New Britain herald., 1922-08-04
The Description Harry Underwood
 Gave nI Himself

iuC IhItINtrN
 Gave of Himself
 One crisp sentence of Harry Under,
 woods criticism of Dicky stuck in my
 consciousness like barb all through the rest of my drive with him to Greenport by way of the Shelter Is- land ferry. Unoonsciously I think it tinged all the rest ot the story I told him. while he drove Dicky's car cas- fly with but one hand resting negli- gently upon the wheel, apparently giving all his attention to me. and none to the car, Yet felt uuaccount. ably secure that any emergency would find him ready and capable of meet ing it. -
 The Dicky-bird ought to know bet ter than anybody else in the world what she is capable of, he had said referring to Grace Draper, "and yet he opened the cage door and let her in."
 Without knowing it. he had put in- to words q vague resentment which had, almost subconsciously, cherished against Dicky ever since he had suff- cred the terrible consequences of per uniting Grace Draper to come back into our family life. He should have protected mo against my own com- passion and against that more in defnable thing which had lain at the root of my decision to admit her a fear that he might think me un- generous.
 There is nothing so dangerous, so corroding to ones spirit as self-pity. By the time had reached the end of Harry Underwood's questioning concerning Grace Draper I had work ed my imagination to the point Of considering myself much abused and misunderstood creature.
 But the man beside me uncon- scously furnished me with very ef- fective lancet for my swollen self compassion when he said at the end of his long questioning:
 You poor little white mouse You didn't have q chance with that tiger cat Wish had the Dicky- bird here I'd wiring his graceful neck for letting you in for q time like that I'll just give him fair warning-if he can't take better care Of you than that I'll come back and run off with you"
 If he had meantsto give me a re- action against himself and arouse my championship of Dioky he could not | have chosen better words. The idea of reckless, interruptions, utterly ir- responsible Harry Underwood cherish | ing and protecting any woman or re- rnaining faithful to Ter through the | hundrum of life was so absurd as to be laughable.
 Madge Keeps Silent.
 And while I had just been oriticising Dicky myself, mentally, yet this sec ond voicing of my own thought upon | MT. Underwood's part made me-in- consistently enough-furiously angry | Or-I nnercilessly probed the secret | recesses of my spirit-was not any | anger partly due to my outraged van ity ,stung by the words white mouse, 7 and tiger cat, which he had used | in comparing me to Grace Draper?
 He, no doubt, meant to be chival- rous and lplimentary, but he was a generation too late in gauging my reaction to his words. I should like to see the modern woman who would enjoy visualizing herself as a shrink ing, insignificant white mouse beside a splendid, 1.-the tiger cat
 l did not answer him, for I feared I would betray the childish rancor I felt But l think he guessed my re- resentment, without the reason for it. for he, too, fell silent, and 1t was not until the ferry at the end of pictures que Shelter Island came into view that he spoke again.
 "The Lord alone knows whether CT ~1 to Lady Fair" he said, and there was an unsteadiness in his deep voice unmis- takable in it's sincerity of emotion. 'But I want you to get me right on what I'm doing. Your father may or may not give you any dope on me so I'm going to hand you a little on my own account"
 'Each Man Has His Niche.' He had slowed the car down to q crawl, and he piloted it into the space by the ferry, deserted now until the next boat, turned off the ignition switch and shifted toward me. his eyes feverishly brilliant Nobody knows better than I do just how many kinds of yellow mon 1 grel I was upon a certain occasion" , he said "Rut it's curious, just be- cause of that connection with the slim 1 jest gang of cut-throats and traitors ( that ever crawled. l m able every lit ( tie while to give your father and one other person a line that they find quite l useful I've been promoted since the old days, and I'm now quite high in $ their councils-the white ehalred boy ' when it comes to handing out ad I vice. And the devil only knows the S things I've kept 'em from by show