being "

s head upon a charger, Blair would have rejoiced to offer it. But this serene and gentle woman was far too wise to wring any promise from the boy, although, indeed, she had no opportunity, for at that moment Mr. Ferguson kn

e, smiling. And poor Blair picked

prospect of college was attractive to Blair, and that the moment of parting would not be tragic to Elizabeth. The romance did not come to a recognized end, however, until a day or two before Blair started East. The four friends, and Miss White, had gone out to

propriety. In the yellow September afternoon the river ran placidly between the hills and low-lying meadows; here and there, high on a wooded hillside, a maple flamed among the greenness of the walnuts and locusts, or the chestnuts showed the bronze beginnings of autumn. Ahead of them the sunshine had

river, an' I cou

wolly-doodle

a nigger, an' I th

olly-w

off, resting on his oars and letti

ding-school you don't like anything but the East." She began to stroke her puppy's head violen

don't you

aid, "Well, I don't lik

likes M

n't," Blair murmured, a

zabeth; "you think whatever

, isn

ed. "I suppose you thi

" Blai

dful because, someti

th said

re," Blair a

I wonder you want

ody but you?" Blai

Blair whistled, upon which Elizabeth became absorbed i

girl kiss a dog

olly-wol

said Elizabeth, an

comfortable, scrambled out of Elizabeth's lap and began

with his foot. Bobby yelped, gave a flying nip at his ankle, and retreated

consoling her puppy with frantic

said he'd like to throw th

your old ring! You are a cruel, wicked boy, and I hate you-so there!" "I must say I don't see why you should expect me to enjoy being bitten," Blair said hotly. "Well,

trembling all over, "and I hope you'll g

ou will have to endure my society

the side of the boat into the water. There was a terrific splash-but, alas! Elizabeth, in preferring death to Blair's society, had not calculated upon the Septe

Miss White's terrified scolding, Blair's protestations to David that it wasn't his fault-through it all, Elizabeth, wading ashor

carriage. I am go

'll take cold

d out, "Elizabeth, you can't walk home; you're a perfect object!" Eli

embarrassed four-by five, indeed, for Blair had fished Bobby out of the water, and even stopped, once in a while when no one was looking, to give the maker of all this

, but just; "it wasn't your fault. But we're not enga

dful event to Mr. Ferguson, added that she felt assured the young people had got over their foolishness. Elizabeth's uncle, telling t

g Mrs. Maitland. Why should they? Who would connect this woman of iron and toil and sweat, of

was to start East, his mother, looking over t

ce at the Works at ten-fifteen." She looked at him amiably, then pu

ack crepe, with strings frayed with many tyings. "Oh, Ma

ot listening. "Harris!"

oller figures for me a

ill know what I mean-

there's boiled ca

Blair flung up his arms in a wordless protest; he actually winced with pain. He glanced around the unlovely room; at the table, with its ledgers and clutter of unmatched china-old Canton, and heavy white earthenware, and odd cups a

t is a dreadful

tter we love each other. Well! I suppose I've got to go and see her bossing a lot of men, instead of sitting at home, like

s anything about it," Nan

ful hot water one of these days with her devil of a temper-and she'll get other people into it, too," he ended resentfully. B

at Elizabeth and Blair, and found enjoyment in these deductions! Nobody would have imagined it, but the big, ungainly woman dreamed! Dreamed of her boy, of his business success, of his love, of his wife,-and, who knows? perhaps those grimy pink baby socks began to mean something more personal than the missionary barrel. It was her purpose, on this particular morning, to tell him, after they had gone through the Works, just where, when he graduated, he was to begin. Not at the bottom!-that was Ferguson's idea. "He ought to start at the bottom, if he is ever to get to the top," Ferguson had barked. No, Blair need not start at the bottom; he could begin pretty well up at the top; and he should have a sala

f the dirt-begrimed office window, saw him coming, and caught the gleam of his patent-leather shoes as he skirted a puddle just outside the door

