Show i HE cashier was alone He drew a pencil and andS S J scratch pad from his hist k j s t o pocket and figured rap rap- idly Yes he could do doit doit it easily casily Just a turn of or orV V the combination and the safe was open His tip tipon tipon on certain stocks came from a man with inside knowledge and to take tale talethe the money from the bank would lust be borrowing It The stocks were scheduled to make a wild plunge upward upward up up- ward within the next few days and then he lie could sell replace the money be he had taken from the safe before it was as missed and have enough ahead to lustily justify several of or his intended moves toward social advancement Why it was all aji just the simplest in the world to accomplish All th th i time lie he argued with himself he was not qu quite te easy In his conscience but his thought of the confidential position of the friend who had given him the tip made the outcome seem a certainty certainty certainty-an an end that would surely Justify the means He pulled the blind unlocked the safe concealed the money he needed on his person carefully covering his tracks Then he locked the safe and quietly let himself into the balmy April air It was past midnight when he stole silently out of ot his home for a little walk being unable to sleep The moon moon- light held the world in Its thrall bathIng bathIng bath bath- Ing the spring flowers in its silvery light but the cashier was oblivious to Its beauty as he wandered aimlessly down first one street and then another another another an an- other until his attention was arrested by the sound of ot a glad hosanna from froma a n. nearby church the church the final choir rehearsal rehearsal re reo re- re for Easter music Scarcely realizing what he did the troubled man slipped Into the vestibule of ot the big church drawn by the lights the music and the hunger for human companionship com corn which gnawed his troubled heart As he stood undecided what he should do the Joyous anthem ended ended end end- ed the choir filed Into the vestry room and the old sexton turned out all save the chancel lights The cashier cashier cashler cash cash- ier ler slipped quietly into the church and sank Bank wearily into Inlo a seat his eyes fixed on the lily-laden lily altar Easter lilies were everywhere Great Greatbanks Greatbanks greatbanks banks of them covered the altar and I I Yes He Could Do It Easily from every nook and corner they gleamed white in the dim chancel lights They were like a prayer prayer prayer-a a mothers mother's prayer for her children children- pure and clean and white Their delicate delicate delicate deli deli- cate fragrance was pleasant to his senses but above all else It was their whiteness which riveted his thought He could not get away from it Suddenly he buried burled his face fac in his hands to shut the lilies away irom from his sight while he went over the argument argument ment he had used to himself himsel when he had bad taken the money from the sar safe But BiU strangely in the midst of his effort at Justification the whiteness and purity of the Easter lilies surged through his brain I Then out of the stillness a n. sound was made It was the the- sound of ot a voice voice the the voice of his mother Consid the r-the lilies It plead pleaded d soft soft- ly The cashier sprang to his feet and looked a about out him wildly There was no one in the big lily laden church except except ex ex- ex himself himself and himself and the voice Consider tho the lilies came carno the advice advice advice ad ad- vice to him once more The voice was unmistakable Although Al AI though hit hll mother had been dead 1 lo 10 these twenty years he could never forget the gentleness of her voice nut Hut that was not all all The admonition tad Lad tada Lada a familiar ring which was not of the voice alone nor yet et of some somo long for gotten reading The words were borne In upon his senses now as In that long-ago long yester-year yester when as a little lad he had sat in the living room of ot his home listening listening- to his fathers father's heartbroken confession to his mother that he had fail failed d in business It was Easter then as now On the broad casement of the low French i c Stood Clutching the Seat window stood a row of exquisite white lilies His mother had turned from his stricken father to regard them and andover andover over oyer her face had come that tender confident smile the little lad had so loved Consider the lilies she had told the man they toil not neither I do they spin yet Solomon in all his I glory was not arrayed like one of these And his father had taken her into his arms with a great sob while u the little lad had hart looked on understanding under standing only that his mother had somehow helped his father over a great crisis And now in the crisis of his own life when temptation had mastered him hElp he sat t aone Jl in p a lily de dechurch church and b lo 10 L the Voice of his ils mother bade him consider the lilies Whence had it come From the heart of an Easter lily Or had it come into th the house of God with him with a ray of moonlight Or was the voice in his brain alone born alone born of or memories He could not tell and it did not matter When he had laid her away twenty years ago he had not laid away the influence that had been hers all through his young life her faith In him her smile nor the memory of ot a certain day when he had been graduated graduated graduated from college and had promised her that he would seek first the kingdom kingdom kingdom king king- dom of or God and his righteousness through all the days that he should live And he had kept his promise promise- until tonight when the greed of gold became the dominating motive of or his life tonight when the thirst for luxury luxury luxury lux lux- ury had conquered him The rhe cashier stood clutching the seat of the pew in front of or him his eyes fixed on tho banked lily altar Then he squared his shoulders even as he had seen his father do in that long- long gone year And when the first soft flush of Easter day crept across the eastern sky the money was safe In the bank again For the cashier kept faith with his mother |