New Britain herald., 1922-06-20
The Disoonccrtrng Request Madge's
 Father Made Of Her.

We did not see anything Of Aller Drake for ftrty-eight hours following his arrival and our ludorous experi. ence with Katie By we" I mean all the members Of the household saving my father, who beckoned me into the library Tn The late forenoon of the day after our conference, closed the door after him and said apolo- getieally:
 Daughter, dear. I am afraid I am going 10 cause you trouble, but Allen Is having some difficulty with the codes Mrs, Underwood gave him, and he will not leave his room, as you know, until he has deciphered them or exhausted all his skill. Will il in- convenience you too much to have Katie set tray of food outside Aliens door whenever he asks for food until he gets ready to join us again?"
 Indeed, no." I returned heartily, glad to do anything my father asked me, but there lurked in my con sciousness a vague little feeling of re- sentiment at Allen Drake. That his mentality as well as his power and resourcefulness are unusual, I ad- mitted. but I could not help the feel ing that the brilliant agent of the government secret service was in clined to be what Dicky would term decidedly up stage"
 Don't have her knock" my father continued Nothing disturhs Allen so much as a summons like that I know his ways, and can find out when T l,, .olr E,,t 1t means much extra work for Katie for Allen is almost never ready to eat at the regular meal times, yet when he does get hungry he needs hot nourishing food, daintily prepared. for you know how fastidious he is And then at night he, of course, will have to have a vacuum bottle of hot coffee and some sort of a light lunch, Really, dear, it is like asking you to run short order restaurant
 His apologetic words and manner pushed momentarily into the back ground the dismay I felt at the for midable culinary problem he had out lined. But when I had assured him with almost too vehement protesta- tions that there would be not the slightest difficulty in carrying out his orders, and he had left me in the li brary I sank into a chair, consider ing blankly how I should manage Katie in these new demands upon her.
 MaGge's Dilemma.
 While I believe Katie would do any thing in the world to help me if she death or disaster, yet she is as tenn deatht or disaster, yet she is as tenn peramenta as any oparatic or dra- matic star when 1t comes to extra | kitchen work for people whom she disIikes. That she loathes Allen | Drake I well knew, and that I would | need every bit of my resourcefulness to keep her from needlessly annoying him about the meals she would pre- pare for him, was also certain.
 Why was it necessary, l asked my self 1ercely-yet with feeling of dis loyalty which I could not shake off to so pamper this particular member of the service? My father asked for no such special consideration, neither did Lillian. Yet I knew by my ! fathers manner that he considered | this attention to Mr Drake to be ab- solutely necessary. I
 The door opened and Lillian came | into the room, stopping abruptly as she saw me.
 "Oh, Pardon" she said, Am I disturbing you?'
 NO. On the contrary, need a confdante or I shall explode in an- other minute. |,
 She eyed me keenly and drew chair near mine.
 Behold the best little safety value in the world" she said "Now, whats on your mind, old dear
 "The Slight Variation
 T ought to be ashamed to let It trouble me-" I said apologetically. but Father just told me that MT. Drake would not come to his meals I for an indefinite period He declared that MT. Drake must have a tray of hot food, specially prepared and daintily served at any unusual hour |