Ruth watched him anxiously as he left the apartment.  She knew things were not well with him and that he needed something a true wife should give.  First, he needed to tell some one about it.  He had not told he If ah had been inside his life, where she belonged, he must have told her.  Second, he needed her sympathy, her mothering. ...  She might have been able to give him that—­after a fashion. ...  She felt how it should be done, knew how she would have done it if only she loved him.  “I could be the right kind of a wife,” she said, wistfully.  “I know I could. ...”

Bonbright went doggedly to his place at the mouth of the chute and was ready with the whistle, an axle poised to slide downward to the assembling car below.  He was afraid—­afraid he would not be able to get through the day—­absurdly afraid and ashamed of his physical weakness.  If he should play out!...

A boy tapped him on the shoulder.  “You’re wanted in the office,” he heard.

“I’ve got to—­keep up,” he said, dully.  “Cars are coming along below,” he explained, carefully, “and I’ve got to get the axles to them.”

“Here’s a man to take your place,” said the boy—­and so strange is man created in God’s image!—­he did not want to go.  He wanted to see it through till he dropped.

“If you keep the boss waiting—­” said the boy, ominously.

Bonbright walked painfully to Lightener’s office.

“Well?” said Lightener.

“I can do it—­I’ll harden to it,” Bonbright said.

“Huh!...  Take off those overalls. ...  Boy, go to Mr. Foote’s locker and fetch his things. ...”

“Am—­am I discharged?”

“No,” said Lightener, bestowing no word of commendation.  Men had little commendation from him by word of mouth.  He let actions speak for him.  When he gave a man a task to perform that man knew he was being complimented. ...  But he knew it in no other way.

“That’s the way a laborer feels,” said Lightener. ...  “You got it multiplied.  That’s because you had to jam his whole life’s experience into a day. ...”

“Poor devils!” said Bonbright.

“I’m going to put you in the purchasing department—­after that, if you make good—­into the sales end. ...  Able to go ahead to-day?”

“Yes.”

“Before you amount to a darn as a business man you’ve got to know how to buy. ...  That’s the foundation.  You’ve got to be able to buy right.  Then you’ve got to learn how to make.  Selling is easiest of all—­and there are darn few real salesmen.  If you can buy, you can do anything.”

“I—­I would rather stay out of the shops, Mr. Lightener.  The men—­ found out who I was...I’d like to stay there till they—­forget it.”

“You’ll go where I put you.  Men enough in the purchasing department.  Got a tame anarchist there, I hear, and a Mormon, and a Hindu, and a single-taxer.  All kinds.  After hours.  From whistle to whistle they buy.”