New Britain herald., 1917-07-03
How Diclxy Welcomed Mrs. Durkee's g
 Explanation.

Explanation.
 The fabled head of Medusa could not have had much more paralyz- ing effect upon the members of our little dinner party at Broquin's' than did the entrance of the girl who wore upon her head the hat of which Dicky had just been talking, and which he had said he had bought for me.
 At sight of the hat, the girl who wore 1t and especially of the faces of the two girls who accompanied her, Edith and Leila Fairfax, my faith in Dicky which had just remblingly regained after the startling events of the afternoon, fled and I sank back into my chair, torn With Jealous misery
 The story Dicky had just told, must be an intricately threaded tissue of falsehood and truth cunningly devised to keep me from guessing the real meaning of the scene I had witnessed in the afternoon at Hambel's when I had seen him buying the forty-dollar blue hat had previously coveted, and an expensive suit for Edith Fairfax.
 What fool ] had been to believe his tale, evidently made up in a moment when he found out had been at HambePs, that Miss Fairfax was going to pose for his illustrations of a novel and that the clothing he had bought she was to wear for the draw ings!
 But why had he told so foolish a tale? And why, if he had bought the hat for Edith Fairfax, was it gracing the head of this other girl? The utter sordidness of the whole episode re- volted me- but mystified me as well When I finally glanced toward DickH what was my amaZement to find that his face held not the look of guilty chagrin which I expected, but one of angry mystiflcation instead.
 "Thanks, Little Pal"
 Alfred Durkee was trying to conceal a smile of amusement and wasn't suc- ceeding very well. But it was the look of Mrs. Durkee's face which puzzled me most. She was gazing in tently at the new hat, and she had the absorbed look of a student engaged in solving some intricate problem.
 II have it!'' she announced at last That hat isn't the one we saw. Mrs Ora aham. It's a very clever copy, I admit. J only wish I had the skill that girl has or whoever did the copying. But the material is infinitely cheaper. and the flowers are very inferior to the real ones."
 You marvellous woman!" Dcky blew her kiss, foreign fashion. "You have saved not only my reason, but, I suspect. by happy home I could never have told that hat from the original, and I should have become a gibberng idiot trying to account for its appearance here tonight. And Madge would certainly have been jus tified in thinking that I was de- liberately stringing her. Thanks, little pal, a thousand thanks!''
 echoed Dickys words in my heart. Bizarre as her solution was, I realized that 1t was the true one and that as a consequence I was going to be able to listen without prejudice to Dicky's elucidation of the mystery.
 "You see, I know neither of the Fairfax girls would have worn that hat" he began, 'but I didn't know about tile other damsel, Rita Brown. She's q New York city product-East side originally, I suspect, although she's never admitted it. But she's going. to be mighty clever illustra- tor some day. she'll earn thousands when. the Fairfaxes will be teaching water colors and landscapes to an other generation of aspiring Feminine Virginians-that Is, if they don't marry.
 But she's sadly lacking in the finer instincts which are as much a part of the other girls as the air they breathe" he continued. 1T have never quite understood why the