New Britain herald., 1916-02-18

l
 band or Jack Bickett?'' Mrs. Stewart shot the question at
 me as if it were bullet from a re- volver. I could not have been more
 stunned if it had been a real missile. 1 We were sitting facing each other l in her little upstairs sitting room. She had shrewdly guessed my quarrel
 with Dicky, and she had announced
 her intention of talking to me like
 Dutch uncle.E#s
 < But this question was too much
 ever from my old slandlady, who, since
 my mothers death, was my nearest 1 woman friend I raised my head re- sentfully.
 Really, Mrs. Stewart" I began 1 haughtily.
 "Oh, cut that out she returned brusquely. Your affairs are in bad tangle, I can see that, and I guess it's rp, to me to straighten them out a bit if I can. But I've got to know first exactly how matters stand. So just answer my question, my dear" Her tone held a. note of command that, curiously enough, I felt like oDeying $ I answered her as docilely as a child
 My husband is the only man in the world for me, Mrs. Stewart As my lips uttered the words my heart echoed them. Life might so shape itself as to keep me apart from my husband-I was not very sanguine as to my future with Dicky-but l loved 11in1-loved him so much that the thought of this arrangement from him was a torture.
 T thought so," Mrs. Stewards voice was fiat. "More's the pity "You don't need to look so shocked" she went on dryly. "Of course this isn't the proper thing to say. I ought to exclain, 'Thank God!' I suppose, but I never was built to be a hypocrite."
 She turned aside her head for a moment and I saw her wipe her eyes. The action surprised me, for I had always thought Mrs. Stewart to be the least emotional, the most matter of-fact woman had ever known.
 Margaret" she said huskly, when she faced me again, mo one will ever know haw much I loved your mother, or how much I miss her. And when remember how fervently your mother hoped you would some day na arry Jack Bickett, and now to see Jack going to his death very likely across the ocean, and you married to that-that -whipper-snapper!" She hcsitated for the last word, and then brought it out as if it were an ex- rloding f1recracker. 1T could just tear. things to pieces" she finished fercely.
 Mrs. Stewards "Cynicism.''
 You must not speak that way of my husband, Mrs Stewart I said, but my remonstrance was weak, for her reference to my little mother and her plans for me nearly upset me.
 "Fiddlesticks." she returned brus- c!uely "This isn't a time for picking your words. I'm going to speak my mind once for all-and then you'l1 never hear me say word about your husband again.
 "I'm not so strong for that until death do us part thing as lots of people are," she went on Its a long time waiting for death when 1 two unsuited people are tied together. 1 You have the chance of your lifetime now to break away from that hus- l band of yours if you have quarrelled
 with him. Jack can go back to South l America or some other place. where | his life and then when you are really l free you can have real man who l will take care of you, not an imita | ton of one that makes you miserable ! nine tenths of your time." l < I could not speak. I gazed at her. Ipcsitive1y fascinated by the brutal l cynicism she was displaying. 1 "Oh, of course, you are shocked out of your wits" she said calmly, l "but that won't hurt either you or 1 me- I don't expect you to heed any thing I am saving. You're just wait l ing for that Dicky bird of yours to
 chirp. and you'll be back in your nest
 But I couldn't let you go back to al
 most certain misery without showing 1 you way out l She stopped and gazed into the fire I for a long moment, her face set and stern I was too angry at her stric-
 lures against s~Dcky, too miserable l with my fears of the meeting be- tween Dicky and Jack to break the silence. Finally she turned to me,
 shrugging her shoulders as if she were dropping a load from them
 There. that's done with'' she said
 "Now for the rest of it. How serious lis this quarrel with your husband? ?" l ''Neet Another Secretly?' i "I don't know,' I said for1ornly. 1T
 only know that he said things for (which he must apologize before I can go back home"
 What things?"
 l I felt like child being catechised, ! but there was something in Mrs. 1 Stewards manner which broke down
 my reserve.
 "He thought I was going to say
 good-by to Jack, and he told me if : I went out of the door ] went for l good" I stopped short. Not to any I one in the world could I repeat the