Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

758 bore the name of Harlier in discreet bronze lettering. For a moment she paused, clutching within her glove the little gold pin, and then entered with her usual air of unconscious dignity. When she emerged twenty minutes later the soft pallor of her face was tinged with bluish shadows about her firmly compressed lips and dull, wide eyes. She staggered slightly as a wave of heat rose stiflingly from the pavement and the moving line of motors wavered before her vision, but the moment of weakness passed, and she turned the corner to enter a small but exclusive tea room which her mother sometimes patronized. Two of the latter’s friends were there now, and Mary bowed and smiled me- chanically as she passed their table, but avoided the white-gloved hands _ out- stretched to detain her. Food she must have, and stimulation to carry her through the forthcoming interview, for she knew that she would be compelled to call upon all her resources; but the tea was bitter, and the dainty sandwiches and cakes she ordered were tasteless in her mouth. What would Wesley King volunteer to tell her? What would he say when she faced him with what she had learned? She knew that he was low-minded, vicious, pet- tily revengeful—was he utterly without honor? What hidden acts lay in the past of this man for whom she had so lightly been ready to cast off her people and all that had gone to make up her serene, shel- tered life! As she approached the hotel once more she saw the familiar flamboyant red car drawn up at the side-street entrance, and Wesley King himself greeted her in the foyer of the Rose Room. “T was so afraid I had missed you.” He spoke in a low, conventionally courteous tone, but she could feel his eyes devouring her. “I stopped to have the tank filled, and that took a few minutes, but I have a plan in mind.” “Yes?” Mary forced herself to answer as she withdrew her hand fromhis. “ Will you tell me in the car? The heat has been rather overpowering to-day, and I’d like to go where it is quiet and cool.” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Come, then. You must be exhausted! ” His voice shook a trifle, but he said nothing more as he stepped aside for her to precede him, and when they were settled in the ma- chine she forestalled him. “Don’t let’s try to talk now, in all this traffic and noise. Wait—” *“ Just let me tell you my plan, darling,” he pleaded. ‘‘ The park is torrid and wilt- ing—were you going straight back to Green Lodge after you leave me?” “Of course.” She glanced at him in- quiringly, “Then won’t you allow me to drive you as near home as I may until—until all this secrecy is over? I can get you to the Scar- borough station in time to meet the train that leaves here at three eleven, even by taking the back roads where we won’t en- counter any of your people’s acquaintances, and you'll be spared that stuffy trip, at least.” King bent forward, striving to look under her hat brim, for she had averted her face from him. “ Please, dearest! Is it so much to ask of my wife?” Mary hesitated. Most of their circle would be at the country club, and she would be nearer home, at least, when their interview was over. “Very well,” she said, finally. “It will be better, perhaps, than the park.” As though he sensed something strained and taut in her bearing, King said no more until they had left the city behind them and were whirling through the suburbs to- ward the open country. Then he asked casually: “Ts Lorrin still safe?” ‘“‘ Quite.” Mary was glad that he had opened the subject at last, and she half turned toward him. “ You said you had something to tell me?” “Something that you’ll approve of, I think. It was your own suggestion. You see.” His hand left the wheel to close over hers, and although she shrank inwardly, Mary endured his touch with apparent pas- sivity. “When you ran from me in the erove the other night, and I realized that Id offended you again, driven you from me, I was almost mad. It seemed to me that this separation between us would con- tinue indefinitely if you held me to my Connmiclooo Ss (S@)