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Industrial Hygiene
Improving Worker Health through
an Operational Risk Approach
Sustainable Improvements in
Environment Safety and Health
Series Editor
Frances Alston

Lean Implementation: Applications and Hidden Costs, Frances Alston [2017]

Safety Culture and High-Risk Environments: A Leadership Perspective,


Cindy L. Caldwell [2017]

The Legal Aspects of Industrial Hygiene and Safety, Kurt W. Dreger [2018]

Industrial Hygiene: Improving Worker Health through an Operational Risk


Approach, Frances Alston, Emily J. Millikin, and Willie Piispanen [2018]
Industrial Hygiene
Improving Worker Health through
an Operational Risk Approach

Frances Alston
Emily J. Millikin
Willie Piispanen
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC


CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

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In Memoriam

William H. Piispanen

One of several industrial hygienists who responded and


provided support to the recovery efforts at Ground Zero
at the World Trade Center. Thank you, Willie.

All proceeds from this book will be donated to the Families


of Freedom Scholarship Fund, which provides funding for
additional education for families and children whose parents
were either killed or disabled from the 9/11 event.
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Contents
Preface.................................................................................................................... xiii
Authors...................................................................................................................... xv
List of Acronyms....................................................................................................xvii

Chapter 1 Occupational Safety and Health in the Workplace............................... 1


1.1 Introduction................................................................................1
1.2 Multiple Facets of the Safety and Health Professional............... 3
1.3 Industrial Hygiene Program Tenets............................................ 5
1.4 Application and Implementation of Industrial Hygiene
Program Elements......................................................................6
1.4.1 Program Management and Administration................... 7
1.4.2 Hazard Identification and Control Process...................7
1.4.3 Occupational Health Management................................ 8
1.4.4 Instrumentation and Calibration...................................8
1.4.5 Data Management, Records, and Reporting................. 9
1.4.6 Training and Qualification............................................ 9
1.4.7 Continuous Improvement............................................ 10
1.5 Industrial Hygiene Key Focus Area and Risk Reduction......... 10
Questions to Ponder for Learning....................................................... 11

Chapter 2 Art and Science of Industrial Hygiene................................................ 13


2.1 Introduction.............................................................................. 13
2.2 Art of Industrial Hygiene......................................................... 13
2.2.1 Art of Hazard Recognition and Control...................... 14
2.2.2 Art of an Occupational Exposure Monitoring
Strategy....................................................................... 16
2.2.3 Art of the Occupational Health Program.................... 16
2.2.4 Art of People Management......................................... 18
2.2.4.1 Solicit Feedback from the Workforce.......... 18
2.2.4.2 Team with the Workforce in Preventing
Hazards........................................................ 18
2.2.4.3 Provide Positive Feedback........................... 19
2.2.4.4 Be Respectful and Trusting......................... 19
2.3 Science of Industrial Hygiene................................................... 19
2.3.1 Science of Hazard Recognition and Control...............20
2.3.2 Science of an Occupational Exposure
Monitoring Strategy.................................................... 21
2.3.3 Science of the Occupational Health Program............. 22
2.3.4 Science of People Management................................... 22
Questions to Ponder for Learning....................................................... 23

vii
viii Contents

Chapter 3 Industrial Hygiene Professional..........................................................25


3.1 Introduction..............................................................................25
3.2 Role of the Industrial Hygiene Professional.............................26
3.3 Corporate Programmatic Support Role....................................26
3.4 Educating the Industrial Hygiene Professional........................ 27
3.4.1 College and University Curricula................................ 27
3.5 Retention of the Industrial Hygiene Professional..................... 30
3.6 Industrial Hygiene Certification............................................... 31
3.7 Continuing Education and Professional Development............. 32
3.8 Job Rotation.............................................................................. 32
3.9 Organizational Structure.......................................................... 33
3.9.1 Flat Organizational Structure...................................... 33
3.9.2 Hierarchical Organizational Structure........................34
3.10 Industrial Hygienist as a Generalist......................................... 35
3.11 Legal and Ethical Aspects of Industrial Hygiene..................... 36
3.11.1 Professionalism........................................................... 37
3.11.2 Accountability............................................................. 37
3.11.3 Humility...................................................................... 37
3.11.4 Reliability.................................................................... 38
3.11.5 Trustworthiness........................................................... 38
3.12 Regulatory Requirements and Enforceability.......................... 38
3.13 Industrial Hygienist as an Expert Witness............................... 38
Questions to Ponder for Learning....................................................... 38

Chapter 4 Strategies for Exposure Monitoring and Instrumentation................... 41


4.1 Introduction.............................................................................. 41
4.2 Regulatory Aspects of Industrial Hygiene Monitoring............ 42
4.3 Quantitative and Qualitative Exposure and Risk Assessment.... 43
4.3.1 Quantitative Exposure and Risk Assessment.............. 43
4.3.2 Qualitative Exposure and Risk Assessment................44
4.4 Process Flow of Exposure Assessment.................................... 45
4.4.1 Defining the Scope of Work........................................ 47
4.4.2 Developing a Monitoring Plan.................................... 47
4.4.3 Implementing the Characterization and Monitoring
Plan.............................................................................. 49
4.4.4 Similar Exposure Groups.............................................. 50
4.4.5 Evaluating Data and Characterizing Exposures......... 52
4.4.5.1 Application of Linear No-Threshold
versus Linear Threshold Models................. 52
4.4.5.2 Occupational Exposure and
Administrative Control Limits.................... 53
4.4.6 Develop Controls......................................................... 54
4.4.7 Document Results....................................................... 55
4.4.7.1 Peer Review and Validation......................... 56
Contents ix

4.4.8 Communicate Data Results......................................... 57


4.4.9 Develop a Reevaluation Plan....................................... 58
4.5 Occupational Safety and Health Characterization
and Monitoring Equipment...................................................... 58
4.5.1 Diffusion Detector Tubes............................................ 58
4.5.2 Vapor Monitor Badges................................................60
4.5.3 Personal Air Sampling Pumps....................................60
4.5.4 Handheld Electronic Monitors.................................... 61
4.5.5 Fixed Air Monitors...................................................... 61
4.6 Case Study: “I Smell Something”............................................ 62
4.6.1 “I Smell Something”: Lessons Learned...................... 62
4.7 Case Study: “I Have Been Sick for the Past 6 Months”........... 63
4.7.1 “I Have Been Sick for the Past 6 Months”:
Lessons Learned......................................................... 63
Questions to Ponder for Learning.......................................................64

Chapter 5 Risk-Based Industrial Hygiene............................................................ 65


5.1 Introduction.............................................................................. 65
5.2 Importance of Risk Assessments and a Risk-Based
Approach to Hazard Management............................................ 65
5.3 Identifying and Controlling Workplace Risks.........................66
5.4 Addressing Industrial Hygiene Risks in the Workplace........... 67
5.4.1 Industrial Hygiene Risk Assessment........................... 68
5.5 Risk Ranking............................................................................ 70
5.6 Risk Communication................................................................ 71
5.7 Risk Acceptance....................................................................... 72
Questions to Ponder for Learning....................................................... 73

Chapter 6 Recognizing, Evaluating, and Controlling Workplace Hazards......... 75


6.1 Introduction.............................................................................. 75
6.2 Historical Chemical and Industrial Hazards............................ 78
6.3 Workplace Hazard Inventories................................................. 81
6.3.1 Task Hazard Inventory................................................ 81
6.3.2 Facility Hazard Inventory........................................... 81
6.4 Injury and Illness Logs and Inspection Trending..................... 82
6.5 Chemical Inventories: Use, Storage, and Disposal Records....84
6.6 Regulatory Inspections and Violations..................................... 87
6.7 Hazard Control and Work Execution....................................... 88
6.7.1 Hazard Elimination..................................................... 89
6.7.2 Product Substitution.................................................... 89
6.7.3 Engineering Controls.................................................. 89
6.7.4 Work Practices and Administrative Controls.............. 89
6.7.5 Personal Protective Equipment................................... 89
x Contents

6.8 Integration of Hazard Recognition and Controls


and Work Control Processes.....................................................90
6.8.1 Planning Work.............................................................90
6.8.2 Authorizing Work........................................................ 91
6.8.3 Work Execution...........................................................92
6.8.4 Project Closeout..........................................................92
6.9 Management by Walk-Around................................................. 93
6.9.1 Preparation..................................................................94
6.9.2 Communication...........................................................94
6.9.3 Persistence to Connect................................................94
6.10 Safety through Design: Designing Hazards Out
of the Process........................................................................... 95
6.11 Employee Engagement and Involvement..................................96
Questions to Ponder for Learning.......................................................97

Chapter 7 Medical Monitoring and Surveillance of the Worker.........................99


7.1 Introduction..............................................................................99
7.2 Medical Monitoring and Surveillance Program..................... 100
7.3 Establishment of Company Policies, Protocols,
and Procedures....................................................................... 102
7.4 Scheduling and Tracking of Physicals.................................... 103
7.5 Interfacing with Medical Professionals.................................. 106
7.6 Notification of Test Results.................................................... 107
7.7 Analysis of Occupational Health Data................................... 108
7.8 Medical Monitoring Records and Reporting......................... 108
7.9 Case Study 1: Chromium IV Exposure.................................. 110
7.10 Case Study 2: Beryllium Exposure........................................ 110
Questions to Ponder for Learning..................................................... 111

Chapter 8 Workforce Training on Hazard Recognition and Control................. 113


