“I don’t remember how I happened to be in the basement that day.  Oh, yes, I do.  Mr. Forbes was away, and Mr. Gibson sent for me.  I was waylaid on the first floor by one of those Government Inspectors; she went with me to the cloak-room.  I simply couldn’t stop her!  When I got there that girl, Miss Jennings, was dying, and what do you think, with her very last breath she looked me in the face, and said she ‘forgave’ me.”

“What!”

Mr. Day leaned forward with astonishment on his features.

Mr. Forbes half arose from his chair, and then fell back heavily.

Before he spoke again Mr. Denton began pacing the office floor.  He was becoming more and more disturbed as he continued his recital.

“They tell me that girl has been with us six years, and that she has never lost a day except from sickness.  She was a consumptive always—­inherited it from her mother—­but in spite of it, she had to work to support herself and a brother.  She was getting ten dollars a week at the time she died, yet the cashier tells me that her checks for one hour alone have frequently amounted to twenty dollars.  I tell you, this bit of information has set me to thinking, and the outcome of my thoughts is a simple question:  ‘Are we men or brutes?’ That is what I want to know, and as it concerns you two as well as me, I’m going to ask you to answer it!”

There was the silence of death in the superintendent’s office.  Even Mr. Denton stood perfectly still as he asked his question.

Suddenly Mr. Day raised his head with a little jerk.  His cheeks became inflated as he tried to assume his usual bearing.

“It is possible we have been a little thoughtless,” he said sweetly, “but our subordinates should attend to these matters; that is what they are paid for.”

Mr. Forbes wheeled around in his chair and faced the speaker.

“I have hired no subordinates on that basis,” he said distinctly.  “My orders have been to get all the work possible out of a clerk, and when they were incompetent or in any way useless, turn them out and get new ones, and I believe that I have acted with the full consent of my partners.”

Mr. Day looked crestfallen for about a minute.

“Oh, if you put it that way, why, of course, Mr. Forbes.  We could not expect to sell our goods with a lot of dummies behind our counters.”

“We’ve had worse than ‘dummies,’” spoke up Mr. Denton.  “We’ve had skeletons and lunatics and almost corpses!  Just go down and look at them, men, women and children!  There’s not ten healthy human beings on any floor in the building; yet they came to us, many of them, glowing with health, like Miss Marvin.”

“Are they worse than at other stores?” asked Mr. Day, sullenly.

“I don’t know,” was the answer; “but that doesn’t matter.”

“They get their pay regularly,” said Mr. Forbes.  “Further, we do not solicit their services, nor compel them to stay with us.”