“The Company does,” Polder replied more exactly.  “I’ve been in the open hearth since I left school,” he went on; “it was born in me, I’ve never thought of anything else.”  His tone grew sharp, as if it might occur to the other to contradict the legitimacy of his pursuit.  “I have done well enough, too,” he said pridefully.  “Most of them come on from college.  I went from shovelling slag in the pit, the crane, to second helper and melter; they gave me the furnace after a year and now I am foreman.  It will be better still if a reorganization goes through.  Not many men have a chance at the superintendent’s office under thirty-five.”

“That is very admirable,” Howat Penny said formally.  He wondered, privately, at the far channel into which the original Penny ability had flowed.  There could be no doubt, however objectionable, that James Polder was the present repository of the family tradition.  He had had it from the source; and the iron had not, apparently, been corroded by tainted blood.  He was forced to admit that a coarser strain had, perhaps, lent it endurance.  All this failed to detract from his initial dislike of young Polder.  There was a lack of breeding in the manner in which he sat in his chair, thrust forward on its edge, in his arrogant proclamation of ability, success.  James Polder was anxious, he realized, to impress him, Howat Penny, with the fact that he was not negligible.  Such things were utterly unimportant to him.  He was unable to justify, or even explain to himself, his standards of judgment.  They were not founded on admirable conduct, on achievement, what was known as solid worth; but on vague accents, intuitive attitudes of mind visible in a hundred trivial, even absurd, signs.  The “right things” were more indispensable to him than the sublimest attributes.

On the following morning Mariana, Eliza and Polder disappeared in his car—­it seemed that the latter was an accomplished mechanic in addition to his other qualities—­and Howat Penny faced the disagreeable possibilities of the near future.  Mariana would, he knew, meet this fellow promiscuously if necessary.  As she had indicated, it was impossible to conceive of him in Charlotte Jannan’s house.  The latter was a rigidly correct woman.  She would, too, and properly, be nasty if she learned that such meetings had taken place at Shadrach.  The only thing to do was to bring Mariana to what he designated as her senses.  And, at the start, he had a conviction that he might fail.

She did not accompany Eliza Provost and Polder, when, late Sunday afternoon, they departed; but sat absorbed in thought through the evening meal.  He found his affection for her increasing to an annoying degree; he was almost humble in his anxiety not to wound her.

“Life is so messy,” she said with sudden violence.  “You can’t think, Howat, how I hate myself; the horridest things go round and round through my mind.  We’re all wrong—­I’m more like you than I admitted—­born snobs.  I mean the kind who look down on people different from themselves.  I can’t help being on—­on edge.  I can tell you this, though, I care more for Jim Polder than for any other man I’ve ever met.  I’m mad about him; and yet, somehow, I can’t quite think of marrying him.  He’s asked me already.  But I knew he would.”