8.1 Introduction............................................................................ 113
8.2 Why Provide Workplace Training?........................................ 114
8.3 Developing an Effective Training Strategy............................ 115
8.4 Hazard Recognition, Evaluation, and Control Training
Significance............................................................................ 116
8.4.1 Hazard Anticipation.................................................. 116
8.4.2 Hazard Recognition and Identification..................... 118
8.4.3 Evaluate Hazards....................................................... 119
8.4.4 Controlling Hazards.................................................. 119
8.5 Trainer Knowledge and Qualification.................................... 122
8.6 Training Effectiveness Evaluation.......................................... 122
8.7 Other Training Methods and Tools........................................ 122
8.7.1 Process or Tool Mock-Up.......................................... 123
8.7.2 Peer-to-Peer Training................................................ 123
Contents xi

8.7.3 Training at the Job Site.............................................. 124


8.7.4 Hazard Identification Checklist................................. 124
8.8 The Use of Case Studies to Enforce Learning....................... 124
8.8.1 Case Study................................................................. 125
Questions to Ponder for Learning..................................................... 130

Chapter 9 Industrial Hygiene and Emergency Response................................... 131


9.1 Introduction............................................................................ 131
9.2 Approaches to Emergency Response..................................... 132
9.3 Initiating Event....................................................................... 133
9.4 Event Notification................................................................... 135
9.5 Event Response....................................................................... 138
9.6 Risk Prioritization.................................................................. 138
9.7 Resources and Equipment...................................................... 139
9.8 Logistical Support.................................................................. 140
9.9 Event Response Communication............................................ 141
9.10 Event or Site Transition.......................................................... 142
9.11 Lessons Learned from 9/11.................................................... 143
9.11.1 Event Notification...................................................... 143
9.11.2 Event Response.......................................................... 144
9.11.3 Site Transition............................................................ 145
Questions to Ponder for Learning..................................................145

Chapter 10 Evaluating the Industrial Hygiene Program...................................... 147


10.1 Introduction......................................................................... 147
10.2 Identifying the Program and Process to Assess..................... 149
10.3 Identifying Key Attributes to Assess..................................... 149
10.4 Developing the Assessment Plan and Lines of Inquiry.......... 149
10.5 Performing the Assessment.................................................... 152
10.6 Data Analysis.......................................................................... 153
10.6.1 Data Organization..................................................... 154
10.6.2 Analysis Method....................................................... 155
10.6.3 Risk Management of Identified Hazards................... 156
10.6.4 Relationship of Data to Existing Programs
and Processes............................................................ 157
10.6.5 Data Storage and Management................................. 157
10.7 Document Assessment Results............................................... 159
Questions to Ponder for Learning..................................................... 159

Chapter 11 Continuous Improvement.................................................................. 161


11.1 Introduction............................................................................ 161
11.2 Defining the Performance Baseline........................................ 165
11.3 Development of Improvement Goals and Objectives............. 165
xii Contents

11.4 Identify Actions to Meet Goals and Objectives..................... 166


11.5 Measurement and Evaluation of Performance....................... 168
11.6 Case Study: Tungsten Tools.................................................... 170
Questions to Ponder for Learning..................................................... 171

References.............................................................................................................. 173
Index....................................................................................................................... 175
Preface
Over the past century, the discipline of industrial hygiene has focused on protect-
ing employees from hazards in the work environment. Since the passage of the
Williams–Steiger Act of 1970, the industrial hygienist has played a key role in the
prevention of injuries and illnesses in the workplace. Anticipating, recognizing, and
controlling hazards is the favored approach used by industrial hygienists in protect-
ing the worker from hazards in the workplace. Consequently, the industrial hygien-
ist must have the knowledge and skills to analyze and understand risks, along with
understanding how to effectively mitigate and control hazards. In many cases, haz-
ards in the workplace exhibit more than one risk factor.
The hazard identification and control process is based on effectively understand-
ing the inner relationship between the three process elements of hazard identifica-
tion, analysis, and control. Physical hazards are the most commonly encountered
hazards in the workplace; however, chemical, biological, or radiological hazards may
also be present, either singularly or in combination with other hazards.
Traditional industrial hygiene has been focused on collecting and analyzing
data in order to identify and characterize a variety of workplace hazards. Although
today’s industrial hygienist is taught various methods and techniques on how to rec-
ognize and manage occupational hazards, it is generally a knowledge and skill-based
approach to hazard recognition and control that is used to help render workplaces
free of hazards. Each workplace and situation is unique, and the industrial hygien-
ist must develop and adapt scientifically-based methods to understand and control
hazards. However, when industrial hygienists work in the field, and as they inter-
act with the workers, they must understand how to communicate effectively with
workers and management when gathering, evaluating, and communicating sampling
and monitoring results, and conclusions. Both the industrial hygiene program and
the implementation of the program in the field should be evaluated and improved
where feasible, to ensure compliance to the most current requirements, standards,
and safety practices, and to ensure improvement is in alignment with a risk-based
philosophy and approach. Often, goals and steps needed to complete improvement
initiatives are written into a continuous improvement plan for industrial hygiene. The
value of such improvements can be realized and equated into additional methods and
avenues for risk reduction.
Industrial hygiene is not an exact science, and is influenced by people, profes-
sional judgment, science, and mathematics; it is a profession driven by both art and
science. Often, the industrial hygiene discipline is viewed as a specialized function,
and the industrial hygienist is frequently viewed as a consultant, although he or she
is an integral functioning part of the team. The practicing industrial hygienist is
tasked with assisting management in achieving a reduction in workplace injuries
and illnesses in a corporate environment that is increasingly looking for more cost-
effective and efficient methods of conducting business. At times, these efficiencies
may target a reduction in the amount of labor needed to perform a job, less expen-
sive materials to use in their manufacturing processes, and more efficient methods

xiii
xiv Preface

to manufacture a product. The industrial hygienist is faced with trying to assist in


the achievement of these increased performance goals, with traditional industrial
hygiene practices and principles that may or may not result in an increase in worker
protection, and a decrease in health risks posed by workplace hazards.
Since promulgation of occupational health regulation the industrial hygiene pro-
fession has significantly grown, and is expected to continue to grow as workplaces
continue to evolve in the production and usage of hazardous materials, consistent
with a shift in public opinion regarding the acceptance of the health risk from activi-
ties performed at work and at home. As time progresses, industries are being regu-
lated to not only minimize the health impacts to the workforce, but also decrease the
likelihood of impacting the environment.
Society has become more educated on the impacts to human health and environ-
ment, and there has been a noticeable decrease in the acceptance of this risk by
workers and the public. Corporations and institutions are faced with managing the
impacts, both financially and from a public perception perspective, resulting from
this decreased acceptance of workplace injuries and illnesses. In particular, a vast
amount of information on safety and health is readily available on the Internet, which
can add additional pressures and further complicate the way companies and institu-
tions communicate how they are effectively managing safety in the workplace. The
accepted standard of performance for industrial hygiene has grown beyond compli-
ance, and now also focuses on improving existing processes and creating a work-
place free of injury and illness.
A revised approach to industrial hygiene is needed that is focused, and tailored,
on risk reduction to realize an increased level of worker protection. The industrial
hygienist will continue to evolve, and must grow using a risk-based approach in order
to better perform his or her job and improve the protection of the worker. This book
focuses on the implementation of industrial hygiene, using a risk-based approach, in
an operational environment. Key elements of this book include

• Balancing the art and science in industrial hygiene


• The industrial hygiene professional
• Risk-based industrial hygiene
• Recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace hazards
• Medical monitoring for workers
• Emergency response
• Training
• Evaluating the industrial hygiene program
• Continuous improvement

The approaches and methods described in this book are designed to assist the
industrial hygienist in managing workplace risks, including risks associated with
anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and hazard control processes. A focus on risk
reduction or prevention will move a company closer to the goal of an injury-free
workplace, while improving methods and techniques used by the industrial hygienist
for implementing an effective worker protection program.
Authors
Frances Alston has been effective in facilitating the integration of environment
safety, health, and quality programs and policies as a core business function while
leading a staff of business, scientific, and technical professionals. She is skilled in
providing technical expertise in regulatory and compliance arenas, as well as deter-
mining necessary and sufficient program requirements to ensure employee and pub-
lic safety, including environmental stewardship and sustainability. Dr. Alston also
has extensive knowledge and experience in assessing programs and cultures to deter-
mine areas for improvement and develop strategies for improvement.
Dr. Alston holds a BS degree in industrial hygiene and safety/chemistry, an MS
degree in hazardous and waste materials management/environmental engineering,
an MSE in systems engineering/engineering management, and a PhD in industrial
and systems engineering.
Dr. Alston is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management and
holds certifications as a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager and a Professional
Engineering Manager. Her research interests include investigating and implementing
ways to design work cultures that facilitate trust.

