Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

88 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “ Yes, I’m the girl, and that’s the truth,” she said. “ But this Park Avenue stuff is bunk,’ she said. ‘If you want to drive me down to Seventh Avenue and Houston Street I'll be very near home.” Then the tears came welling into her eyes and she leaned over and sobbed convulsively. V. “Ait right, all right—you won’t take my advice, so, of course, you get stung proper.” This from Tommy Corbin a few nights later as he sat in Roderick Randall’s Washington Square apartment. “ You think you’re with a sweet mamma and just find out by accident that the girl with you has got a face like a dish of scrambled eggs. All right, all right—I can’t do anything for you.” “ But wait a minute, Tommy,” rejoined Rod. “I haven’t finished the story yet and I think it’s worth listening to. We'll call the girl Molly and I’ve told you all about her up to the time she took off her mask in the car when the taxicab hit it.” ‘But there’s one thing you haven’t told me,’ objected Tommy. “ You said you got a close-up flash of her in the balcony and that she looked like a dream.” ? “ Just wait a minute, Tommy, and you'll understand why,” said Rod. ‘ Molly lives in a furnished room on Houston Street on the West Side. If you’ve ever been down there, you know what~ that means. And her nerves are tuned to music and her mind, like those of most pleasure-starved girls, is filled with romance. She could go to movies because, in the dark, her pitiful face could not be seen and it was there, of course, that she fell in love with her con- ception of me.” He was silent a moment, then continued: “It was her letter that I picked out of that mail piled on the table the last time you were here. At first when she received my reply, she was actually frightened,-and then she grimly decided to go through with the affair in a masquerade costume. She would have one glorious night and then go back into her penne with something to remember. “But Molly, it seems, lives with two other girls whom we will call Dolly and Polly. They were just three waifs, doomed from childhood to despair, who had some- how drifted together. They lived the lives of drudges, and you can imagine the excite- ment when my reply was received. ‘“ Molly sort of takes care of the other two. She likes to watch over them and mother them and protect them like chil- dren. So she decided, of course, that they must go with her and share her romance.” Tommy had become strangely silent for him, and was listening intently to the story. ‘“So they fashioned three costumes just alike,” continued Rod, “and then went early to the masquerade. It was Molly who met me at the head of the stairs and with whom [ had the first dance. Then, remember, after she took me back to the balcony, she wanted a drink and I had to so downstairs. She slipped out of her seat while I was gone and Dolly took her place. She, you know, was the one who had such faith in love and beauty and who found the symbol of truth even in the music of a jazz band. Then she sent me downstairs again and Polly took her place—Polly who admit- ted that she had never even seen me.” ‘“ And then—” Tommy asked. “Only this,’ Rod said. “ Dolly was a cripple, which was why she had read and thought and thought and read, and Polly, with a face like an angel and a voice like music, was blind.” : Both men were silent for a moment and then Tommy sniffed vigorously and wiped his eyes with a great handkerchief. ‘Who said I was crying?” he asked in- dignantly, as though he had heard Rod ac- cuse him. “ You don’t think I’d shed a tear at that story, do you? What did you tell it to me for, anyway?” “ [ thought, perhaps, that if you needed a Cinderella for that scenario, you might be able to use the story of Molly.” Tommy brightened up. You said it, kid!” he exclaimed, “ That will just turn the trick. Say, where is that Molly? I could kiss her homely face.” “T did kiss her,” said Rod, “ but to me she seemed beautiful. ” Mic hookec com