“Even as you may be infected with the conservatism of those with whom you are brought in contact,” said Risley, dryly.

“What a democrat you are, Risley!” said Robert, impatiently.  “I believe you would make a good walking delegate.”

Risley laughed.  “I think I would myself,” he said.  “Wouldn’t she listen to you, Robert?”

“She listened with such utter dissent that she might as well have been dumb.  It is all over between us, Risley.”

“How precipitate you are, you young folks!” said the other, good-humoredly.

“How precipitate?  Do you mean to say—?”

“I mean that you are forever thinking you are on the brink of nothingness, when the true horizon-line is too far for you ever to reach in your mortal life.”

“Not in this case,” said Robert.

“You know nothing about it.  But if you will excuse me, it seems to me that the matter of all these people being reduced to starvation in a howling winter is of more importance than the coming together of two people in the bonds of wedlock.  It is the aggregate against the individual.”

“I don’t deny that,” said Robert, doggedly, “but I am not responsible for the starvation, and the aggregate have brought it on themselves.”

“You have shut down finally?”

“Yes, I have.  I would rather shut down than not, as far as I am concerned.  It is distinctly for my interest.  The only one objection is losing experienced workmen, but in a community like this, and in times like this, that objection is reduced to a minimum.  I can hire all I want in the spring if I wish to open again.  I should run a risk of losing on every order I should have to fill in the next three months, even with the reduced list.  I would rather shut down than not; I only reduced the wages for them.”

Robert rose as he spoke.  He felt in his heart that he had gotten scant sympathy and comfort.  The older man looked with pity at the young fellow’s handsome, gloomy face.

“There’s one thing to remember,” he said.

“What?”

“All the troubles of this world are born with wings.”  Risley laughed, as he spoke, in his half-cynical fashion.

As Robert walked home—­for there was no car due—­he felt completely desolate.  It seemed to him that everybody was in league against him.  When he reached his uncle’s splendid house and entered, he felt such an isolation from his kind in the midst of his wealth that something like an actual terror of solitude came over him.

The impecunious cousin of his aunt’s who had come to her during her last illness acted as his housekeeper.  There was something inexpressibly irritating about this woman, who had suffered so much, and was now nestling, with a sense of triumph over the passing of her griefs, in a luxurious home.

She asked Robert if it were true that the factory was closed, and he felt that she noted his gloomy face, and realized a greater extent of comfort from her own exemption from such questions.