Emily J. Millikin has more than 32 years of leadership experience in regula-


tory, environmental compliance, radiation protection, and safety and health at the
Department of Energy and Department of Defense chemically and radiologically
contaminated sites. She has served as the director of safety, health, and quality pro-
grams and managed all aspects of program, cost, and field implementation of safety
and health, industrial hygiene, radiological control, quality assurance, contractor
assurance system, emergency preparedness, safeguards and security, occupational
health, and Price–Anderson Amendment Act programs. Additionally, she has estab-
lished successful employee-led behavioral-based safety observation programs and
achieved Voluntary Protection Program Star status.
Millikin currently provides consulting services to the U.S. Department of Energy
Office of River Protection for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization
Plant and Tank Farms Projects. She performs contractor oversight, and participates
on integrated project teams, related to engineering and procurement, integrated
safety management system and project readiness, safety and health, quality assur-
ance, and industrial hygiene, including resolution of the Hanford site chemical vapor
issue.
Millikin earned a bachelor of science in environmental health with double majors
in industrial hygiene and health physics from Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana. She is a Certified Safety Professional and a Safety Trained Supervisor, and
she is certified in the National Registry for Radiation Protection Technologists.

xv
xvi Authors

Willie Piispanen has 39 years of experience involving environmental health and


safety programs. His career has included designing and managing both field engi-
neering projects and research programs. Programs have included work place air
monitoring, hazardous waste site investigations, incinerator source emissions, vari-
ous energy systems emissions, semiconductor manufacturing, and remedial action
site construction. He has experience in the assessment and monitoring of a wide
variety of hazardous chemical air contaminants and toxic metals, including con-
ducting testing on explosives and chemical agent materials for military and civilian
applications.
Piispanen has previous experience with biomass, fossil, and nuclear power sys-
tems, plus evaluation of various air pollution and aerosol control systems. He has
extensive field experience on a number of U.S. Department of Energy sites con-
ducting environment safety and health assessments, as well as experience working
with the U.S. Navy on base closures and the U.S Army Corp of Engineers. He cur-
rently provides expertise and consulting support involving legal issues, including
Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations, due diligence site assess-
ments, and employee health and medical issues.
Piispanen is a graduate of the University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio (BS), and
Washington State University, Pullman (MS), with additional graduate studies at
The Ohio State University, Columbus, and Northeastern University, Boston. He is
a Certified Industrial Hygienist (American Board of Industrial Hygiene), a Certified
Ergonomics Associate (Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics), a
Certified Safety Professional (Board of Certified Safety Professionals), and a charter
member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. He also serves as a
member of the ASSE/ANSI TC 262 on Risk Management/ISO 31000, is a member
of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health National Occupational
Research Agenda Construction Sector Council, and is a voting member on the
ASTM E-60 Committee on Sustainability.
List of Acronyms
9/11 September 11, 2001
ABET Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
ABIH American Board of Industrial Hygiene
ADA Americans with Disabilities Act
AIHA American Industrial Hygiene Association
ALARA As Low As Reasonably Achievable
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
BEAR Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation
CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability
Act
CSB U.S. Chemical Safety Board
EEOICP Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program
EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPCRA Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act
ES&H Environment Safety and Health
IARC International Agency for Research on Cancer
LNT Linear No-Threshold
LT Linear Threshold
MSDS Material Safety Data Sheet
NIOSH National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
OEL Occupational Exposure Limit
OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration
PPE Personal Protective Equipment
RCRA Resource, Conservation, and Recovery Act
SARA Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
SEG Similar Exposure Group
TWA Time-Weighted Average
WTC World Trade Center

xvii
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1 Occupational Safety and
Health in the Workplace

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Long before there were safety and health and industrial hygiene professionals,
with varying degrees and certifications, the field of occupational safety and health
existed. Most safety professionals recognize that one of the earliest forms of leg-
islation associated with the safety profession was the Massachusetts Factory Act
of 1877. The Massachusetts Factory Act created an inspection process for factory
equipment, such as machinery, elevators, and workplace fire exits. Over the next cen-
tury, additional programs and legislation were introduced to improve environmental
and health conditions in the workplace.
In 1913, Congress created the Department of Labor, with a focus on promoting
the health and welfare of workers, improving workplace conditions, and ensuring
workplace benefits. In 1935, the Social Security Act was enacted, which allowed the
funding of state health departments and industrial health programs. The culmina-
tion of these efforts resulted in President Nixon approving the Williams–Steiger Act
of 1970, often referred to as the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which was
intended to ensure that workers had safe and healthy working conditions.
The U.S. Congress determined that personal injuries and illnesses, originating
from workplace conditions, imposed a substantial burden on, and a hindrance to,
interstate commerce (across states). This burden was viewed in terms of lost produc-
tion, wage loss, medical expenses, and disability compensation payments. Congress
declared its purpose and policy, through the exercise of its powers, to regulate com-
merce among the several states and with foreign nations, and to provide, for the
general welfare of every working man and woman in the nation, safe and health-
ful working conditions and to preserve our human resources. This was a profound
piece of legislation because the governing body of the United States recognized that
harming their people, in the course of doing business, was not acceptable and could
ultimately lead to damaging the fundamental statehood of the country. As a result,
Congress directed the focus of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to:

• Encourage employers and employees in their efforts to reduce the number of


occupational safety and health hazards at their places of employment, and
to stimulate employers and employees to institute new and perfect existing
programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions
• Provide that employers and employees have separate but dependent respon-
sibilities and rights with respect to achieving safe and healthful working
conditions

1
2 Industrial Hygiene

• Authorize the secretary of labor to set mandatory occupational safety and


health standards applicable to businesses affecting interstate commerce,
and to create an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for
carrying out adjudicatory functions under the act
• Build on advances already made through employer and employee initiatives
to provide safe and healthful working conditions
• Provide for research in the field of occupational safety and health, including
psychological factors involved, and the development of innovative methods,
techniques, and approaches for dealing with occupational safety and health
problems
• Explore ways to discover latent diseases, establishing causal connections
between diseases and work in environmental conditions, and conducting
other research related to health problems, in recognition of the fact that
occupational health standards present problems often different from those
involved in occupational safety
• Provide medical criteria that would ensure, in so far as practicable, that no
employee will suffer diminished health, functional capacity, or life expec-
tancy as a result of his work experience
• Provide for training programs to increase the number and competence of
personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health
• Provide for the development and promulgation of occupational safety and
health standards
• Provide an effective enforcement program that would include a prohibition
against giving advance notice of any inspection, and sanctions for any indi-
vidual violating this prohibition
• Encourage the states to assume the fullest responsibility for the admin-
istration and enforcement of their occupational safety and health laws by
providing grants to the states to assist in
- Identifying their needs and responsibilities in the area of occupa-
tional safety and health
- Developing plans in accordance with the provisions of this act
- Improving the administration and enforcement of state occupational
safety and health laws
- Conducting experimental and demonstration projects in connection
therewith
• Provide for appropriate reporting procedures with respect to occupational
safety and health that would help achieve the objectives of the act and accu-
rately describe the nature of the occupational safety and health problem
• Encourage joint labor management efforts to reduce injuries and disease
arising out of employment

Over the past four decades, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA), individual state agencies, industries and academics, and every workplace
have seen a significant decrease in the number of work-related fatalities. Worker
fatalities have decreased from approximately 38 worker deaths per day to about 13
worker deaths per day in 2015 (OSHA 2017). The occupational safety and health
Occupational Safety and Health in the Workplace 3

professional may or may not be an industrial hygienist, but the industrial hygiene
discipline has traditionally been viewed as a specialized subset of the safety and
health profession. The profession is typically focused on implementing those goals
of the Occupational Safety and Health Act that involve determining the relationship
between diseases and work in environmental conditions; implementing processes
and procedures for identifying, analyzing, and controlling workplace hazards; moni-
toring to ensure compliance with regulatory standards; and promoting the perfor-
mance of work in a safe and compliant manner.
Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the industrial
hygiene profession has significantly grown, and is expected to continue to grow,
consistent with a shift in public opinion regarding the acceptance of health risk from
activities performed at work and at home. As society has become more educated
on the impacts of industry on human health and the environment, there has been
a decrease in the acceptance of this risk by workers and the public. The accepted
standard of performance has grown beyond compliance, but now also focuses on
improving existing processes and creating a workplace free of injury and illness.
No matter what the industry, the workforce has greater access to information related
to health risks from chemicals and other hazards associated with the work environ-
ment. In addition, more industries are being regulated to not only minimize the
health impacts to the workforce, but also decrease the likelihood of impacting the
environment. As we progress into the twenty-first century, decreasing risks to human
health and the environment is projected to continue to grow and evolve, and the role
of the industrial hygienist must also evolve to address the growing needs of society,
companies, industries, and the workforce.

1.2 MULTIPLE FACETS OF THE SAFETY


AND HEALTH PROFESSIONAL
Human beings have a need to feel safe in all aspects of their life. Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs actually identifies safety as a fundamental need of human life (Maslow
1954). Maslow’s theory consists of five needs, or stages, which motivate humans to
perform work and improve their life. Simply stated, the most basic needs must be
met before humans will be motivated to achieve the next level of improvement to
their physical and mental being. Each need, or stage, must be met before a person can
progress to the next stage. Figure 1.1 is a depiction of Maslow’s theory.

Safety needs Esteem


• Breathing, • Friendship, • Morality,
eating, sleeping • Safety of body, family, creativity,
• Self-esteem,
employment, intimacy, work accaptance of
self-confidence,
property, work relationships facts
respect
Physiological environment
Love and sense of
Self-actualization
needs belonging

FIGURE 1.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs process.


4 Industrial Hygiene

The first tier of the hierarchy addresses the most basic need of people, and workers,
which is physical well-being. A person cannot or will not move forward, or be driven
to move forward, in achieving goals and objectives and improving their mental state if
fundamental needs, such as food, water, and sleep, are not met. A human being may not
be able to work on a consistent basis if his or her psychological and physiological needs
are not met. One needs to look no further than the recent disaster in Flint, Michigan
(Genesee County Board of Commisioners 2015), and the inadvertent cause of lead con-
tamination in residential water. The ability for people to achieve the most fundamental
step of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was impacted; consequently, residents must live,
for many years, with ramifications that their most basic need as a human being was
taken from their lives and families. It will be very difficult for residents, and their fami-
lies, to move forward and feel safe when drinking water from their home.
The need for humans to feel safe was recognized in the writings of Maslow in
1954. In order for workers to progress through the hierarchy of needs and become
all that they can become, the safety needs, the second step in the process, must be
fulfilled. Therefore, workplace safety is an integral component of a leader’s ability
to motivate and influence workers. Workplace safety enhances the ability for work-
ers to become active, productive, and contributing team members that are capable of
solving problems and complete work tasks.
Once their physiological needs are met, the second tier of the hierarchy of needs
focuses on people’s safety and the security of their surroundings, whether it is to pre-
serve meeting the first hierarchy of need or to improve their life. Not only is safety
recognized as being important to the well-being of the human, but it is also impor-
tant in other aspects of a human’s life. For example, without achieving a safe work
environment, workers cannot become motivated to develop a sense of belonging, as
part of a team, without the fundamental premise of a safe work environment. The
industrial hygiene professional is one facet of a company or institution that assists
in achieving and maintaining a safe work environment that meets the needs of, and
protects the worker.
Over the past four decades, the role of the industrial hygiene professional has
evolved. Below are some examples of the roles and responsibilities of the industrial
hygienist in today’s modern work environment.

