His glance, as it rested on Surrey, held no love, and, indeed, was rather malignant.
"That fellow," said Surrey, indicating him, "has a queer story connected with him.

He was discharged from my father's employ to give place to a man who could do his work better; and the strange part of it"-- he watched her with an amused smile to see what effect the announcement would have upon her Virginia ladyship--"is that number two is a black man." A sudden heat flushed her cheeks: "Do you tell me your father made room for a black man in his employ, and at the expense of a white one ?" "It is even so." "Is he there now ?" Surrey's beautiful Saxon face crimsoned.

"No: he is not," he said reluctantly.
"Ah! did he, this black man,--did he not do his work well ?" "Admirably." "Is it allowable, then, to ask why he was discarded ?" "It is allowable, surely.

He was dismissed because the choice lay between him and seven hundred men." "And you"-- her face was very pale now, the flush all gone out of it--"you have nothing to do with your father's works, but you are his son,--did you do naught?
protest, for instance ?" "I protested--and yielded.

The contest would have been not merely with seven hundred men, but with every machinist in the city.