On the second evening after the encounter with Clara, Hugh went for a walk
in the streets of Bidwell. He thought of the work on which he had been
engaged all day and then of the woman he had made up his mind he could
under no circumstances win. As darkness came on he went into the country,
and at nine returned along the railroad tracks past the corn-cutter
factory. The factory was working day and night, and the new plant, also
beside the tracks and but a short distance away, was almost completed.
Behind the new plant was a field Tom Butterworth and Steve Hunter had
bought and laid out in streets of workingmen's houses. The houses were
cheaply constructed and ugly, and in all directions there was a vast
disorder; but Hugh did not see the disorder or the ugliness of the
buildings. The sight that lay before him strengthened his waning vanity.
Something of the loose shuffle went out of his stride and he threw back his
shoulders. "What I have done here amounts to something. I'm all right," he
thought, and had almost reached the old corn-cutter plant when several men
came out of a side door and getting upon the tracks, walked before him.
In the corn-cutter plant something had happened that excited the men. Ed
Hall the superintendent had played a trick on his fellow townsmen. He had
put on overalls and gone to work at a bench in a long room with some fifty
other men.
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