Margaret Ormsby went out at the door and into the
crowds on Madison Street. As she walked in the
press she lifted her head in pride that a man possessed
of such a brain and of the simple courage to try to
express such magnificent ideas through human beings
had ever shown favour toward her. Humbleness
swept over her and she blamed herself for the petty
thoughts concerning him that had been in her mind.
“It does not matter,” she whispered to
herself. “Now I know that nothing matters,
nothing but his success. He must do this thing
he has set out to do. He must not be denied.
I would give the blood out of my body or expose my
body to shame if that could bring him success.”
Margaret became exalted in her humbleness. When
her carriage had taken her to her house she ran quickly
upstairs to her own room and knelt by her bed.
She started to pray but presently stopped and sprang
to her feet. Running to the window she looked
off across the city. “He must succeed,”
she cried again. “I shall myself be one
of his marchers. I will do anything for him.
He is tearing the veil from my eyes, from all men’s
eyes. We are children in the hands of this giant
and he must not meet defeat at the hands of children.”
CHAPTER II
On the day of the great demonstration, when McGregor’s
power over the minds and the bodies of the men of
labour sent hundreds of thousands marching and singing
in the streets, there was one man who was untouched
by the song of labour expressed in the threshing of
feet. David Ormsby had in his quiet way thought
things out. He expected that the new impetus
given to solidity in the ranks of labour would make
trouble for him and his kind, that it would express
itself finally in strikes and in wide-spread industrial
disturbance. He was not worried. In the
end he thought that the silent patient power of money
would bring his people the victory. On that day
he did not go to his office but in the morning stayed
in his own room thinking of McGregor and of his daughter.
Laura Ormsby was out of the city but Margaret was at
home. David believed he had measured accurately
the power of McGregor over her mind but occasional
doubts came to him. “Well the time has
come to have it out with her,” he decided.
“I must reassert my ascendency over her mind.
The thing that is going on here is really a struggle
of minds. McGregor differs from other leaders
of labour as I differ from most leaders of the forces
of money. He has brains. Very well.
I shall meet him on that level. Then, when I have
made Margaret think as I think, she will return to
me.”
* * * *
*
When he was still a small manufacturer in the Wisconsin
town David had been in the habit of driving out in
the evening with his daughter. During the drives
he had been almost a lover in his attentions to the
child and now when he thought of the forces at work
within her he was convinced that she was still a child.
Early in the afternoon he had a carriage brought to
the door and drove off with her to the city. “She
will want to see the man in the height of his power.
If I am right in thinking that she is still under
the influence of his personality there will be a romantic
desire for that.
Copyrights
Marching Men from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
