New Britain herald., 1923-10-13
why Nedss Wisely Decided sot
 io Hisk a soos.s


 mounted the stairs slowly, acute.
 b conscious of the troubled sass
 which AT, sehgartz was sending after
 me, The old lanitor sas SO child
 Ike, so transparent in his attempts te conceal from me the identity Of the
 man m the hallway sboye ours, that 1T l had been less miserable 1 could have smiled amusedly But. like the famous waitress Of Ade's comedy, I hadn't a laugh left in my system" q it vas easy to sisualize the little scene. which must have been staged after 1 had informed Mr, sehwarts If the man in the corridor above ours who had drawn hack so preeipitately when l had opened our door, The old Jsnitor must have found Dieky there. as was almost certain he had done. knew how plausible must have been my husbands explanation and how royal the tip by which he insured silence. But the old chap / in his anxiety to earn his reward had blum deringly sivsn me the clue needed,
 Dieky Is Relieved
 or-f stopped short 10 consider this--was il a blunder after all? Might he not be shrewdsr than he sp- peareds fsurmised that the old fei- low had genuine liking for me, which had not been lessened by my morning talk with his afflicted wife. Perhaps by speaking of Dieky's res turn. directly after he had told me that the man in the hali was a ten- ant playing joke on hls wife. he counted on my ability to make four of two and two.
 But why had Dicky done SO pre- posterous and undignifed thing? There was but one answer. Of course to that. when had brought forth from their recesses my mental notes of the days old incidents. Remem-' berine Dickys start and question at the sound Of Mollie Fawcett's voice. and his espionage of our hall through which the girl had. to pass to reach the door. l was sure that he had feigned going to the studio, and returning had taken up his sta ton in the hall above, that he might see her without my knowing it.
 Given this hypothesis, tho next step was an easy geometrical pro- cedure. He must have recognized her voiee. or thought he did, and wished to make certain of her iden- tity without any one, least of all the girl herself, suspecting his purpose. This in turn argued his having seen -or heard-her before. Then-it must have been she.
 pulled myself up short as reached my own hall door. I was leaving the logical for the fantastic told myself. Besides I knew my husbands temperament too we'll to minimize the risk I ran in bringing up . subject 90 fraught with dyna- mite as this would be. had noth- ing definite to go on, and whether Dicky really had given me cause for | jealous anger or not, his reaction to | any accusation of mine, no matter how guarded, was sure to be tenn pestuous scene With the Braith- waltes. Lillian and Marion on their | way to us with a welcoming dinner on my hands, to say nothing of the tense anxiety of the next few days over Mrs. Durkee, I could not risk the racking strain which any open quarrel with Dicky always brings nis. So before opened our own door I had finished the battle with niyself begun on the stairs and, look lnt into the mirror afforded by the thick glass, I even managed . smile not too mechanical as entered our