New Britain herald., 1917-09-21
What Happened When Madsc 1mitat cd Dicky'S Action in Keeping
 Her Room to Herself.

"Madge. open the door,"
 The words as they came from Dicky's lips were a peremptory com mand I had heard him rush up the stairs moment before, evidently up- on receiving my message, transmitted through Katie, that I would not De down to dinner. I unlocked the door and opened it., hoping devortly that I would be able to keep up the atti- tude ] had chosen against Dlcky's rudeness, that of quiet cold dignity.
 See here!" Dicky began roughly. "I want 10 know whether you're real ly sick or whether you're simply stall ing because you're mad. Katie says you're not coming down to dinner"
 Katie is eminently correct in her statement. l am not coming down to dinner" I answered frigidly.
 Are you sick or grouchy?" The question was explosive. I knew my husband well enough to realize that my next words would probably pre- cipitate a storm, and I resolved to end the scene quickly.
 After your rudeness of this morn ing, I do not see that my reasons for keeping to my room have any interest for you. But as I really have head ache, l must beg you to excuse me-
 I stepped back into my room and closed my door. He had done exact ly the same thing a few hours before, when I had asked him for an ex- planation of the impassioned love let ter, written in a woman's handwrit- ing and copied in his own, which had dropped from the basket of waste pa per he had so carefully destroyed. The only difference in the two incl dents was that he had slammed the door in my face. and accompanied with an oath his indignant refusal to explain the letter, while I had shut the door quietly, and had preserved the outward forms of courtesy in my words.
 I heard him draw in his breath sharply and then. like an angry street gamin, he called out loudly, "Oh, go to the devil," and, turning, rushed down the stairs again.
 Every nerve was quivering as I re- turned to my low chair by the win- dow, I knew that Dicky would not readily forgive my action. even though he knew 1t had been caused by his own outrageous rudeness. But I felt that more than the result of this one incident depended upon my holding fast to the course of action l had planned. If I allowed D1cky to persist in his habit of rudely snarl ing at mo whenever he was angry, 1 should soon have no self-respect left. I had thought the matter over very carefully, and resolved that until Dicky apologized to me for his action of the morning I should keep out of tn q T " meals at other hours than his.
 D1cky's UlHmatum.
 Dicl<y made no further attempt to see me until the next morning after breakfast. It was not quite like him to remain angry so long, and my vague uneasiness over his probable course of procedure had deepened to a lively alarm when he knocked at my door.
 You don't need to bother to open the door," he called. I'm going to stay in town day or two, until you gel over your grouch. Any time yot come out of it telephone me and IT come home."
 He hurried away, without givint me time to answer, even if haf wished to do so. But there was m desire for speech with my husban' | in the cold rage which began to creel over me- The airy disdain with Whlcl he had treated my anger, the ala bolically clever manner with which Il 1 had managed to put the burden O l any reconciliation on me 1nfurlate
 me.
 Not that there was left in me an
 desire for a reconciliation. At tn
 moment I was almost angry enoug
 to wish that I might never see hir | again. But I did not quite get to tn
 point of uttering that wish even men 1 tally. There is a thread of supersti