New Britain herald., 1927-06-28
My Sons Su|0etkHaGS
 @ x m ~ u ~ ns nr YMA MeclOt GIBSON
{ WlDA McClONf ClBSO SONA

his shoulder. she pushed him gently to the stairway. In a moment he was standing alone on the landing. and she was through her doorway.
 He stood tn re a moment appar- entity dazed and then he said. Well. I'll be damned"
 He spent the rest of tho night haunting the American bars and try. ing to avoid the M. P.'s. When he slipped into his room at Ritz and threw himself on the bed. he was gloriously drunk.
 CHAPTER LII
 OFF TO AMERICA For the next few days Philips nerves. as we'll as his mothers, 1 were rather jumpy. Phillip was all the time thinking that Pat would either telegrath or telephone. With a mans usual egotism. he could not think that she would let him go without at least one more goodbye. Mrs. Tracy had the same feeling, and every time the telephone rang she rushed over to it. Never before had John Aukland left her without a lingering farewell.
 However. at tho end of the week she saw in one of the Paris papers l that Major Aukland had gone to Turkey with the Near East expedi- i tion. and a friend told Phillip one evening that he had seen Pat leav- l ing the station for Switzerland. con- sequently they both became calmer, if not happier.
 | Neither mother nor son referred in any way to the absence of Pat or John Aukland in their conversation, when they were perhaps more in I each others thoughts all the time 1 than any one or anything else.
 Phillip had to leave Paris for two or three days to go and get his dis , charge papers. During that time his mother finished up the shopping and so kept herself too busy to think much about anything.
 All the time, however. she kept asking herself if again she had made q mistake, for Anne Tracy had come to see that her interference between Phil and Natlee had been 8 great error of judgment.
 She felt better when on the Fourth of July they stood on the Rue de Rivoli and cheered the American ! troops as they marched up that his- torical street, escorted by the crack regiments of England. Belgium. ] Italy. Canada and Australia. Phil lifted his mother high in the air and said. with more pride and enthusiasm than she had heard him , express since she had met him abroad: Were proud we're Ameri- cans, aren't we. young lady. and we're glad we're going home"
 "Yes, Phil. shall be so glad to get home that it seems to me now l shall never want to go away again. Oh, I have so many plans for both of us."
 Don't talk of plans. Mother They make me miserable. What can you plan for such a poor stick as I am ?"
 Anne Huntington Tracy looked at her boy. He was thin and she saw lines on his face that ought not to 30, and the tears, came to her eyes Would he ever get back his youthful spirits again?
 It was not until the 14th of August that mother and son found them- selves at Le Havre, embarking for America. They were both of them leaving many happy days and many very terrible days behind, but after all, that is only what makes up life.
 Just as the boat edged out from the pier Mrs. Tracy felt her arm clutched by her son. She raised her eyes to his face. He was not looking at her. He was looking over the crowd on the dock. Following his gaze, she saw Pats face turned up to them. Anne felt little guilty. for Pats eyes were very sad and the tears were streaming down her cheeks.
 Phil took off his hat and bowed formally. His mother thought he seemed almost glad that the parting was just as it was. Neither mother nor son mentioned 1t to the other afterward. The episode was appar- entity closed.
 Phillip was little ashamed, for, since that afternoon on the Bois he had never tried to see Bat again. He had not even written to tell her when he was sailing. His mother was perfectly willing. now they were leaving France, not to mention Phil's French sweetheart's name to him.
 He noticed, as he saw her on the pier, that there had been times when he had forgotten her.
 Soon they both turned away from the land and faced across the sea toward America. Both were leaving the past two years behind them. Phillip characteristically was saying to himself that he had been tilted, anyway. There was nothing else for him to do but to take it as grace fully as possible. He did not realize that he was accepting it almost too gracefully.
 Mother md son did not talk much lV Sd'il oLuCI do lllcy cdl OuL UI lIft deck in the sunshine, for to tell the truth each was more than little curious to know exactly what the homeland would mean in the next year or two. and both were trying to adjust themselves to imagined conditions.
 Early one morning. Phillip came to his mothers stateroom and said: Would you like to say good morning to the Goddess of Liberty, Mother? She looks pretty good to me. even if she is lying old dame. with her insinuation that America lights the world with her torch of liberty. In reality, the U. s. A. is not the land of the free any more than it Is the home of brave'"