New Britain herald., 1917-10-09
why Madgc is Worried by Thoughts
SheS Sure Aren't Aroused By
JoalOWSy

jealousy.
For some weeks I heard nothing
more of the play on which .Dicky and
Edith Fairfax were collaborating, the
secret of which Lillian had wrested
from Dicky on the night following
my farewell luncheon with DR.. Petit
In fact, Dicky had made but one
reference to it to me and that but
brief one upon the same night,
when in his arms I had received and
granted forgiveness for our misunder-
standings of the day.
Did you hear. what LII said about
the nature of Miss Fairfax's work,
with which I'm helping her?'' he
asked, casually referring to the fact
that l had been supposedly asleep in
Llllians boudoir adjoining her living
room when she was giving Dicky
the grooming with which she had
threatened him.
THAT you were collaborating with
her on a play?" I replied, trying to
make my own voice as matter of
fact as possible. Yes. I couldn't
help overhearing.''
1T really doesn't matter He was
deliberately Indifferent. "she has
about finished it. I don't think she'll
need me any more"
He did not Offer then or afterward,
to tell me anything about the play or
to show me any of the manuscript.
From the fragment Of the love letter
l had discovered, and which had been
the primary cause of the quarrel end
ing in Lillian's living room, reasoned
that it was a drama with much heart
interest" And I may have been pre-
JUDGED, but if the diction Of that
fragment was any criterion Of the
of
wasn't remarkable for literary work.
manship.
The Voice That Convfnces.
I was wise enough to say nothing
of this to Dicky. Indeed, I didn't
mention the play or Miss Fairfax
again. I took the goods the gods
provided, otherwise Dicky's evenings
at home-he had no more "engage-
ments" with art editors-and made
no attempt to endanger their peace
by question or by comment.
But any wife will understand that
my repression only made the thing
an obsession with me. I didn't be-
lieve that Dicky was in love with the
girl-there had been note in his
voice when he made his denial of
that idea to Lillian which had con-
WINGED me. But I was wild with curl
osity and wounded vanity. I would
have given a month of my life span
to read the drama, the brain child |
of which these two were the parents !
A remembrance of a little speech |
Dicky had once made came back with |
q sting like that Of venomous In !
Sect Once one of the women taking !
my history course at the Lotus club !
had praised my lecture extravagantly, |
q, had Cnoriod uyhofhpY~ hp6
written any short stories or novels
with historical settings. I had re-
peated her remarks to Dtcky, and he
had seen, what I hardly recognized
myself, that her words had reused in !
me an ambition to follow her sug-
gestion.
A Memory That Troubles.
"For heavens sake, Madge," Dicky
had said irritably. Don't get the
writing itch. You're not fitted for it,
by temperament, and frankly, I don't |
think you have the ability for it,
I had never forgotten the sneering
tone in which Dicky spoke, and I |
never had mentioned the matter
again. Indeed, his manner had eff |
cectually quenched my spark Of am !
hilton kindled by the club womans
praise.
But the remem brance Of his dis
approval of his seighting opinion OF
my ability made the knowledge of
his literary collaboration with Edith
Fairfax a bitter draught for me to
swallow.
had never spoken to the girl.
never met her, but I had seen her,
had scrutinized her closely upon one
Of two occasions. That she was a
gentlewoman, with all that the old
fashioned word implies, I was GER
tain. But that her pretty, daintily
poised head held any exceptional
brain power I very much doubted.
And was sure that jealousy didn't
bias my Judgment. In the days when
Grace Draper was such a menace to
my happiness. I had never under
estimated her ability or her mentality.
But my trained powers of observa-
ton told me that the art student
from Virginia, while the possessor of
patrieian traditions and breeding
which Grace Draper lacked complete
ly. yet was much the inferior in men
tality to the other woman.
And then something else seized me,
something which put all thought of
Edith Fairfax and of her play out of
nv brain. It was one of the sinister
premonitions which come to me some
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