and
had died in convict stripes. Fine sensation that for the yellow press.
"Banker's Son Weds Convict's Daughter." So ran the "scare heads" in the
newspapers. That was the last straw for Mr. Jeffries, Sr. He sternly
told his son that he never wanted to look upon his face again. Howard
bowed his head to the decree and he had never seen his father since.

All this the young man was reviewing in his mind when suddenly his
reflections were disturbed by a friendly hail.

"Hello, Jeffries, old sport! Don't you know a fellow frat when you see
him?"

He looked up. A young man of athletic build, with a pleasant, frank
face, was standing at the news stand under the Park Place elevated
station. Quickly Howard extended his hand.

"Hello, Coxe!" he exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing in New York?
Whoever would have expected to meet you in this howling wilderness?
How's everything at Yale?"

The athlete grinned.

"Yale be hanged! I don't care a d----. You know I graduated last June. I'm
in business now--in a broker's office in Wall Street. Say, it's great!
We had a semi-panic last week. Prices went to the devil. Stocks broke
twenty points. You should have seen the excitement on the Exchange
floor. Our football rushes were nothing to it. I tell you, it's great.
It's got college beaten to a frazzle!" Quickly he added: "What are you
doing?"

Howard averted his eyes and hung his head.

"Nothing," he answered gloomily.

Coxe had quickly taken note of his former classmate's shabby appearance.
He had also heard of his escapades.

"Didn't you hear?" muttered Howard. "Row with governor, marriage and all
that sort of thing?

"Of course," he went on, "father's damnably unjust, actuated by absurd
prejudice. Annie's a good girl and a good wife, no matter what her
father was. D----n it, this is a free country! A man can marry whom he
likes. All these ideas about family pride and family honor are
old-world notions, foreign to this soil. I'm not going to give up Annie
to please any one. I'm as fond of her now as ever. I haven't regretted a
moment that I married her. Of course, it has been hard. Father at once
shut down money supplies, making my further stay at Yale impossible, and
I was forced to come to New York to seek employment. We've managed to
fix up a small flat in Harlem and now, like Micawber, I'm waiting for
something to turn up."

Coxe nodded sympathetically.

"Come and have a drink," he said cheerily.

Howard hes