• Worker advocate. The industrial hygiene professional must have a good


relationship with the workforce and be a good listener; he or she is the first
line of defense for a worker to communicate improvements or problems in
performing a work task.
• Company advocate. The industrial hygiene professional is employed by the
company as part of the company’s responsibility for providing a workplace
free from hazards. The industrial hygiene professional always bears that
responsibility, and is certainly viewed as an expert or doer, for ensuring that
conditions in the workplace are free from hazards.
• Advocate for compliance with regulatory, contract, and company require-
ments. The industrial hygiene professional has the primary responsibility
for monitoring and ensuring that companies and industries are compliant
with regulatory limits for nonradiological hazards.
Occupational Safety and Health in the Workplace 5

• Facilitator and sponsor for safe work activities. Often, the industrial hygiene
professional works to facilitate communications between management and
the workforce with respect to safety initiatives and concerns.

A good industrial hygienist establishes company goals and standards that not only
comply with regulatory requirements, but also surpass those standards to promote a
robust and improved safety program. The industrial hygienist is in a position to be
a leader in the promotion of improving standards for workers, for the company, and
across the industry. It is also worth noting that as the need for industrial hygienist
professionals grow, so too does the professional liability associated with the position.
Within the past 10 years, a trend has started to emerge with respect to the
level of accountability and liability associated with the position. For many years,
the industrial hygiene profession was thought of as another work position that did
not require additional training or skills—as opposed to those recognized as being
required for engineers, operations and maintenance (skill-based specialties) lead-
ers, or the performance of research and development activities. Since the passage
of the Occupational Safety and Health Act; Resource, Conservation, and Recovery
Act (RCRA); and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA), the liability of the industrial hygiene position has signif-
icantly increased. Safety and health practices associated with standard industrial
hazards are generally associated with a well-defined source and waste stream that
may not be adequate to protect workers who are performing remediation work which
often lacks well defined contaminants and contamination. Because many of these
waste sites originated when safety and health requirements did not require a full
understanding of hazards the worker could be exposed to, they present challenges
to the industrial hygiene professional because of the need to protect workers from
the additive and synergistic health effects from multiple contaminants. It is up to the
industrial hygiene professional to clearly understand the professional risk, as well as
human health risks, posed by work activities and the overall work environment. As
such, the skill set of the industrial hygienist must address this growing need for a
technically defensible, risk-based approach to industrial hygiene.

1.3 INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE PROGRAM TENETS


There are a number of industrial hygiene books that have been written that discuss
how to perform and implement industrial hygiene work activities. However, what is
often not communicated, and often misunderstood, is the purpose and focus of why
these activities are being performed. As an industrial hygiene professional, the job
activities will vary depending on the company or industry, but fundamentally, there
are common tenets, or beliefs, held by the industrial hygiene professional. Table 1.1
lists a few of these tenets that are common across all companies and industries.
Several of them are discussed in further detail throughout this book. These tenets
are based on attributes needed to meet and exceed the intent of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act. Additionally, these tenets further support the original mission
of the Department of Labor and Congress, with a focus on promoting the health and
welfare of workers—which was recognized as one of the most valuable resources of
6 Industrial Hygiene

TABLE 1.1
Example Industrial Hygiene Program Tenets
Perform work with integrity and in a Ensure that workers are aware of
quality manner. hazards posed when performing
work.
Trust, and the establishment of trust, is Facilitate to ensure that joint
a key attribute in the performance of ownership of the safety program
the safety and health and industrial between management and the
hygiene discipline. workforce exists.
Verification and validation of Promote workplace and job
compliance with state and federal satisfaction working as a team.
regulations is required to ensure that
work is being compliantly conducted.
Strive to improve working conditions to Work products are produced on
minimize health risks posed to schedule and under budget.
workers.
Build and implement a program that is Workplace injuries and illnesses are
protective of the workforce. reduced.

a company or business, along with interstate commerce. The industrial hygienist is


integral to achieving a reduction in the link between poor workplace conditions and
occupational diseases and illnesses, as demonstrated over the past 200 years.
Table 1.1 lists only a few tenets that are integral to an industrial hygienist, but
several of them are integral to establishing and building relationships with the work-
force and building a safety and health program that is focused on the prevention of
injuries and illnesses versus being reactive to safety incidents.

1.4 APPLICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INDUSTRIAL


HYGIENE PROGRAM ELEMENTS
There are any number of ways an industrial hygiene program can be established;
however, all industrial hygiene programs include processes, policies, and procedures
that establish and implement the industrial hygiene program elements. Figure 1.2
depicts common elements of an industrial hygiene program. A general summary of
each of these elements is presented below.
The industrial hygiene function may be organized as a subset of the overall safety
and health program, or could be managed as its own organization or group depend-
ing on the level of risk posed by work activities to the worker (e.g., if the company
mission deals with chemicals or other toxicological hazards, then additional organi-
zational focus on diseases or illnesses may be needed in managing work activities).
Occupational Safety and Health in the Workplace 7

Program management and administration

Hazard identification and control process

Industrial Occupational health management


hygiene
program Instrumentation and calibration
elements
Data management, records, and reporting

Training and qualification

Continuous improvement

FIGURE 1.2 Common industrial hygiene program elements.

1.4.1 Program Management and Administration


This functional element establishes and manages policies, plans, and procedures that
have been developed to define the strategy, approach, and documentation used to
implement the industrial hygiene program. The organizational structure and budget
are managed within this functional element, along with ensuring the identification
of all applicable regulations and the adequate flow-down of requirements, the defini-
tion of work to be performed by industrial hygienists, any schedules needed to better
manage work activities, and mechanisms that verify the submittal of all regulatory
required reports, such as the OSHA 300 log.
This functional element is key in the implementation of the industrial hygiene
program because foundational processes and procedures, which define criteria by
which the industrial hygienists manage and perform work, such as the exposure
assessment process, hearing conversation program, and emergency response proto-
cols, are established. The approach, integration, and management of risk will also
be defined and integrated across all industrial hygiene program elements based on
policies and procedures established.

1.4.2 Hazard Identification and Control Process


This functional element encompasses all work activities necessary to identify and
control hazards associated with routine and nonroutine work (e.g., responding to an
equipment breakdown). Evaluation of work scope and work steps, implementation
of the exposure assessment process, identification and application of hazard con-
trols, and documentation of the hazard evaluation process are performed within this
functional element. Also included is the application of the hazard control hierarchy,
which includes product or equipment substitution, engineering controls, administra-
tive controls, and personal protective equipment. It is worth noting that the hazard
identification and control process is not just limited to work being conducted in the
context of producing a product, but also includes design review activities (referred
to as safety through design). The hazard identification and control process defines
8 Industrial Hygiene

a large part of the industrial hygiene discipline because processes and procedures
associated with the hazard identification and control process can be used to signifi-
cantly reduce the health risk posed by a work activity or toxicity of contaminants.
Included in this functional element is the implementation of processes that define the
methods by which industrial hygienists will evaluate and determine the health risk
associated with the work and necessary controls to mitigate the hazards, along with
how to perform the collection of sampling and monitoring information. Ultimately,
the health risk posed by conditions that remain after applying the hazard identifica-
tion and control process will then be considered by workers when they are deter-
mining whether to accept the risk with performing the job as defined, or provide
feedback as to alternative methods for work performance. The workers ultimately
determining whether they are willing to accept the health risk posed by the work
activity drives the need, up front, for the industrial hygienist to integrate the worker
into the hazard identification and control process.

1.4.3 Occupational Health Management


This functional element includes the management of medical and surveillance
programs, health wellness programs, and workers who are restricted from per-
forming work based on physical evaluation by the occupational health medi-
cal provider. The scheduling and monitoring of information received from the
occupation health medical provider, along with management of the occupational
medical provider contract, is also included within this functional element. The
industrial hygienist is expected to work with and coordinate exchange of all types
of occupational medical information with the occupational health medical pro-
vider; the industrial hygienist is the company’s primary representative in ensuring
that workplace conditions, such as air and surface concentrations of contaminants,
are communicated to the medical provider in determining whether a workplace
injury or illness has occurred. This information is also frequently provided to the
workers’ compensation group. It is the occupational health medical provider who
is key to the industrial hygienist in establishing the health risk and link between
occupational exposure and physiological responses and illnesses. This functional
element is one that is expected to continue to grow and evolve over the next decade
because of technological advances in medicine and the ease by which the general
working population has access to occupational disease information through the
internet.

1.4.4 Instrumentation and Calibration


This functional element focuses on the establishment of an instrumentation pro-
gram, which could include direct-reading instruments, sampling pumps, and sta-
tionary monitoring devices. Included within this element are the standards used for
calibration and maintenance, and the periodicity for performing equipment checks,
along with ensuring that quality assurance requirements are being met, which may
be imposed on the industrial hygiene function if performing work in a high-hazard
Occupational Safety and Health in the Workplace 9

work environment (e.g., nuclear or chemical weapons programs). A key aspect of the
instrumentation and calibration program is understanding quality assurance require-
ments that may be invoked because of the industry in which the program is imple-
mented. For example, an instrumentation and calibration program may be required
to meet elements of the Nuclear Quality Assurance requirements if it is implemented
in a company or industry that has adopted the Nuclear Quality Assurance-1 standard.

