Perhaps he
would get on better with the men."
She seized at the chance of changing the subject.
"It was a foolish notion," she said, "that of the Manchester school: that
men and women could be treated as mere figures in a sum."
To her surprise, he agreed with her. "The feudal system had a fine idea
in it," he said, "if it had been honestly carried out. A master should
be the friend, the helper of his men. They should be one family."
She looked at him a little incredulously, remembering the bitter periods
of strikes and lock-outs.
"Did you ever try, Dad?" she asked.
"Oh, yes," he answered. "But I tried the wrong way." "The right way
might be found," he added, "by the right man, and woman."
She felt that he was watching her through his half-closed eyes. "There
are those cottages," he continued, "just before you come to the bridge.
They might be repaired and a club house added. The idea is catching on,
they tell me. Garden villages, they call them now. It gets the men and
women away from the dirty streets; and gives the children a chance.
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