The way Les loses heart and cries (5)

I believe the answer is:

howls

'cries' is the definition.
(howl is a kind of cry)

'the way les loses heart' is the wordplay.
'the way' becomes 'how' (I've seen this in another clue).
'loses heart' means to remove the middle letters.
'les' with its middle taken out is 'ls'.
'how'+'ls'='HOWLS'

'and' is the link.

(Another definition for howls that I've seen is " Wails".)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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