s had been uniformly severe in these properties. Instead of being
the possessor of a stable quarter of a million, which he considered to
be the value of his property at the time of his election to Congress,
Lyons suddenly realized that he was on the brink of a serious financial
collapse through which he might lose everything before he could
discharge his liabilities. It seemed cruel to him, for he believed that
all his ventures were sound, and that if he were not forced to sacrifice
his possessions, their future value would attest his sagacity. But at
present the securities of speculative enterprises were practically
worthless as procurers of ready money. The extreme circumstances had
come upon him with startling rapidity, so that he found himself in the
unpleasant predicament of having used for temporary relief some of the
bonds belonging to the Parsons estate which he held as executor. He had
forwarded these to Williams merely as a matter of convenience before he
had become anxious, expecting to be able to replace them with funds
coming to him within thirty days from a piece of real estate for which
he had received an offer. He had held off in the hope of obtaining a
higher price. The following week, when signs of danger were multiplying,
he had found the would-be purchaser unwilling to buy at any price.
Realizing the compromising position in which he had placed himself by
his action, he had cast about feverishly for the means to redeem the
hypothecated securities, but all his resources were taxed of a sudden by
the advent of the panic. It occurred to him to ask Selma to allow
substitution of the twenty thousand dollars, which had been apportioned,
to her as her legacy, for the bonds, but at first he had shrunk from the
mortification of disclosing his condition to her, and now that the
situation had developed, he feared that he might be obliged to borrow
this money from her for the protection of his other interests. It gave
him sore concern that he, a champion of moral ideas, a leading church
member, and a Representative of the Federal Government should be put in
such an equivocal position. Here again there was no opportunity for
conciliation, and dignified urbanity was of no avail. If the condition
of drooping prices and general distrust, a sort of commercial dry-rot,
which had succeeded the panic, continued much longer he would be driven
to the wall unless relief were forthcoming. Nor was it much consolation
that many