'Won't you try me?' pleaded he; his thoughts suddenly bent upon learning what she had said.
She was displeased with his pertinacity, but did not choose to affix too much importance to her words.
'I said you had a human right.
I meant that there seemed no reason but religious ones, why you should not do what you like with your own.
'I know we differ in our religious opinions; but don't you give me credit for having some, though not the same as yours?'
He was speaking in a subdued voice, as if to her alone.
She did not wish to be so exclusively addressed.
She replied out in her usual tone:
'I do not think that I have any occasion to consider your special religious opinions in the affair.
All I meant to say is, that there is no human law to prevent the employers from utterly wasting or throwing away all their money, if they choose; but that there are passages in the Bible which would rather imply—to me at least—that they neglected their duty as stewards if they did so.
However I know so little about strikes, and rate of wages, and capital, and labour, that I had better not talk to a political economist like you.'
'Nay, the more reason,' said he, eagerly. 'I shall only be too glad to explain to you all that may seem anomalous or mysterious to a stranger; especially at a time like this, when our doings are sure to be canvassed by every scribbler who can hold a pen.'
'Thank you,' she answered, coldly. 'Of course, I shall apply to my father in the first instance for any information he can give me, if I get puzzled with living here amongst this strange society.'
'You think it strange. Why?'
'I don't know—I suppose because, on the very face of it, I see two classes dependent on each other in every possible way, yet each evidently regarding the interests of the other as opposed to their own; I never lived in a place before where there were two sets of people always running each other down.'
'Who have you heard running the masters down?
I don't ask who you have heard abusing the men; for I see you persist in misunderstanding what I said the other day.
But who have you heard abusing the masters?'
Margaret reddened; then smiled as she said,
'I am not fond of being catechised.
I refuse to answer your question.
Besides, it has nothing to do with the fact.
You must take my word for it, that I have heard some people, or, it may be, only someone of the workpeople, speak as though it were the interest of the employers to keep them from acquiring money—that it would make them too independent if they had a sum in the savings' bank.'
'I dare say it was that man Higgins who told you all this,' said Mrs Hale.
Mr. Thornton did not appear to hear what Margaret evidently did not wish him to know.
But he caught it, nevertheless.
'I heard, moreover, that it was considered to the advantage of the masters to have ignorant workmen—not hedge-lawyers, as Captain Lennox used to call those men in his company who questioned and would know the reason for every order.'
This latter part of her sentence she addressed rather to her father than to Mr. Thornton.
Who is Captain Lennox? asked Mr. Thornton of himself, with a strange kind of displeasure, that prevented him for the moment from replying to her!
Her father took up the conversation.
'You never were fond of schools, Margaret, or you would have seen and known before this, how much is being done for education in Milton.'
'No!' said she, with sudden meekness. 'I know I do not care enough about schools.
But the knowledge and the ignorance of which I was speaking, did not relate to reading and writing,—the teaching or information one can give to a child.
I am sure, that what was meant was ignorance of the wisdom that shall guide men and women.
I hardly know what that is.
But he—that is, my informant—spoke as if the masters would like their hands to be merely tall, large children—living in the present moment—with a blind unreasoning kind of obedience.'
'In short, Miss Hale, it is very evident that your informant found a pretty ready listener to all the slander he chose to utter against the masters,' said Mr. Thornton, in an offended tone.
Margaret did not reply.
She was displeased at the personal character Mr. Thornton affixed to what she had said.
Mr. Hale spoke next:
'I must confess that, although I have not become so intimately acquainted with any workmen as Margaret has, I am very much struck by the antagonism between the employer and the employed, on the very surface of things.
I even gather this impression from what you yourself have from time to time said.'
Mr. Thornton paused awhile before he spoke.
Margaret had just left the room, and he was vexed at the state of feeling between himself and her.
However, the little annoyance, by making him cooler and more thoughtful, gave a greater dignity to what he said:
'My theory is, that my interests are identical with those of my workpeople and vice-versa.
Miss Hale, I know, does not like to hear men called 'hands,' so I won't use that word, though it comes most readily to my lips as the technical term, whose origin, whatever it was, dates before my time.
On some future day—in some millennium—in Utopia, this unity may be brought into practice—just as I can fancy a republic the most perfect form of government.'
'We will read Plato's Republic as soon as we have finished Homer.'
'Well, in the Platonic year, it may fall out that we are all—men women, and children—fit for a republic: but give me a constitutional monarchy in our present state of morals and intelligence.