1.4.5 Data Management, Records, and Reporting


This functional element, although it fundamentally seems to be simple, includes all
the data management, record keeping, and reporting of information to individuals,
the company, and regulatory bodies. Data collection associated with sampling and
monitoring, along with information related to ensuring compliance with regulatory
requirements, is managed within this element. The amount of labor needed to per-
form adequate analysis of data has exponentially increased with today’s use of com-
puters, whether the data management is associated with website maintenance (since
most companies have their own safety and health or industrial hygiene web page)
or instrumentation that continuously transmits via Bluetooth, and the ability to be
able to organize, evaluate, and use this information has become an issue with many
companies because the labor needed to perform such tasks is not usually planned
as part of work. In particular, if the company routinely performs sample collection,
or the operational mission uses industrial hygiene monitors for process monitoring
purposes, the amount of time and money needed to organize, evaluate, and develop
conclusions continues to increase because of the cost in labor needed to process the
information. The need to plan and allocate additional time and resources to analyze
and determine how data can be effectively utilized by companies is quickly becom-
ing an emergent issue within the industrial hygiene profession.

1.4.6 Training and Qualification


The industrial hygiene functional element for training and qualification may be orga-
nized by two types of training: (1) training received as a professional and (2) training
provided by the industrial hygienist to others in need of specialized training (e.g.,
confined space, fall protection, and electrical safety). Training received as an indus-
trial hygienist may include the following:

• Basic training received as a new hire. Most companies have some type
of mandatory training required as part of the hiring onboarding process.
Generally, this training may consist of company policies and procedures
related to human resource topics, security, safety and health policies, and
return to work.
• Job-specific training.
• Training received by the industrial hygienist as part of the industrial hygiene
qualification and continuing education process. If training is provided as
part of a qualification process, as an industrial hygienist, the training may
10 Industrial Hygiene

be organized as company-defined industrial hygiene professional, company-​


defined industrial hygiene supervisor, or company-defined industrial hygiene
qualified subject matter expert (e.g., instrumentation).

In many companies, the industrial hygienist teaches general safety and health
classes, along with classes that may be skill specific, and industrial hygiene topics
such as confined space or respiratory protection. Health risks to the worker, associ-
ated with the topic that is being instructed, should be effectively communicated to
further emphasize the importance of correctly performing the work activity.

1.4.7 Continuous Improvement
Industrial hygienists should always seek to improve both the performance and the
quality of their work. Continuous improvement can be demonstrated across all
industrial hygiene functional elements. In particular, improvements in the hazard
identification and control process can lead to a reduction in the number of unsafe
work practices. Continuous improvement can occur on both an individual perfor-
mance basis and across the company. Many companies have safety initiatives that
are tailored to focus on reducing injuries associated with a specific work function,
for example, safe driving campaigns. In addition, companies will also sponsor safety
campaigns that may focus on improving behaviors across all work functions and
groups. Continuous improvement within the industrial hygiene discipline often refers
to improving the performance of work activities related to the industrial hygiene
functional element or a subelement (i.e., exposure assessment process).

1.5 INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE KEY FOCUS


AREA AND RISK REDUCTION
There are a number of focus areas within the industrial hygiene program, elements
that are key to the industrial hygiene professional, for reducing health risk to the
workers and financial risk to the company. These focus areas include:

• Understanding the application of the art and science of industrial hygiene


and how risk may be reduced when evaluating industrial hygiene information
• Understanding and targeting risk reduction in the development and matu-
rity of the industrial hygiene professional
• Incorporating techniques and methods for reducing risks associated with
the management of instruments and calibration processes
• Applying risk reduction techniques and methods in the implementation of
recognizing, evaluating, and controlling hazards in the workplace
• Incorporating risk reduction recognition in the development and implemen-
tation of training
• Understanding and incorporating risk reduction practices when responding
to emergency situations
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“Yes,” she said; and I knew that she had satisfied herself. “Will you
take me away now, at once, please?”
The idea of escape, of liberty once realized, it would have been
dangerous to balk her by a moment. I had acquainted mamma that I
might possibly bring her a visitor. Well, it simply meant that the
suggested visit must be indefinitely prolonged.
Miss Gray accompanied me home, where certain surprises, in
addition to the tenderest of ministrations, were awaiting her. All that
becomes private history, and outside my story. I am not a man of
sentiment; and if people choose to write poems and make general
asses of themselves, why—God bless them!
The problem I had set myself to unravel was what looked deucedly
like a tough psychologic poser. But I was resolute to face it, and had
formed my plan. It was no unusual thing for me to be out all night.
That night, after dining, I spent in the “converted” flat in West
Kensington.
I had brought with me—I confess to so much weakness—one of
your portable electric lamps. The moment I was shut in and
established, I pulled out the paper Miss Gray had typed for me,
spread it under the glow and stared at it. Was it a copy of my
circular? Would a sober “First Aid Society” Secretary be likely, do
you think, to require circulars containing such expressions as
“William! William! Come back to me! O, William, in God’s name!
William! William! William!”—in monstrous iteration—the one cry, or
the gist of it, for lines and lines in succession?
I am at the other end from humour in saying this. It is heaven’s
truth. Line after line, half down the page, went that monotonous,
heart-breaking appeal. It was so piercingly moving, my human terror
of its unearthliness was all drowned, absorbed in an overflowing pity.
I am not going to record the experiences of that night. That
unchanging mood of mine upheld me through consciousnesses and
sub-consciousnesses which shall be sacred. Sometimes, submerged
in these, I seemed to hear the clack of the instrument in the window,
but at a vast distance. I may have seen—I may have dreamt—I
accepted it all. Awaking in the chill grey of morning, I felt no surprise
at seeing some loose sheets of paper lying on the floor. “William!
William!” their text ran down, “Come back to me!” It was all that same
wail of a broken heart. I followed Miss Gray’s example. I took out my
match-box, and reverently, reverently burned them.
An hour or two later I was at Paul’s Exchange, privately
interviewing my manager.
“Did you ever employ a Miss Lucy Rivers?”
“Certainly we did. Poor Lucy Rivers! She rented a machine of us.
In fact——”
He paused.
“Well?”
“Well—it is a mere matter of business—she ‘flitted,’ and we had to
reclaim our instrument. As it happens, it was the very one purchased
by the young lady who so interested you here two days ago.”
“The first machine, you mean?”
“The first—and the second.” He smiled. “As a matter of fact, she
took away again what she brought.”
“Miss Rivers’s?”
He nodded.
“There was absolutely nothing wrong with it—mere fad. Women
start these fancies. The click of the thing gets on their nerves, I
suppose. We must protect ourselves, you see; and I’ll warrant she
finds it perfection now.”
“Perhaps she does. What was Miss Rivers’s address?”
He gave me, with a positive grin this time, the “converted” flat.
“But that was only latterly,” he said. “She had moved from——”
He directed me elsewhere.
“Why,” said I, taking up my hat, “did you call her ‘poor Lucy
Rivers’?”
“O, I don’t know!” he said. “She was rather an attractive young
lady. But we had to discontinue our patronage. She developed the
most extraordinary—but it’s no business of mine. She was one of the
submerged tenth; and she’s gone under for good, I suppose.”
I made my way to the other address—a little lodging in a shabby-
genteel street. A bitter-faced landlady, one of the “preordained” sort,
greeted me with resignation when she thought I came for rooms, and
with acerbity when she heard that my sole mission was to inquire
about a Miss Lucy Rivers.
“I won’t deceive you, sir,” she said. “When it come to receiving
gentlemen privately, I told her she must go.”
“Gentlemen!”
“I won’t do Miss Rivers an injustice,” she said. “It was ha
gentleman.”
“Was that latterly?”
“It was not latterly, sir. But it was the effects of its not being latterly
which made her take to things.”
“What things?”
“Well, sir, she grew strange company, and took to the roof.”
“What on earth do you mean?”
“Just precisely what I say, sir; through the trap-door by the steps,
and up among the chimney-pots. He’d been there with her before,
and perhaps she thought she’d find him hiding among the stacks. He
called himself an astronomer; but it’s my belief it was another sort of
star-gazing. I couldn’t stand it at last, and I had to give her notice.”
It was falling near a gloomy midday when I again entered the flat,
and shut myself in with its ghosts and echoes. I had a set conviction,
a set purpose in my mind. There was that which seemed to scuttle,
like a little demon of laughter, in my wake, now urging me on, now
slipping round and above to trip me as I mounted. I went steadily on
and up, past the sitting-room door, to the floor above. And here, for
the first time, a thrill in my blood seemed to shock and hold me for a
moment. Before my eyes, rising to a skylight, now dark and choked
with snow, went a flight of steps. Pulling myself together, I mounted
these, and with a huge effort (the bolt was not shot) shouldered the
trap open. There were a fall and rustle without; daylight entered; and,
levering the door over, I emerged upon the roof.
Snow, grim and grimy and knee-deep, was over everything,
muffling the contours of the chimneys, the parapets, the irregularities
of the leads. The dull thunder of the streets came up to me; a fog of
thaw was in the air; a thin drizzle was already falling. I drove my foot
forward into a mound, and hitched it on something. In an instant I
was down on my knees, scattering the sodden raff right and left, and
—my God!—a face!
She lay there as she had been overwhelmed, and frozen, and
preserved these two months. She had closed the trap behind her,
and nobody had known. Pure as wax—pitiful as hunger—dead! Poor
Lucy Rivers!
Who was she, and who the man? We could never learn. She had
woven his name, his desertion, her own ruin and despair into the
texture of her broken life. Only on the great day of retribution shall he
answer to that agonized cry.
THE FAIR WITH GOLDEN HAIR
Ho! bring me some lovers, fat or lean,
That I may crunch ’em my teeth between!
I could eat so many, so many, so many,
That in the wide world there would not be left any.

