The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-03-24

For a moment Janet thought there was no light in the room. Then she saw the lamp with its faintly flickering flame. She stepped inside the house and Jef-
 frey Grant followed her. It was cold, almost as cold as the air out side.
 A tall man standing with his back toward them turned. "Rose!" he cried excitedly. "Where've you
 been? Why didn't you come home"
 He caught the child up in his
 arms, staring at the strangers.
 Rose began talking but before she
 could explain lancet interrupted. You're MT Silvani, aren't you?"
 she asked.
 Yes. Pat Silvani, that's me.
 Where'd you find Rosie? Whats
 she been doing?"
 There was anxiety, eagerness- | yes, and fear--in the tone of voice
 In the dim light Janet could not
 see Pat Silvani clearly but she did
 see that he was tall, well built, that
 he had dark hair and dark eyes
 like Roses.
 1T met Rose down town" Janet explained. "She didn't mean to be gone so long only she lost her
 money" She went on, telling about
 Roses efforts to sell candy, how they had dinner together and then
 the frightening episode of the
 hold-up.
 Pat Silvani's voice lost its fear.
 Janet introduced Jeffrey Grant and Silvani asked them politely to sit down. There were two chairs in the room. Janet took one of them I and Grant settled himself on an
 upturned box. It was not until
 Janet was seated that she saw the
 other figure in the darkness. At first she saw just the face. | Tommy. of course, the crippled
 brother Rose had mentioned. He | lay on a cot at the side of the
 on one arm and was listening eagerly to all that was being said. Janet spoke to him and Rose, re-
 membering her candy, rushed for | ward to share it.
 Silvani said, You've been good l to my kids, miss. certainly thank you! They don't get much candy. They don't get much of anything since I've been out of work so | long,"
 He told them about trying to find
 work during the last two years. odd jobs, a few days or week here and there, were all he'd been
 able to get. Two years before Pat | Silvani had worked steadily for q construction company. He was a
 brick mason, and q good one. On the last two jobs he'd been fore
 man. He and his wife, whose name was Rose also, and the children had lived in little bungalow in a new part of town. Pat was paying for the bungalow, so much each month. He had a little money in the bank. Pat Silvani had been de- termined to get ahead--to give his
 Tommy and Rose better things in life than he'd had.
 Then without the slightest warn | ing the construction company had gone under". Pat Silvani didn't know why. He just received a mo- tice that there wouldn't be any | more work. The company was | bankrupt. For while Pat laid brick on another job. Then there
 wasn't anything. No one was put
 ting up buildings. Nobody needed a brick mason. Pat worked in a
 garage for a while. Times began to get harder and he couldn't make the payments on the bungalow. | They moved to 0 cheaper place, and finally to this. Rose found that she could get work cleaning in an 1 office building nights.
 "Rose!" Pat Silvani said bitterly, ! ,,oa1 tn ha fha sna a ri QSt nnar- ator in the Vanity Fair Beauty | Shop-scrubbing floors! She don't complain though. She gets 25 cents an hour and it's all we've got to live on!'
 Pat Silvani's voice died down again. The smoldering fires in the dark eyes died down. too. He looked whaht he was-a man beat- | en. Janet sat forward. MT Silvani,"
 she said, there must be jobs some- where! I'm going to see if l cant find one for you. Maybe l won't be able to, but I'm going to try" Sure" Jeffrey Grant put in. "I
 was thinking the same thing. l
 know quite few fellows and I'll
 ask around"
 They left a little after that. Rosie came forward as Janet was saving goodby and flung both arms about her. You're nice," Rosie
 said softly, '1 like you!" Janet and Jeffrey Grant went out
 Into the night. Neither of them
 spoke until they were in the road
 ster. Then Janet said impulsively,
 q didn't know people were living like that. Isn't 1t terrible 7" ! The young man nodded. DO you