Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

476 was so vast as to give her a strangely lost and forlorn appearance. Moreover, Peggy’s young face was worn and strained. ‘This could not have come all at once, and vague- ly Jack wondered that he had not seen it before. He hoped that Peggy wasn’t going to collapse and take to her bed. She was such a nice, game kid! He said nothing of this to her, however. Instead, he only asked, “‘ Where’s Edie?” “In her room. She braces up and makes good when Aunt Sophronia needs her, but Edith’s all in, Jack. We all are tired— and sad, of course.” “Yes,” he agreed. ‘‘ You have reason enough for that. We all have.” “ But it’s Aunt Sophronia that we mostly are troubled about,” Peggy hastily rejoined. “As for Phil and your father—why, this awful position that they’re in must be set right somehow.” “Tt will,’ answered Jack, much as he might have answered Aunt Sophronia, had she used the same words. “It will. If matters come down to brass tacks, we’ll see that it does.” “You mean to say that there’s a plan— an emergency plan—to be used if every- thing else falls down?” “ That’s what I mean.” “Then come and tell me about it!” she cried, her face brightening. ‘‘It’ll be the best pick-me-up that the world has to offer, T think. No—not in there,” she hastened to say, as Jack headed toward the library. “Nor in either of the drawing-rooms. They’re all filled with men—I don’t know who they are, but they all look like mag- nates of some sort, and they’re waiting for him to return—and there’s a different set in each room. Let’s go into the big dining room; it’s quiet there.”’ The room they entered was rarely used save on ceremonial occasions. For ordinary purposes the family preferred a sunny breakfast room on another side of the house. The state dining room, with its elaborate ornamentation, intended to be admired only by artificial light, its vastness and its drawn blinds, seemed very cheerless and cold. “ Let’s go,” said she, with a little shud- der. “It isn’t nice in here. I didn’t realize what it would be like. The place seems ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. somehow to be full of ghosts—ghosts of things that have happened—ghosts of what we used to be. It was here I came on that awful night of the dance—don’t you re- member?—to hide from Aunt Sophy after I had put on Edith’s frock—like a great kid, as I was.” “*As I was!” quoted Jack, chaffingly, hoping to bring her into a lighter mood. ‘““Yes—as I was,” answered Peggy, gravely. “I know it was only a little while ago in point of time, but it might as well have been years. It has turned me into a woman, Jack. I may be happy again—I hope I will—but I'll never be a kid any more.” She made no move to leave the room, as she herself had suggested doing. Instead she unconsciously drew a little closer to Jack, as though for protection, and stood staring at the blinded windows. One of her hands found its way into his. It was deathly cold. He slipped an arm around her waist, and drew her to him. She came unresistingly. So he drew her closer still. “ T'll miss the Peggy that I used to know, if she has gone for good,” he said, and it seemed strangely difficult for him to make that perfectly straightforward statement, and still more difficult for him to go on. “That Peggy—Peggy the high-school girl,” he continued, in a voice so low that it hard- ly could be heard, ‘“‘ was a bully girl. She used to care for me—or so I hoped—a little, in her own kid way. But this Peggy—I don’t know. Has she changed, in that way, as she has in others, Peg?” He had drawn her close; now, of her own accord, she moved a little closer still, and shook her head. Her face was hidden in the breast of his coat, and he found that she was crying, quietly. He kissed her. By no means was it the first time he had done so, but about this kiss there seemed to be something that differed from the others, even though in the present instance it fell upon one of her ears, which was the only point available. She drew away, blushing furiously. “Don’t!” she retreated as he approached. “It seems wicked—as things are—and, oh, Jack!” ‘What on earth is the matter?” he asked, COmMiCcoooks (C@