Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 66: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

by Max Brand 7 é 6 = re on 4y a Autber of “Claung,” “The Frigate Bird,” “The Untamed,” etc, CHAPTER I. PATRICIA FINDS WORK. NQUESTIONABLY the _ average | man considers that woman’s God- given vocation is the rearing of chil- dren. One may even go so far as to say that the average woman concurs in this judgment. Which prepares the stage for the entrance of Patricia Lauriston, who was not aver- age. Though she admitted that fate and the ways of the world condemned the ma- jority of her sex to marriage, this admis- sion only made her stamp along in shoes a little broader of toe and a little lower of heel. Not that she wished to be man- nish. She was not. All she desired escape from was that femininity which bounds its world with children on the one side and a husband on the other. | Neither should it be understood that Patricia disliked men. On the contrary, she frankly preferred them to her own sex. Her whole struggle, in fact, was to be ac- cepted by men as a friend, and it cut her to the heart to watch the antics of fellows who had courage enough to woo her. She noted that men among men were frank, open of hand and heart and eye, generous, brave, good-humored; she noted that the same men among women became simpering, smirking fantastic fools. A man among men tried to be himself; a man among women dreaded nothing so much as the ex- posure of his own innate simplicity and manhood. All this Patricia had discovered by long and patient experiment. There was the case of Steven Worth, for mstance. Steve was the best friend of her brother, Hal Lauriston, and Steve was almost another member of the family. Un- til, on a day, Patricia came home from school in long skirts. Instead of picki her up by the elbows and throwing her cellingwards, as had been his custom in the past, Steve shook hands, blushed, and suggested a walk in the garden. — Patricia was only sixteen at the time, but she knew what was coming; a girl of sixteen is at least equal to a man of twenty-six, plus certain instinctive knowledge which has never left the blood of woman since that . Sunshiny day in the garden when Eve ate the apple and whispered with the serpent. Therefore Patricia knew, I say, exactly what was coming, but she allowed the dis- ease to develop and take hold on Steven Worth. She let him hold her hand; she let him look into her eyes and smile in a peculiarly asinine manner interspersed with occasional glances toward the stars. Three days and nights of this, and then Steve fell on his knees and asked her to be his wife. It didn’t thrill Patricia. It mere- ly disgusted her and made her feel very lonely. She told Steve just how she felt and went back into the house. The next morning Hal Lauriston came to her room and swore that she had broken the heart of his dearest friend and that she was a devilish little cat; the next noon Steven Worth, she learned, had purchased a ticket for South America. Patricia went to Steve and told him—vwell, she told him many things, and in the end Steve Worth declared that she was the “ bulliest little scout in the world” and that he was “ no end of an ass.” Patricia concurred silently in the last remark. The end of it was that Steve did not go to South America to die of swamp fevet; but both he and 440 | GOMLGDOO SS (CO