New Britain herald., 1922-04-27
What Lillian Did to Firing Comfort
 to Aiadge.

"Thore Is no humiliation so great, l believe, aa that which comes from having some relative discover and flaunt before you Il weakness of char acter, a folly which you always have successfully conceded. even from yourself It Is bad enough to be ac- cused uniustly, equally bad 10 face alone by yourself your own discovery ot your fault, but to listen to the voice of some one else accusing you--as l had just done--is worst of all
 My wrath against my mother-in- law was still at white heat, l knew that I should not forgive her for the manner in which she had attacked me. But If she only had known It. her words had been like the scalpel of a surgeon, laying open to me some thing in my own soul which l had not known l possessed.
 I faced the thing haldly. as I sat by the deserted luncheon table. l did cn- joy seeing in the eyes of q personable and likable man admiration of either my looks or my mentality, enjoying 1t more than 1 would similar tribute from a woman. And, with little shudder of self-scoring realized that my donning Of the blue gown for Tom Chester's eyes had not been my first essay to win that look of ap proval from masculine eyes. Hugh Grantland, Allen Drake. even Harry underwood--I could remember oc- casions--
 The Puritan conscience which is my heritage glutted its appetite for pun ishment of sorroUing sinner as l sat there breeding over the sch revelation my mother-in-l caustic words had brought to me. Of course, l realized, with another part of my self. that l was taking the thing tod seriously, that most women, brought face to face with a similar revelation. would have confined their anger to the person who had enlightened them, and would have salved their con- sciences with the reflection that all women are vain, and that as long as they had done nothing worse than to make the most of their own good points they need not worry about, any other phase of the question.
 Mahge is Upset.
 But it is my curse or my salvation that whenever any question of right or wrong confronts me. I am com pelled to turn my soul inside out in nicky's phraseology, inspect it from every angle.''
 A step sounded close to my chair, the firm, friendly, loving hand to which l have clung so often, tigura- lively and literally pressed my shoulder, and Lilian's voice sounded in my ears.
 T thought so," she said in a low, tense voice. T gave young Chester some documents to occupy his brain, and hurried back. You should have seen mo sleuthing around trying to find out whether Mother Graham was safely out of the way. What Was she saying to you, anyway? It must have been something unusually fierce ro upset you this way. l thought long usage had made you callous to those outbursts of hers"
 Her voice was filled with loving pionship of me and resentment against the one who had hurt me. l lifted my head weariy and looked at her with eyes in which the ashamed tears still stood,
 Tt wasn't what she said to me-" I declared, thought that was ban enough. It was what she made me see about myself that has upset me"
 She looked at me keenly, then gave me a little shake
 Forget It, My Dear '"
 You know I'm not usually jnquisi- tive" she said, and l despise the people who ask personal questions, but would you mind telling me just what that old mother said to you?'
 The involuntary pause told me that only respect for my mother-in-laW "a | relationship to DiCky and me made | her substitute the word mother" for some word more suited to katie's vocabulary than her own.
 At any other time I would have parried this question even from Lii | Hans lips, but was too upset to have any reserve left
 "She said-that Dicky wasn't the | only one with flirtatious tendencies, | that women of my age got silly ideas in their heads, and tried to win the | admiration of young men. and thai l