Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

By HELEN A. HOLDEN “ OUR grandmother warned me that I would live to regret the day I married you.” The napkin made a try for the table, but slipped. to the floor as Keith James rose angrily from his chair. ‘ Not being warned, I had to learn from sad experience,’ Peggy shot back at her husband’s retreating figure. She sat there at the table, angry eyes fixed on the half empty plate across from her. A bang as the door closed warned her that her equally irate lord and master had left the house. Quick tears came to her eyes. It was so unfair. Grandmother Yarnal had said it because she, Peggy, had been so wild. She never suspected that Peggy would settle down to be a stolid, model housewife. Peggy had always taken things hard. As a flapper she had gone the limit. When she married she gave up flapperish things and had gone into Domestic Science with capital letters. She attended classes instead of card parties. Cook books took the place of the latest fiction. She prided herself that she had gone far toward becoming an au- thority along this new line. Instead of being proud of his new chef, ~ however, Keith soon took her for granted. Then things had gone from bad to worse and he had openly found fault. With a wistful air Peggy would sit through a meal that had taken her a good part of the afternoon to prepare. But she waited in vain for some word of praise or even appreciation. Lately the former silence had been brok- en by irritable faultfinding. That very morning he had quite broken her heart by pushing aside his baked apple after a couple of spoonfuls. He had merely looked at the plate of muffins she had dragged her- self from bed a half hour earlier than usual to bake. Then he had returned a scornful eye to the baked apple and remarked: ‘ Just give me a raw apple for breakfast to-morrow if you don’t mind.” The apple had been decorated internally with whipped cream and raisins and ex- ternally with halved almonds. It had re- quired time and patience to achieve. “Tf Keith had taken all that trouble for me I would have eaten a piece of rhinoceros with relish,” thought Peggy, but she re- frained from saying it aloud. 153 com