“Though I am writing this letter in what to me is a solemn and undoubtedly exalted hour, I am sure that my mind was never clearer or saner.  Dad, I have set my heart on inaugurating an experiment in industrial democracy in Foxon Falls!  I’d like to be able to think—­if anything happened to me—­that the Pindar shops were among the first in America to recognize that we are living in a new era and a changed world.”

   (Asher walks over to the bench and lays down the open letter on it.)

If anything should happen to that boy, Jonathan, there wouldn’t be anything in life left for me!  Industrial democracy!  So you put that into his head!  Socialism, I suppose.

Dr. Jonathan.  No, experimental science.

Asher.  Call it what you like.  What surprises me is, when I look back over the months you’ve been here, how well we’ve got along in spite of your views.

Dr. Jonathan.  Why not say in spite of yours, Asher?

Asher (smiling involuntarily).  Well, it’s been a comfort to drop in here and talk to you, in spite of what you believe.  You’ve got the gift of sympathy, Jonathan.  But I don’t approve of you’re spending your time in this sort of work—­(he waves a hand toward the bench)—­which may never come to anything, and in doctoring people for nothing and patching up their troubles.  I daresay you enjoy it, but what worries me is how you are going to live?

Dr. Jonathan.  By practising your cardinal virtue, thrift.

Asher.  I’ve got a proposal to make to you part of a scheme I’ve been turning over in my mind for the last six months—­and when George’s letter came I decided to put it through.  I went to New York and had Sterry, a corporation lawyer, draw it up.  I’m going to prove I’m not a mossback.  It will reorganize the Pindar Shops.

Dr. Jonathan.  Well, that’s good news.

Asher.  First, with reference to your part in it, I shall establish a free hospital for my employees, and put you in charge of it, at a salary of five thousand a year.  After all, you’re the only Pindar left except George, and I’m satisfied that as a doctor you’re up to the job, since you’ve driven Dr. Senn out of business.

Dr. Jonathan.  Practical proof, Asher.  Fortunately Dr. Senn has enough to live on.

Asher.  In offering you this position I have only one stipulation to make—­(he clears his throat)—­it’s about Minnie Farrell.  I think the world of Timothy, I wouldn’t willingly hurt his feelings, but I can’t have Minnie with you in the hospital, Jonathan.  You deserve a great deal of credit for what you’ve done for the girl, you’ve kept her out of mischief, but considering her past, her life at Newcastle—­well, even if I approved of having her in the hospital Augusta would never hear of it.  And then she had some sort of an affair with George—­I daresay there was nothing wrong—­