The Second-Story Man Page 3

stop . . . but they'll have another man in his place. It's a machine .

  . . it goes right on. Yes, and you won't do as much as you think you

  will, either . . . you'll think it over, and you won't go as far as

  you mean to now.

  MRS. AUSTIN. No! No!

  JIM. Ah, but you can't help it . . . you're in the mill, too. It's the

  class you belong to. You can talk and feel sorry . . . but you ain't

  made to do things. You have to have your houses and your fine dresses

  . . . and you couldn't live without them, and there'd be no use your

  trying. And that means you have to live off my class . . . you have to

  ride on our backs. And it don't much matter which part you ride on, as

  far as I can see. You'll make your husband get a new job, maybe; but

  he'll do the same thing in another way . . . only you won't find it

  out. But any way he gets his money it'll come out of me and my kind.

  D'ye see? I do the work . . . I'm the man underneath. I make the good

  things, and you get them. [A pause.] Good luck to you.

  MRS. AUSTIN. You are cruel.

  JIM. Nothing of the kind. I've just told you the facts. I feel sorry

  for you. I'd do anything I could for you. [Stretching out his hands.]

  See what I've done! I've given you your husband's life.

  MRS. AUSTIN. Oh!

  JIM. Yes, just that. You've no idea how many times I swore it . . .

  that I'd kill him on sight . . . that I'd strangle the life out of

  him, if ever I laid eyes on him again. I used to sit when I was half

  drunk, and brood over it . . . my God, I even swore it by the body of

  my little boy! And I've got my gun, and you've taken his away from

  him. And I don't shoot him. [A pause.] I leave him to you. [Grimly.]

  You punish him.

  [Exit right.]

  [AUSTIN stretches out his arms to his wife. She sinks upon the table,

  burying her head.]

  CURTAIN

  End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Second-Story Man, by Upton Sinclair