so sorry! No one knows what that boy has gone through since he came home!"

"I'll say it must have gone to his head, if you ask me," Treadway explained. "Dick was all right before the war. Must have got shell-shock or something like that, don't you think?"

"I don't believe those who stayed at home can understand just what is the matter with Dick," Lola remarked quietly; but Treadway felt the sting.

"Don't knock," he protested. "You know I would have gone if I hadn't been necessary to an essential industry."

"Some felt they were necessary to an essential war." "Oh, you're trying to make me feel uncomfortable, Lola, but you can't do it. Perhaps you might have, a year ago, but all that hurrah boys stuff has gone into the discard now. I did my part, and my conscience is clear. Unlike Nathan Hale, my only regret is that I have but one life to live for my country. . . Now don't be unfair to me."

Lola held back the reply which was on her lips. Treadway's "war-service" had always been a sore point with her, but there was nothing to be gained by raising it now. Besides, she wanted to learn of Richard.

"Tell me about Dick," she urged . . . "I interrupted

you."

"Oh, yes,” Treadway assented cheerfully; glad to turn the conversation upon a more agreeable subject. "He's thrown young Lemholtz out of the saddle as labor leader, and jumped in himself. Clever, I'll admit, but it is too bad for Dick to do it, isn't it? The old

man is quite upset, you know. Can't blame him for that, can we?"

Treadway's obvious delight in being the harbinger of such tidings was mortifying, for the fact that she had not already learned the news from Richard himself was an admission of altered conditions. But there was nothing now to conceal, and she must know all that Treadway could tell her.

"Of course, it is terrible for Dick and his father to have a break," Lola said with real feeling, "each of them needs the other so much. But I don't understand yet just what has happened."

"I'll explain. The men were going to make all sorts of demands, and Dick has put them up to some they never thought of before, . . factory representation and all that sort of thing. They have made him chairman or something of the kind of their committee, and he insists on seeing the entire Board of Directors. Not the General Manager, if you please, but the entire Board of Directors! What do you think of that? Why, his father is still frothing at the mouth!"

"What are the demands he is going to make?" she inquired, striving to conceal her real interest.

These were not the acts of a despairing man! Could it be that her exhortation was beginning to bear fruit? "Oh, yes," Treadway replied; . . "that is, I can tell you some of them. He . . ."

"Suppose you let me answer Lola's question myself." "Oh, Dick!" the girl cried, rising and holding out her hand to him impulsively; "where did you drop from?" "Sorry to interrupt," he said, looking steadily at

Treadway. "I came up the north steps. Treadway has apparently told you all the news, but perhaps I can supply some of the details. I'll wait for you inside." "Oh, I must be going," Treadway exclaimed, rising hastily in his embarrassment. "Promised to meet the boys at the club, and I'm late now. So long."

II

Lola led the way into the house. There was a great joy in her face as she looked up into his from the huge chair into which she threw herself. She needed no word from him to know that at last the spark had kindled into flame. It mattered little where or how, the fact was obvious.

"I don't know how much Treadway has told you, .." Richard began.

"Never mind what he said. I want to know it all from the beginning."

"Well," he began, "first of all, I want to tell you how sorry I am that I am to be a disappointment to you, just as I have been to my father."

Lola sobered.

"Oh, Dick! I cannot believe that! When I saw your face I was sure that at last you had found yourself."

"I have, Lola, but not the way you expected. . . And truly, I did want to please you, dear! Things have moved so fast since I saw you that I could not even get here to tell you about them. There is going to be trouble at the plant and apparently I am to be in the thick of it."

Then he told her in detail of the heated discussion with his father, of his work with the men, of the struggle with Tony Lemholtz, and his final victory over the radicals. Lola could scarcely believe that this was the same Richard. The pall of discouragement had fallen from him; there was purpose in every word, authority and decision in every motion.

"Have you an idea that your father will even consider such a proposition as you suggest?" Lola asked as he paused.

"Not a chance," Richard acknowledged. "If the settlement of the present situation is left to him it means hardship for the men and bankruptcy for the business. That is why I am trying to go over his head. I want a chance to show the Directors just what this thing means, and I can't do that to a man who won't even listen to me. Your father could be a wonderful help, Lola. The way he talked the other day makes me think he might be sympathetic. Will you help me win him over?"

"Of course I'll help, Dick."

"It is going to be a tremendous proposition to put across, but it's worth a fight, isn't it? Think, Lola, what it would mean! Employers and employed working together as partners, . . the energy now wasted by each in fighting the other concentrated on production, . . all animated by a common interest, sharing in a common prosperity! It is so logical if each will recognize the other's importance to himself, and cease trying to get more than his share."

He was so consumed by the excitement of having a

new world open before him that he actually trembled. As Lola listened to him a great joy came into her heart. "Why did you think that this would be a disappointment to me?" she asked quietly.

"You had your heart so set on that vision of mine." She looked at him to make sure that he was serious. What a big, blessed, lovable idiot the boy was!

"Why, Dick!" she cried, "this is your vision! Don't you realize it? The voice has come! You have accepted the call."

He looked at her in complete bewilderment for a moment; then a new light came into his face, culminating in a radiant smile.

"I believe you are right! Lola, . . I really believe you are right! It is the same thing, isn't it?"

"Of course it is, Dick. It is making a practical application of the idealism which meant so much to you in France. What more could you possibly ask?"

Even now the realization of the fact was almost beyond him, but the truth could not be denied.

"I knew that you could do it, Dick!" Lola declared. "It was worth a little misunderstanding, wasn't it? It was worth waiting for. I knew that you could not feel as you had and then slip back. That was what I was trying to make you see, dear. Will you forgive me for seeming to be unkind?"

But Richard's thoughts were too firmly centered upon the opportunity he saw before him to recognize the personal appeal which the girl's words contained.

"Why, it is even bigger than anything I ever thought of in France, isn't it?" he exclaimed joyfully. "It is so