The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists [331]
As he drew near to his destination large flakes of snow began to fall. He walked so rapidly and was in such a fury that by the time he reached the shop he was scarcely able to speak.
`Is - Hunter - or Rushton here?' he demanded of the shopman.
`Hunter isn't, but the guv'nor is. What was it you wanted?'
`He'll soon - know - that,' panted Owen as he strode up to the office door, and without troubling to knock, flung it violently open and entered.
The atmosphere of this place was very different from that of the damp cellar where Bert was working. A grate fitted with asbestos blocks and lit with gas communicated a genial warmth to the air.
Rushton was standing leaning over Miss Wade's chair with his left arm round her neck. Owen recollected afterwards that her dress was disarranged. She retired hastily to the far end of the room as Rushton jumped away from her, and stared in amazement and confusion at the intruder - he was too astonished and embarrassed to speak. Owen stood panting and quivering in the middle of the office and pointed a trembling finger at his employer:
`I've come - here - to tell - you - that - if I find young - Bert White - working - down in that shop - without a fire - I'll have you prosecuted. The place is not good enough for a stable - if you owned a valuable dog - you wouldn't keep it there - I give you fair warning - I know - enough - about you - to put you - where you deserve to be - if you don't treat him better I'll have you punished I'll show you up.'
Rushton continued to stare at him in mingled confusion, fear and perplexity; he did not yet comprehend exactly what it was all about; he was guiltily conscious of so many things which he might reasonably fear to be shown up or prosecuted for if they were known, and the fact of being caught under such circumstances with Miss Wade helped to reduce him to a condition approaching terror.
`If the boy has been there without a fire, I 'aven't known anything about it,' he stammered at last. `Mr 'Unter has charge of all those matters.'
`You - yourself - forbade him - to make a fire last winter - and anyhow - you know about it now. You obtained money from his mother under the pretence - that you were going - to teach him a trade - but for the last twelve months - you have been using him - as if he were - a beast of burden. I advise you to see to it - or I shall - find - means - to make you - wish you had done so.'
With this Owen turned and went out, leaving the door open, and Rushton in a state of mind compounded of fear, amazement and anger.
As he walked homewards through the snow-storm, Owen began to realize that the consequence of what he had done would be that Rushton would not give him any more work, and as he reflected on all that this would mean to those at home, for a moment he doubted whether he had done right. But when he told Nora what had happened she said there were plenty of other firms in the town who would employ him - when they had the work. He had done without Rushton before and could do so again; for her part - whatever the consequences might be - she was glad that he had acted as he did.
`We'll get through somehow, I suppose,' said Owen, wearily. `There's not much chance of getting a job anywhere else just now, but I shall try to get some work on my own account. I shall do some samples of show-cards the same as I did last winter and try to get orders from some of the shops - they usually want something extra at this time, but I'm afraid it is rather too late: most of them already have all they want.'
`I shouldn't go out again today if I were you,' said Nora, noticing how ill he looked. `You should stay at home and read, or write up those minutes.'
The minutes referred to were those of the last meeting of the local branch of the Painters' Society, of which Owen was the secretary, and as the snow continued to fall, he occupied himself after dinner in the manner his wife suggested, until four o'clock, when Frankie returned from school bringing with him a large snowball, and crying out as