Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

- man. WHERE SHE BELONGS. a grand old family row in this house before morning and I don’t want to be mixed up in it. Good night!” He was pleasantly wrong about that, however. There was no family row. In fact, had one searched Montvale from end to end that night, one could not have found a quieter house. z Upstairs, for a little, Samuel heard his really beloved wife moving around; then there was complete stillness; and when he had sucked aimlessly on his pipe for another period Samuel locked up the house—for some queer reason with not nearly the usual amount of tramping around and rattling bolts—and also retired. And comfortably tucked in his little bed, with a paper and a book handy, he regained much of his accustomed calm and of his more valued self-esteem. He had, after all, done the right thing. In a case like -this, not amenable to gentle treatment apparent- ly, a certain amount of roughness was neces- sary; if there had been a shade too much in this instance, there was excuse aplenty. No man virtually convinced that his wife has eloped with a fellow scientist can be quite himself, nor should this be expected of any Never before had Samuel known even the suspicion of that kind of shock; per- haps it should have cleared his vision and blessed him with a certain new humility toward Helen. For some reason it did noth- ing of the sort. He was calm now. He was honestly sorry for the ghastly things that he had said. To-morrow morning he would apolo- gize—without, of course, being too effusive about it and being quite prepared to call to Helen’s attention his justification, should that seem judicious, He—oh, yes, he’d have to square things with the poor little kid. Bui—the fact remained that now, beyond any peradventure, Helen knew his senti- ments and knew that her scientific career had ended! She knew that henceforth her place would be right here in the home! Or possibly she didn’t know it yet; she was fighting it out in there, all alone, and the fight might take all night—but, by thun- der, when it was over Samuel would have won! His sixth sense told him these things. Be- ing neglectful in some particulars, however, his sixth sense failed to advise him of the peculiar moment that was to come just be- fore he reached up to turn out the light. In the door between their rooms, the lock clicked back. He started up and smiled. So she was coming in, even now, to tell him that there was one leader in this family— and one little housewife! Aye, she was Standing there in her funny little silk pyjamas. She had been crying. “Oh, I—I wanted so to tell you!” she cried. ‘‘ It—it’s so wonderful! It has— has seven distinct isotropes and—”’ Here Samuel began to rise, and as he did ‘so his wife darted back into her own do- main, a woman whose tortured mind had changed all in a twinkling! “No! No, I won’t tell you!” she said shrilly. ‘I won’t! I—don’t you dare touch me! Don’t you dare come near me!” And the door slammed and the lock clicked again, and Samuel sat back and rubbed his chin. She was having the devil’s own time with her fight! She was plain hysterical and raving about her science, ap- parently. It might be better to insist on going in there and soothing her and—no! it might not! It might be the worst possible thing to do. Because, if she threshed it out in her own way the whole fool business would be settled for good, whereas if he be- gan to meddle at this juncture— Samuel turned out the light and sighed heavily and settled down. But the sighing—which was, of course, an indication of dangerous weakness—was all gone in the morning. Samuel arose very much his own man—very much indeed the dominant being that was Harkton, Inc! Downstairs, he caught the sound of Helen’s voice. He opened his door an inch and lis- tened; and then he smiled complacently. She was talking to Anna and telling her to get potatoes and onions to-day when the man came; so she had wot gone down to the city and she was applying her scientific mind to household problems! Ah, yes, and now she was telling Anna that breakfast might as well wait another few minutes for Mr. Harkton. Aha! Samuel chuckled as he dressed. oO cS OME DOO wee (E©) 525 ioe