New Britain herald., 1916-04-29

| Of the little daughter who had been
 so cruelty shut away from her life 1 With her elbow resting on the arm l Of her chair, her chin cupped in her I hand, her whole body leaning toward the warmth of the fire, she sat gaz- 1 ing into the leaping flames as if she were trying to read in them the riddle 1 of the future
 I patiently waited on her mood l That she would open her heart to me ! further I knew, but did not wish to i disturb her with either word or 1 movement.
 "I knew you would be like this," l she said at last. Almost any other l woman would have gone off on an l emotional tangent over this story of 1 mine, especially when it so con- Cerned herself. But you know enough to keep still when you see
 a situation that no words can help. It's rare gift my dear Cherish it.' My face flushed with pleasure at her words of praise, but my only answer was a low, sincere Thank you," at which she nodded and fell silent again.
 might as well begin at the be- ginning There was a note in her voice that all at once made me see the long years of suffering which had been hers. 'Only the beginning is so comm anplace that it lacks inter- est. It is the record of a very tions."
 That she was speaking of herself
 her tone told me, but I was genuine
 ly surprised. Mrs. Underwood was
 the last woman in the world one
 hnI
 stenographer's position.
 They Met in Paris.
 'I cant remember when I didn't l
 have in the back of my brain the l idea of learning to draw" she went l
 on "but it took years and years of l
 uphill work and saving to get a ] chance. I was an orphan, with mo- 1 body to care whether I lived or died, ] and nothing but my own efforts to l depend on. But I stuck to it. work ing in the daytime and studying evenings and holidays till at last I began to get a foothold, and then when I had enough put by to risk it I went to Paris
 Her voice was matter of fact as if she were describing a visit to the family butcher shop. But I visual ized the busy, plucky years with their reward of Paris as if I had been spectator of them.
 "Of course, by the time I got there ! was almost old enough to be the l or, at least, the elder sister 1 of most of the boys and girls I met, and I had learned life and experience 1 in a good, hard school. Some of the ! youngsters got the habit of coming to me with all their troubles, fancied CT real. I made some staunch | friends in those days, but never a stauncher truer one than Dicky Graham"
 I started in surprise. Dicky had told me of his studies in Paris, and of the gay, careless time he spent there, but he had never mentioned Mrs. Underwood as having been one Of his circle. As I thought of it. I rem mem bered that Dicky, aside from praising Mrs. Underwood as a bully | good scout and characterizing her as one of his oldest friends, had said very little about her to me.
 Mrs. Underwood saw the move ment She turned and put her hand On mine, smiling half -humorously, half-tenderly.
 Tell me, dear girl, when you were teaching those history classes, did any of your boy pupils fall in love with you?'
 I answered her with an embar- rassed little laugh. Her question called up mem ories of shy glances, gifts of flowers and fruit, boyish con- fdences-all the things which fall to the lot of any teacher of boys.
 Well, then, you will understand me when I tell you that in the studio days in Paris Dicky imagined himself quite in love with me-
 There was something in her tone and manner which took all the sting out of her words for me- All the Jealousy and real concern which I had spent on this old attachment of my husbands for Mrs. Underwood vanished as I listened to her. She might have been Dicky's mother, speaking of his early and injudicious fondness for green apples.
 T shall always be proud of the way I managed Dicky that time'' Her voice still held the amused ma ternal note. Its so easy for an older woman to spoil a boys life in case like that if she's despicable enough to do it. But you see I was genuinely fond of Dicky, and yet not the least bit in love with him, and I was able, without his guessing it, to keep the management of the affair in my own hands. So when he woke up, as the boys always do to the a absurdity of the idea, there was nothing in his recolIections of me to spoil our friendship.
 .sF'or Offense and Defense"
 Then there came the early days of my struggle to got a foothold in New Y or1k in my line. There were thou sands of others like me. Six or seven of the strugglers had been my friends