.

CHARLEY MAKES A DISCOVERY.
A hot day a month later Charley Steele sat in his office staring before him into space, and negligently smoking a cigarette.

Outside there was a slow clacking of wheels, and a newsboy was crying "La Patrie! La Patrie! All about the War in France! All about the massacree!" Bells--wedding-bells--were ringing also, and the jubilant sounds, like the call of the newsboy, were out of accord with the slumberous feeling of the afternoon.

Charley Steele turned his head slowly towards the window.

The branches of a maple-tree half crossed it, and the leaves moved softly in the shadow they made.