bonnet was crooked; her hair was hanging in wisps at the back of her neck; her short skirt showed the big, broad-soled foot twisted round the leg of her chair. Blair

for his excuses, she proceeded with the business

up in as

e entirely, and you will go to work. You will go on a salary, like an

ce. "Why!" he said. "You are a

as sensitive to Mrs. Richie's slightest wish, and careful of old Cherry-pie's comfort, and generously thoughtful even of Harris-Blair, absorbed in his own apprehensions, heard no pain in his mother's voice. "I know all about it," Mrs. Maitland wen

d know that he had been engaged. Yet she was not going to take his head off! Instea

ould marry Elizabeth, as soon as you can support her. And you can do that as soon as you graduate, because, as I

t, when he did not remember to name it, darkly, "faithlessness." He was so comforted that he had, for the first time in his life

he ribs that made him jump. "I can't waste time over lovers' quarrels. Patch it up! patch it up! You can afford to, you know, before you get marrie

ugh the Yards-vast, hideous wastes, scorching in the September heats, full of endless rows of pig, piles of scrap, acres, it seemed to Blair, of slag. The screeching clamor of the place reeked with the smell of rust and rubbish and sour earth, and the air was vibrant with the clatter of the "bugg

watching, breathlessly, a jibcrane bearing a great ladle full of tons of liquid metal that shimmered above its white-hot expanse with the shifting blue flames of escaping gas. Seething and bubbling, the molten iron slopped in a flashing film over the side of the caldron, every drop, as it struck the black earth, rebounding in a thousand e

d breathlessly,

move the lever that tips the ladle with his two fingers

ry, that when she said, "Come on!" he did not hear her. Mrs. Maitland, standing with her hands on her hips, her feet well apart, held her head high; she was intensely grati

y afterward, "I allowed I'd never seen a young feller as knowing about castings as him. S

paint it," Blair sa

, that will hold New York and San Francisco together, and engines and machines for the whole world; there are telegraph wires that will bring-think of all the kinds of news they will bring, Blair,-wars, and births of babies! There are bridges in it

of one who sees a familiar face where he has supposed he would see a stranger. He forgot his shame in having a mother who ran an iron-mill; he even forgot that impudent thrust in the ribs; a s

tatistics; she told him of the tons of bridge materials on the books; the rail contract she h

e of work, then blowing the crumbs of iron out from between her lips and bursting into quick directions or fault-finding. She stood among her men, in her short skirt, her gray hair straggling out over her forehead from under her shabby bonnet, and gave her orders; but for the first time in her life s

ith the other sympathetically watering ey

t as he was, he knew enough of the Works to know that an iron filing in your eye is no joke-he turned

the irritating iron speck from the eyeball. "'Bliged," Mrs. Maitland said. She clapped a rather grimy handkerchief over the poor red eye, and turned to Blair. "Come on!" she said, and struck him on the shoulder so heartily that he stumbled. Her cheek was blackened by the molder's greasy fingers, and so smeared with tears from the still watering eye that he could not bear to look at it. He hesitated, then offered her hi

te any more time! "You can keep all this that you have seen in your mind. I don't know just where I shall put you. If you have a prefe

and turned her cheek toward him for their semi-ann

out the allowance." On the threshold of the office he halted. "Mother," he said,-and

of her dress. Then she rang her bell. "Ask Mr. Ferguson to step here." When her superintendent took the chair beside her desk, she was al

made a me

his engagement with Elizabeth, and I shall make it po

ut

k he needs the incentive that comes to a young man when he wants to get marri

said Robert Ferguson

ir; but fortunately we

nd there is no longer

in

aused again, and made aimless marks with her pen on the blotter. "That's all this morning, Mr. Ferguson." An

elbow on her desk, covered her lips with her hand. After she had sat thus for nearly ten minutes, she sudd