New Britain herald., 1922-04-07
The Reason Madge Backed
 Her Memory

Whats the matter with the car?'
 I struggled valiantly 10 make m,
 voice as matter-of-fact as Dicky's hat
 sounded. saw that he had dis.
 missed our recent tempestuous adven, ture as if 1t never had occurred. and I resolve to match his aparent non chalance with equal poise.
 If l knew, l wouldn't have been doubling as a daschnnd just now" he retorted, with rueful glance at his natty suit which showed the effects of his crawling beneath his car. The blamed thing simply died at first out there. Luckily 1t gave me a few dying gasps to warn me. and l was able to tole it in here out of the road, But don't know for the life of me what the trouble is--carburetor trouble, suppose"
 "Is there anything l can do?" l asked innocently enough, but Dicky's sour glance showed that my query had irritated him. However, there was no trace of his annoyance in his answer. Perhaps the remembrance of the last hour or two was more vivid than I had thought.
 Not a thing, here" he said, then with a reluctant grin, he added, but neither can l. so which would you rather do, go to the nearest telc phone and summon garage man, or stay here while I do it?'
 T think I'll stay here. if you don't mind" l answered with the swift re- action against driving which I might have expected to follow my mad dash through the wood road.
 "All right, I won't be long. I don't think that road-house couple of miles back is closed yet" and in an- other minute he had climbed into my car and had driven away, leaving me sitting on the grassy bank by the side of his stalled car.
 was glad. indeed. of the chance to pull myself together after the nervous strain and shock of the past hour or two. Resolutely. however. put out of my mind the quarrel with Dicky. It had left nothing settled as to my aiding Lillian, but l guessed that Dic<y would be as willing to compromise his position on that as l secretly was, and therefore VIC could find a common meeting ground upon the proposition. So l gave myself up to the lure of the autumn woods stretching around me on every side. and revelled in the rich sensuous coloring of leaves and vines and m osses.
 Waiting for Dicky.
 So exhausted mentally was I that | for minutes of whose duration I had l
 i, of h. iprv the beauty around me. For me the problems which Were troubling Lillian ! and my own more personal ones were as though they never had been. Then, as the heavy autumn air and the scents of the woods brought i strength and healing to my over- wrought nerves, my brain began to | function again, and there came ! again to me-as there had come many times in the hours since my return ] searching inquiry as to the posslble Identity of the mysterious foreigner who had annoyed me on the train with his assertion of knowing my ather and me. The hustle following my home .omine had been such that I had had ( 10 opportunity to go over the incl I Tents of my journey and try to ht s hem together as one would the pieces # a picture puzzle And yet l felt hat the complete pattern was there f I could but find missing piece or wo which something told me my memory ought to supply.
 Vague Memories
 It was maddening, this sense Of omething which ought to know ut which was just beyond my grasp carefully went over every minute of