Ho! Here is Avenant to be seen,


Who comes to draw your teeth so keen;
He’s not the greatest man to view,
But he’s big enough to conquer you.
Planché’s “D’Aulnoy,” slightly misquoted.

Sir Richard Avenant came home from Abyssinia to an interesting


notoriety. He had been associated—a sort of explorative free-lance
—with the expedition of Mr. Bruce, who was not yet returned from his
adventures up the Nile in quest of the sources of that bewildering
water; and, upon his arrival in London, he found himself engaged to
a romance which was certainly remote from his deserts.
Now he was a strong, saturnine man, but apt to whimsical
decisions, whose consequences, the fruits of whatever odd
impulses, he never had a thought but to hold by; and as the self-
reserved must suffer the character accorded to their appearance (the
only side of them confessed), Sir Richard found himself accredited,
by anticipation, with deeds adapted to the countenance he had
always addressed to the world.
He was strolling, some days after his return, through the streets,
when he was accosted by an acquaintance, a preux chevalier of the
highest ton, curled, be-ruffed, and imperturbably self-assured.
“Why, strike me silly, Dick!” cried this exquisite, “what do you,
wandering unsociable in a shag coat, and all London by the ears to
lionize ye?”
“Well, I know not, George. What have I done to be lionized?”
“Done! Done? asks the man that will not devour a steak but ’tis cut
raw from the buttock of the living beast! Done? asks Bluebeard (and
stap me, Dick, but your chin is as blue as a watchman’s!)—done, he
says, that brings grass-petticoats in his train enough to furnish the
Paradise of the Grand Turk! Prithee, Dick, where hast stowed ’em
all? O, thou hast a great famous reputation, I assure thee, to justify
thyself of with the women! Such is the report of thy peris—their teeth,
their raven hair, their eyes like stars of the night—there’s no virtue in
town could resist, if asked, to be thy queen and theirs.”
He was chuckling, and taking a delicate pinch of martinique, with
his little finger cocked to display a glittering stone, when his eyes
lighted on a house over against which they were standing.
“Hist!” said he, pointing with his cane; “pan my honour, the single
reservation.”
“Single reservation?” repeated the explorer. “To what? To this
London of frailties?”
“To be sure,” said the other. “The one party, I’ll dare swear, that
would not put her nose in a ring for thy sake.”
“Indeed!” said Avenant. “Then she’s the one I must wed.”
The elegant cocked his head, squinting derisive.
“I lay you a double pony to a tester you don’t, within the decade.”
“Done! Tell me about her.”
“I’ll do more. I’ll carry you in to her, here and at once. Tell me about
her, quotha! She’s the Fair with Golden Hair, and a guinea and a
suitor to every thread of it.”
“Whence comes she?”
“From Arcadia, man, with a fortune of gold and roses. She cuts out
hearts raw, as you do steaks, and devours them by the dozen. O,
you shall know her!”
“But by what name, George, by what name?”
“Have I not told you? It shall suffice for all your needs. Thou shalt
take a pack of Cabriolles, and never hunt her to the death. Come,
my friend!”
He led Sir Richard to the house, and had himself announced. They
ascended a flight of stairs, going up into a heaven of floating
fragrance and melodious sounds. Their feet moved noiseless over
silken carpets. They crossed an anteroom ruffling with lackeys, and
were ushered into the Fair’s boudoir.
She sat at her mirror, in the hands of her perruquier. She was the
most beautiful insolent creature Sir Richard had ever seen. There
was not an inch of her which Nature could have altered to its
improvement. The very patch on her cheek was a theft from
perfection. But to so much loveliness her hair was the glory, a
nimbus which, condensing in the heavy atmosphere of adoration,
dropped in a melting flood of gold, which, short of the ground only,
shrank and curled back from its gross contact.
All round and about her hummed her court—poets, lords, minstrels
—suitors straining their wits and their talents for her delectation,
while they bled internally. Many of them greeted Sir Richard’s
chaperon, many Sir Richard himself—good-humouredly, jealously,
satirically, as the case might be—as the two pushed by. A stir went
round, however, when the rough new-comer’s name was put about;
and some rose in their seats, and all dwelt inquisitively on the
explorer’s reception.
It was condescending enough; as was that of his friend, who loved
himself too well, and too wittily, to show a heart worth the beauty’s
discussing.
“Have you got back your appetite, sir,” said the Fair to Avenant,
“for dressed meats?”
“And ladies?” whispered Sir Richard’s friend.
“O, fie!” said madam.
“I will return the question on you,” said Sir Richard, in a low voice.
The Fair lifted her brows.
“Why, I am told, madam,” said Avenant, “that you feed on raw
hearts; but I am willing to believe that the one lie is as certain as the
other.”
The imperious beauty bit her underlip, and laughed.
“I perceive, Sir Richard,” she said, “that you do not court by
flattery.”
“I do not court at all, madam,” he answered.
“Ah, true!” she replied. “You buy in the open market. It must be
simpler; though, in the plain lodging where I hear you lie at present,
the disposal of so responsible an establishment must exercise your
diplomacy.”
She spoke aloud, evoking a general titter; and so aloud Avenant
answered her.
“By no means, madam. I have in my sleeping-room a closet with
three shelves. On one of these lies Beauty, unspoiled by adulation;
on another lies Virtue, that respects her sex too well to traduce it; on
the third lies feminine Truth, loveliest of her sisters. These are my
whole establishment; and as they are shadows all, existing only in
the imagination, they exercise nothing but my fondness for
unattainable ideals.”
The company broke into much laughter over this Jeremiad; and
the girl joined her young voice to theirs. But a little glow of colour
was showing in her cheek, verily as if Sir Richard had flicked that fair
surface with his glove.
“O!” she said, “this is a sad regale! Sure, sir, does the climate of
Abyssinia breed no hotter than Leicestershire Quakers? Why, I have
heard a lion roar fiercer in a caravan. Now, pray, Sir Richard, put off
your civilities, and give us news instead of lessons. They say there is
a form of lawless possession in the women of the country you
visited.”
“It is very true there is, madam. It is called the Tigrétier—a seizure
of uncontrollable vanity, during which the victim is so self-centred
that she is unable to attend to the interests, or even to distinguish the
sexes of those about her. She will, for instance, surround herself with
a circle of male admirers, assuming all the time, apparently, that they
are the gossips of her own sex, with whom, like a decent woman,
she would wont ordinarily, of course, to consort in private.”
The Fair cried out, “Enough! Your stories are the most intolerable
stuff, sir. I wish Mr. Bruce joy of your return, as I hear you are not to
remain in England.”
Then she turned her shoulder to him, her flush deepening to fire;
and Sir Richard, bowing and moving away, fell into conversation with
one or two of his acquaintances. Presently, looking up, he was
surprised to see the room near empty. Goldenlocks had, in fact,
issued her wilful mandate, and her court was dismissing itself.
The explorer was pressing out after the rest, when a maidservant
touched his sleeve, and begged him to return to her lady, who
desired a word with him. Sir Richard acquiesced immediately. He
found the Fair standing solitary by her dressing-table, frowning, her
head bent, her fingers plucking at a wisp of lace. Her hair, still
undressed, hung down deep over her shoulders, mantling them with
heavy gold, like a priest’s chasuble.
“Did you seek my acquaintance, sir,” she said imperatively, “with
the sole purpose to insult me?”
“Nay, madam,” he answered, as cool as tempered steel; “but
because you was described to me as the one woman in London that
I might not marry, if I had the will to.”
“Why not?” was on the tip of her tongue; he saw it there. But she
caught at herself, and answered, “So, sir, like sour reynard, I
suppose, you would spite what you found it useless to covet.”
“I covet, madam!” he said, in a tone of astonishment. “I aspire to
wrest this wealth and beauty from a hundred worthier candidates!
Believe me, my ambition halted far short of such attainment.”
Her lips smiled, despite herself. What were the value, she
suddenly thought, in a world of suitors that did not include this
shagg’d and rugged Jeremiah? Her speech fell as caressing as the
sound of water in a wood.
“Yet you confess to some ambition?” she murmured.
“True,” he answered; “the virtuoso’s.”
She lifted her beautiful brows.
“I will be candid, madam,” he said. “I have the collector’s itch.
Whithersoever I visit, I lay my toll on the most characteristic
productions of the tribes—robes, carvings, implements of war—even
scalps. Madam, madam, you must surely be of the sun children!
Your hair is the most lovely thing! I would give my soul—more, I
would give a thousand pounds to possess it.”
“I see, sir,” she said; “to carry your conquest at your belt.”
“Nay,” he answered, with feigned eagerness. “Not a soul need
know. The thing is done constantly. You have but to subscribe to the
fashion of powder, and you gain a novel beauty, and I a secret I
swear to hold inviolate.”
“O!” she said softly “This is Samson come with the shears to turn
the tables on poor Delilah!”
And on the instant she flashed out, breaking upon him in a storm
of passion. That he dared, that he dared, on no warrant but his
reputation for inhumanity, so to outrage and insult her.
“Go, sir!” she cried. “Return to your Nubians and Dacoits—to
countries where head-hunting is considered an honourable proof of
manliness!”
He stood, as outwardly insensate as a bull.
“Then you decline to deal?”
Her only answer was to throw herself into a chair, and to abandon
herself to incomprehensible weeping. But even her sobs seemed to
make no soft impression on him. He took a step nearer to her, and
spoke in the same civil and measured tone he had maintained
throughout.
“Take care, madam. I never yet set my will upon a capture that in
the long run escaped me.”
She checked her tears, to look up at him with a little furious laugh.
“Poor boaster!” she said. “I think, perhaps, that recounting of your
Tigrétier hath infected you with it.”
“By my beard, madam,” said he, “I will make that hair my own!”
“See,” she cried jeeringly, “how a boaster swears by what he has
not!”
Sir Richard felt to his chin.
“That is soon remedied,” said he. “And so, till my oath is
redeemed, to consign my razors to rust!” And with these words,
bowing profoundly, he turned and left the room.
Shortly after this he sailed to rejoin his expedition, and was not
again in England during a period of eighteen months.
At the end of that time, being once more in London, he devoted
himself—his affairs having now been ordered with the view to his
permanent residence in the country—to some guarded inquiries
about the Fair with Golden Hair. For some days, the season of the
town being inauspicious, he was unable to discover anything definite
about her. And then, suddenly, the news which he sought and
desired came in a clap.
He was walking, one day, down a street of poor and genteel
houses, when he saw her before him. He stood transfixed. There
was no doubting his own eyesight. It was she: tall, slender, crowned
with her accustomed glory, the flower of her beauty a little wan, as if
seen by moonlight. But what confounded him was her condition. Her
dress was mean, her gloves mended; every tag of cheap ribbon
which hung upon her seemed the label to a separate tragedy. Thus
he saw her again, the Fair with Golden Hair; but how deposed and
fallen from her insolent estate!
She mounted a step to a shabby door. While she stood there,
waiting to be admitted, an old jaunty cavalier came ruffling it down
the street, accosted her, and accompanied her within. She might
have glanced at Avenant without recognizing him. The rough dark
beard he wore was his sufficient disguise.
Sir Richard made up his mind on the spot, and acted promptly.
Having no intention to procure himself a notoriety in this business, he
rigidly eschewed personal inquiry, and employed an official informer,
at a safe figure, to ferret out the truth for him. This, epitomized,
discovered itself as follows:—
Cytherea—Venus Calva—Madonna of the magic girdle, who had
once reigned supreme between wealth and loveliness, who had
once eaten hearts raw for breakfast, feeding her roses as vampires
do, was desolate and impoverished—and even, perhaps, hungry. A
scoundrelly guardian had eloped with trust funds: the crash had
followed at a blow. Robbed of her recommendation to respect;
deposed, at once, from the world’s idolatry to its vicious solicitation,
she had fled, with her hair and her poor derided virtue, into squalid
oblivion; that, at least, she hoped. But, alas for the fateful recoils on
Vanity! She drives with a tight rein; and woe to her if the rein snap! A
certain libidinous and crafty nobleman, of threescore or so years,
had secured, in the days of the Fair’s prosperity, some little bills of
paper bearing that beauty’s signature. These he had politicly
withheld himself from negotiating, on the mere chance that they
might serve him some day for a means to humiliate one who, in the
arrogance of her power, had scoffed at his amatory, and perfectly
honourable, addresses. That precaution had justified itself. The peer
was now come to woo again, and less scrupulously, with his hand on
a paper weapon, one stroke from which alone was needed to give
the Fair’s poor drabbled fortune its quietus. She was at bay, between
ruin and dishonour.
Sir Richard came immediately to a resolve, and lost no time in
giving it effect. He wrote a formal note to the Fair, recalling himself
courteously to her remembrance, reminding her of his original offer,
and renewing it in so many words. He would do himself the honour,
he said, to wait upon her for her answer on such and such a day.
To this he received no reply; nor, perhaps, expected one. He went,
nevertheless, to his self-made appointment with the imperturbable
confidence of a strong man.
Passing, on his way, by a perruquier’s, he checked himself, and
stood for some moments at gaze in a motionless reverie. Then he
entered the shop, made a purchase, and, going to a barber’s,
caused himself to be shorn, shaved, and restored to the
conventional aspect. Thus conditioned, he knocked at the Fair’s
door, and was ushered up—bawled up, rather, by a slattern landlady
—into her presence.
She rose to face him as he entered. She had his letter in her hand.
Her beautiful hair, jealous, it seemed, to withdraw itself from the
curioso’s very appraisement, was gathered into and concealed under
a cap. Her features, thus robbed of their dazzling frame, looked
curiously, sadly childish and forlorn. There were dark marks round
her eyes—the scarce dissipated clouds of recent tears. Who can tell
what emotions, at sight of this piteous, hard-driven loveliness, stirred
the heart of the man opposite, and were repressed by his iron will?
“This letter, sir,” said the Fair, holding out the paper in a hand
which shook a little. “I have tacitly permitted you to presume a right
to a personal answer to that which it proposes, because such a
course appeared to me the least compromising. I cannot write my
name, sir, nowdays—as scandal doubtless hath informed you—but
Fortune will be using it to my discredit.”
Sir Richard bowed.
“There is this difference only, madam: my word is the bond of a
gentleman. I vowed you secrecy.”
“That is to assume, on your part,” she said quietly, “a
confidentialness which, in its insult to misfortune, is at least not the
act of a gentleman. Moreover, a gentleman, surely, had not taken
advantage of circumstances to propose to destitution what affluence
had once refused him.”
“Beware, madam!” said Avenant. “Pride must make some
sacrifices to virtue. If, in renewing a pure business offer, I, a simple
instrument in the hands of Providence, give you an opportunity to
maintain that priceless possession unimpaired, would it not be the
truer self-respect to secure your honour at whatever cost to your
sentiments?”
“I thank you, sir,” she said. “I have not forgotten, nor forgotten to
resent, my self-constituted Mentor. I will assure him that, for the
matter of my virtue, it is safe in my hands, though I have to arm
those against myself.”
“Good heavens, madam!” cried Avenant. “You are not at that
resource?”
“Give yourself no concern, sir,” she answered coldly. “The moral I
learned of your insult, was to save myself in its despite.”
His deep eyes glowed upon her.
“You have sold your hair?” he said.
“Yes,” she answered; “to pay my debts. ’Twas your letter decided
me.”
“At a thousand pounds?”
“At a hundred.”
Then she added, as if irresistibly, because she was still little more
than a child, “And now, sir, how is the boaster vindicated? But your
oath, I perceive, still goes beardless.”
“Within the hour only,” said he; and, thrusting his hand into his
breast, he drew out the long tresses of the Fair With Golden Hair.
She stared, amazed a moment; then threw herself upon her knees
by a chair, weeping and crying out—
“O, I hate you, I hate you!”
He strode, and stood over her.
“I saw them through a window as I came. How could I mistake
them? There is not their like in the world. But now, my oath
redeemed, it is for you to say if I am to destroy them.”
“O, my hair!” she wept; “my one beauty!”
“I have staked all on this,” he cried. “If your hair was your one
beauty, my beard alone redeemed me from appalling ugliness by so
much as it hid of me. Well, I have lost on both counts, if the net result
is your hatred.”
She looked up, with drowned bewildered eyes, and held out her
hand blindly.
“Give me back my hair,” she said, “and you shall have the hundred
pounds.”
“Nay, sweet Delilah,” quoth he; “for that would be to return you
your strength, and I want you weak.”
Her arm dropped to her side.
“That you may insult me with impunity!” she said bitterly.
“Ah, Delilah!” he cried; “is it so bad, that the offer of my hand and
heart is an insult to a woman?”
She sank back, sitting on her heels. From under her cap, fallen
awry, curled shavings of gold hung out—the residue of a squandered
wealth. Her eyes were wide with amazement.
“So bad?” she whispered. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
He was not a conformable wooer. The love-wise sex shall say if he
was a diplomatic one. He threw himself on his knees beside the Fair,
seized her in his bear-like grip, and kissed her lips.
“Now,” he said, “it is neck or nothing. None but a parson can wipe
out the stain. Hate me now, and put Love to bed for by and by.”
She smiled suddenly—like the rainbow; like an angel.
“Yes,” she said, “if you insist. But the poor thing has slept so long
in my heart, that it would fain wake up at last, and confess itself.”

