my daughters to the
limit of my earnings, since my dear wife died. They have hard sledding
in front of them for a while, I fear."

He hesitated, and then continued:

"Do you remember the day you met Mary? She started to say that she and
Lorna could not see me on visiting day. Well, the dear girls had
secured a position as clerks in Monnarde's big candy store up on Fifth
Avenue. They talked it over between them, and decided that it was
better for them to get to work, to relieve my mind of worry. It's the
first time they ever worked, and they are sticking to it gamely. But
it makes me feel terribly. Their mother never had to work, and I feel
as though I have been a failure in life--to have done as much as I
have, and yet not have enough in my old age to protect them from the
world."

"There, there, Mr. Barton. I don't agree with you. There is no
disgrace in womanly work; it proves what a girl is worth. She learns
the value of money, which before that had merely come to her without a
question from her parents. And you have been a splendid father ...
that's easily seen from the fine sort of girl Miss Mary is."

Mary had stepped into the room with her younger sister as he spoke.
They hesitated at the kindly words, and Mary drew her sister back
again, her face suffused with a rosiness which was far from unhappy in
its meaning.

"Well, I am very proud of Mary and Lorna. If this particular scheme
works out they will be able to buy their candy at Monnarde's instead of
selling it."

Bobbie rose and leaned over the table.

"What is it? I'm not very good at getting mechanical drawings. It
looks as though it ought to be very important from all the wheels," he
said, with a smile of interest.

Spreading out the largest of his drawings, old Barton pointed out the
different lines.

"This may look like a mince pie of cogs here, but when it is put into
shape it will be a simple little arrangement. This is a recording
instrument which combines the phonograph and the dictagraph. One
purpose--the most practical, is that a business man may dictate his
letters and memoranda while sitting at his desk, in his office, instead
of having a machine with a phonograph in his private office taking up
space and requiring the changing of records by the dictator--which is
necessary with the present business phonograph. All that will be
necessary is for him to speak into a little disc. The sound waves are
carried by a simple