Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/69

Rh were in turn ruled by the invisible action of quick thought and obedient hands, always produced in Amherst a responsive rush of life.

He knew this sensation was too specialized to affect his companions; but he expected Mrs. Westmore to be all the more alive to the other side——the dark side of monotonous human toil, of the banquet of ﬂesh and blood and brain perpetually served up to the monster whose insatiable jaws the looms so grimly typiﬁed. Truscomb, as he had told her, was a good manager from the proﬁt—taking standpoint. Since it was proﬁtable to keep the machinery in order, he maintained throughout the factory a high standard of mechanical supervision, except where one or two favoured overseers—for Truscomb was given to favoritism—shirked the duties of their departments. But it was of the essence of Truscomb’s policy—and not the least of the qualities which made him a “paying” manager—that he saved money scrupulously where its outlay would not have resulted in larger earnings. To keep the ﬂoors scrubbed, the cotton-dust swept up, the rooms freshly whitewashed and well-ventilated, far from adding the smallest fraction to the quarterly dividends, would have deducted from them the slight cost of this additional labour; and Truscomb therefore economized on scrubbers, sweepers and window-washers, and on all expenses connected with improved ventilation and [ 57 ]