The peer took his settlement with a very bad grace; but he had to
take it, and there was an end of him.
“Avenant,” whispered the Fair, on the evening of their wedding
day, “I have been vain, spoiled, perhaps untruthful. But I wished to
tell you—you can put me to sleep on the middle shelf of your
cupboard.”
“It has been converted into a closet for skeletons,” he said. “I was
a bachelor then.”
THE LOST NOTES
The faculty of music is generally, I believe, inimical to the
development of all the other faculties. Sufficient to itself is the
composing gift. There was scarcely ever yet a born musician, I do
declare, who, outside his birthright, was not a born ass. I say it with
the less irreverence, because my uncle was patently one of the rare
exceptions which prove the rule. He knew his Shakespeare as well
as his musical-glasses—better than, in fact; for he was a staunch
Baconian. This was all the odder because—as was both early and
late impressed upon me—he had a strong sense of humour.
Perhaps an eternal study of the hieroglyphics of the leger lines was
responsible for his craze; for craze I still insist it was, in spite of the
way he took to convince me of the value of cryptograms. I was an
obstinate pupil, I confess, and withstood to the end the fire of all the
big guns which he—together with my friend, Chaunt, who was in the
same line—brought to bear upon me.
Well, I was honest, at least; for I was my uncle’s sole provisional
legatee, and heir presumptive to whatever small fortune he had
amassed during his career. And day by day, as the breach between
us widened, I saw my prospect of the succession attenuating, and
would not budge from my position. No, Shakespeare was
Shakespeare, I said, and Bacon, Bacon; and not all the cyphers in
the world should convince me that any profit was to be gained by
either imagining or unravelling a single one of them.
“What, no profit!” roared my uncle. “But I will persuade you, young
man, of your mistake before I’m done with you. Hum-ti-diddledidee!
No profit, hey? H’m—well!”
Then I saw that the end was come. And, indeed, it was an open
quarrel between us, and I was forbidden to call upon him again.
I was sorry for this, because, in his more frolicsome and
uncontroversial moments, he was a genial companion, unless or
until one inadvertently touched on the theme, when at once he
exploded. Professionally, he could be quite a rollicking blade, and his
settings of plantation songs were owned to be nothing less than lyric
inspirations. Pantomime, too, in the light of his incidental music, had
acquired something more than a classical complexion; and, in the
domain of knockabout extravaganza, not only did the score of “The
Girl who Knew a Thing or Two” owe to him its most refined numbers,
but also the libretto, it was whispered, its best Attic bonnes-bouches.
However, all that good company I must now forgo—though Chaunt
tried vainly to heal the breach between us—and in the end the old
man died, without any visible relenting towards me.
I felt his loss pretty keenly, though it is no callousness in me to
admit that our long separation had somewhat dulled the edge of my
attachment. I expected, of course, no testamentary consideration
from him, and was only more surprised than uplifted to receive one
morning a request from his lawyers to visit them at my convenience.
So I went, soberly enough, and introduced myself.
“No,” said the partner to whom I was admitted, in answer to a
question of mine: “I am not in a position to inform you who is the
principal beneficiary under our friend’s will. I can only tell you—what
a few days before his death he confided to us, and what, I think,
under the circumstances, you are entitled to learn—that he had quite
recently, feeling his end approaching, realized on the bulk of his
capital, converted the net result into a certain number—five, I think
he mentioned—of Bank of England notes, and… burned ’em, for all
we know to the contrary.”
“Burned them!” I murmured aghast.
“I don’t say so,” corrected the lawyer drily. “I only say, you know,
that we are not instructed to the contrary. Your uncle” (he coughed
slightly) “had his eccentricities. Perhaps he swallowed ’em; perhaps
gave ’em away at the gate. Our dealings are, beyond yourself, solely
with the residuary legatee, who is, or was, his housekeeper. For her
benefit, moreover, the furniture and effects of our late client are to be
sold, always excepting a few more personal articles, which, together
with a sealed enclosure, we are desired to hand over to you.”
He signified, indeed, my bequest as he spoke. It lay on a table
behind him: A bound volume of minutes of the Baconian Society; a
volume of Ignatius Donnelly’s Great Cryptogram; a Chippendale tea-
caddy (which, I was softened to think, the old man had often known
me to admire); a large piece of foolscap paper twisted into a cone,
and a penny with which to furnish myself with a mourning ring out of
a cracker.
I blushed to my ears, regarding the show; and then, to convince
this person of my good-humoured sanity, giggled like an idiot. He did
not even smile in reply, the self-important ass, but, with a manner of
starchy condescension, as to a wastrel who was getting all his
deserts, rose from his chair, unlocked a safe, took an ordinary sealed
envelope from it, handed it to me, and informed me that, upon giving
him a receipt, I was at liberty to remove the lot.
“Thanks,” I said, grinding my astral teeth. “Am I to open this in your
presence?”
“Quite inessential,” he answered; and, upon ascertaining that I
should like a cab called, sent for one.
“Good morning,” he said, when at last it was announced (he had
not spoken a word in the interval): “I wish you good morning,” in the
morally patronizing tone of a governor discharging a prisoner.
I responded coldly; tried, for no reason at all, to look threatening;
failed utterly, and went out giggling again. Quite savagely I threw my
goods upon the seat, snapped out my address, closed the apron
upon my abasement, and sat slunk into the cavity behind, like a
salted and malignant snail.
Presently I thumped the books malevolently. The dear old man
was grotesque beyond reason. Really he needn’t have left life cutting
a somersault, as it were.
But, as I cooled outwardly, a warmer thought would intrude. It
drew, somehow, from the heart of that little enclosure lying at the
moment in my pocket. It was ridiculous, of course, to expect anything
of it but some further development of a rather unkind jest. My uncle’s
professional connexion with burlesque had rather warped, it would
appear, his sense of humour. Still, I could not but recall that story of
the conversion of his capital into notes: and an envelope——!
Bah! (I wriggled savagely). It was idiotic beyond measure so to
flatter myself. Our recent relations had precluded for ever any such
possibility. The holocaust, rather! The gift to a chance passer-by, as
suggested by that fool of a lawyer! I stared out of the window,
humming viciously, and telling myself it was only what I ought to
expect; that such a vagary was distinctly in accordance with the
traditions of low comedy. It will be observed that I was very
contemptuous of buffoonery as a profession. Paradoxically, a joke is
never played so low as when it is played on our lofty selves.
Nevertheless, I was justified, it appeared. It may be asked, Why
did I not at once settle the matter by opening the envelope in the
cab? Well, I just temporized with my gluttony, till, like the greedy boy,
I could examine my box in private—only to find that the rats had
devoured all my cake. It was not till I was shut into my sitting-room
that I dared at length to break the seal, and to withdraw——
Even as it came out, with no suggestion of a reassuring crackle, I
realized my fate. And this was it: please to examine it carefully—

