The Connecticut labor press., 1919-03-29

Bayard had guessed the situation :; he saw the cruel joke of 1t. He thought he could dull the edge with mockery. He snickered, rather crav- enly:
 II wrote to ask you to lend me some money. l guess I wasted the postage"
 And l guess l wasted the fare over here. I thought I Oughn't have taken berth in the sleeper, but your moth CT insisted-said I'd not been feelin' any too we'll"
 Bayard laughed outright-a laugh wet with vinegar tears.
 Wesley sank into a chair with the little whimper of a sick old man.
 Bayard went to his father and put his arm about him and regretted his Wall street disaster with a ferocious remOrse. He could not speak, and there was a long dumbness before Wesley sighed:
 q guess we got to lose the home, then.'
 That then" was a history in a word.
 Bayard bent his head in shame at his helplessness. AS usual, it was Wesley who found a shabby comfort in the situation-found it for his son.
 Don't you think anything more about it, my boy. I'm kind of relieved" He giggled with a pitiful senility. 'I been so ashamed at traipsin' over here to bother you instead of rushin' over to help you like I ought to-being your father-that I'm kind of glad you can't help me. I got no right to add to your troubles. I'm supposed to take care of you"
 Bayard kept groaning:
 ''To lose your home! To think of you losing your home! And me stand ing by!"
 "Why, it's nothing, Bayard. After all, we're not in Belgium. We've got friends. And relations. There's no danger of anything happening to us." Daphne and Leila overheard this con- versation while listening in the hall. Daphne chung to Leila and buried her face in Leila's bosom to smother her frenzfed grief. Leila, mopping Daphne's cheek with her own hand kerchief, caught the glint of a dia- mond on her finger. It glistened like great, lmnOrtaI tear.
 It inspired her with new hope. She had often cOnsOled herself with the thought of her jewels as a final refuge, but she had put off the evil day. Now she felt that the time had come. She threw open the door and spoke into the. gloom with voice of seraplFic beauty:
 "I couldn't help hearing what you were saying. You needn't be down hearted, though. for I've just thought of way to help daddy out" He was daddy to her also.
 Bayard and Wesley turned and stared at her in amazement She went on in kind of ecstasy.
 My rings!' she cried. Don't you see! My diamonds and rubies And I've got a necklace or two, and some chains and brooches. They're worth a lot of money. And you're welcome to 'em, daddy"
 The men were confused with too many emotions to know what to feel, much less what to say. Leila'S mis- sion was so divinely meant that it was sacrilege to receive it with reluctance And yet for Wesley to let this new daughter-in-law pawn her trinkets for him was postgraduate humiliation.
 The end of it was that Bayard de- manded the melancholy privilege of visiting the pawnshop himself. Leila made heap of her adornments. Last of all she took from her neck the little plaque he had given her with it's star dust of diamonds frosting a platinum iligree.
 He kissed her mOurnfully and hur- ried away to the pawnshOp. He skulked in and cut like a burglar, and he brought away pack of tickets and