Now, what do you make of it? “Ex nihilo nihil fit,” I think you will say
with me. It was literally thus, carefully penned in the middle of a
single sheet of music-paper—a phrase, or motif, I suppose it would
be called—an undeveloped memorandum, in fact—nothing else
whatever. I let the thing drop from my hand.
No doubt there was some capping jest here, some sneer, some
vindictive sarcasm. I was not musician enough to tell, even had I had
spirit for the endeavour. It was unworthy, at least, of the old man—
much more, or less, than I deserved. I had been his favourite once.
Strange how the idée fixe could corrode an otherwise tractable
reason. In justice to myself I must insist that quite half my
disappointment was in the realization that such dislike, due to such a
trifle, could have come to usurp the old affection.
By and by I rose dismally, and carried the jest to the piano. (Half a
crown a day my landlady exacted from me, if I so much as thumped
on the old wreck with one finger, which was the extent of my talent.)
Well, I was reckless, and the theme appeared ridiculously simple.
But I could make nothing of it—not though Mrs. Dexter came up in
the midst, and congratulated me on my performance.
When she was gone I took the thing to my chair again, and
resumed its study despondently. And presently Chaunt came in.
“Hullo!” he said: “how’s the blooming legatee?”
“Pretty blooming, thanks,” I said. “Would you like to speculate in
my reversion? Half a crown down to Mrs. Dexter, and the use of the
tin kettle for the day.”
“Done,” he said, “so far as the piano’s concerned. Let’s see what
you’ve got there.”
He had known of my prospective visit to the lawyers, and had
dropped in to congratulate me on that performance. I acquainted him
with the result; showed him the books, and the tea-caddy, and the
penny, and the remnants of foolscap—finally, handed him the
crowning jest for inspection.
“Pretty thin joke, isn’t it?” I growled dolefully. “Curse the money,
anyhow! But I didn’t think it of the old man. I suppose you can make
no more of that than I can?”
He was squinting at the paper as he held it up, and rubbing his
jaw, stuck out at an angle, grittily.
“H’m!” he said, quite suddenly, “I’d go out for a walk and revive
myself, if I were you. I intend to hold you to that piano, for my part;
and you wouldn’t be edified.”
“No,” I said: “I’ve had enough of music for a lifetime or so! I fancy
I’ll go, if you won’t think me rude.”
“On the contrary,” he murmured, in an absorbed way; and I left
him.
I took a longish spin, and returned, on the whole refreshed, in a
couple of hours. He was still there; but he had finished, it appeared,
with the piano.
“Well,” he said, rising and yawning, “you’ve been a deuce of a time
gone; but here you are”—and he held out to me indifferently a little
crackling bundle.
Without a word I took it from his hand—parted, stretched, and
explored it.
“Good God!” I gasped: “five notes of a thousand apiece!”
He was rolling a cigarette.
“Yes,” he drawled, “that’s the figure, I believe.”
“For me?”
“For you—from your uncle.”
“But—how?”
He lighted, took a serene puff or two, drew the jest from his
pocket, and, throwing it on a chair, “You’ll have to allow some value
to cryptograms at last,” he said, and sat down to enjoy himself.
“Chaunt!”
“O,” he said, “it was a bagatelle. An ass might have brayed it out at
sight.”
“Please, I am something less than an ass. Please will you interpret
for me?” I said humbly.
He neighed out—I beg his pardon—a great laugh at last.
“O,” he cried: “your uncle was true blue; he stuck to his guns; but I
never really supposed he meant to disinherit you, Johnny. You
always had the first place in his heart, for all your obstinacy. He took
his own way to convince you, that was all. Pretty poor stuff it is, I’m
bound to confess; but enough to run your capacities to extinction.
Here, hand it over.”
“Don’t be hard on me,” I protested, giving him the paper. “If I’m all
that you say, it was as good as cutting me off with a penny.”
“No,” he answered: “because he knew very well that you’d apply to
me to help you out of the difficulty.”
“Well, help me,” I said, “and, in the matter of Bacon, I’ll promise to
be a fool convinced against my will.”
“No doubt,” he answered drily, and came and sat beside me. “Look
here,” he said; and I looked:—

“You know your notes, anyhow,” said he. “Well, you’ve only got to
read off these into their alphabetical equivalents, and cut the result
into perfectly obvious lengths. It’s child’s play so far; and, indeed, in
everything, unless this rum-looking metronome beat, or whatever it
may be, bothers you for a moment.”

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