Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

300 And now the knight had afl but van- ished and—Mary shock herself together suddenly. Really going to pieces like this was ridiculous! Conscience, recent asper- ' sions, the present superabundance of Billy’s relatives, all had combined to break down her nerve. ‘But the keen emergency of the moment had restored at least a part of it; as if a veil had heen lifted from her perturbed brain, it came to Mary Emerson that there was no really goed reason why she herself, alone and unaided, should not Keep straight on, through the doer and out of the house and to Peter’s fiat! She turned and made swifthy for the entrance. She slowed down. She also stopped. How it had happened, one could not even guess, but there by the door Horace was just surrendering his lady in black to another man, while he himself sanntered toward Mary. Strange, unwholesome creature that he was, he stopped directly before Mary, grin- ning. ‘* You little rascal!” said he. you running away like that?” ‘‘I—please let me alone!” Mary mrur- “ Well, but—this gathering’s all in fun, you know,” said Horace, and if his voice was light and apparently astenished it also held a most peculiar threatening note that was not lost upon Mary. “ You woulkdn’t spoil a poor pirate’s fun, would you?” Mary said nothing. Horace’s grin grew, twisting his mouth shghtly. ‘Of course you wouldn’t!” pursued the astounding masquerader, who certainly did enjoy these affairs after his own fashion. ‘And I’m not going to let you get out of here until I know just who you are! Really, I’m not! Shal we dance?” i “Why are CHAPTER XT. A LADY IN D&sTRESS. “ UVE made quite a hit with your little Old-Fashioned Girl friend, haven’t you?” inquired Miss Dolly Hayes, as she danced away with her chumsy iron partner. that, please! ARGOSY-ALLSTORY .WEEKLY. ‘“‘ Oh—er—yes!”’ murnsured Thomas. The Dresden Chima ps curled omix- “ Yes, so much of a hit that you thought yeu'd desert me—me/—without so much as one word!” they said. “Why, Dolly, really, I—” “That’s exactly what you did‘ sHpped away while I talked to Dick Mas- tersen! ” “Yes, you “seamed teo absarbed—” Thomas essayed. “ Oh, don’t try anything se ridiculous as Whe is the young lady?” ‘TY haven’t the slightest idea!” “May I be credited with just a trace of ordinary intelligence?” Dorothy asked, and if Thomas had been in some doubt as te whether she was really angry, the last ves- tige of doubt departed. “Dot, you have more intelligence than any other ten girls I know, taken together,” he said readily. ‘“ That’s why I’m sure—” “Thank you! Whois she?” ° “ Dolly, I don’t knew! ” The music stopped, happily leaving them in a rather secluded corner. The kmght slid to a standstill with a certain sag of jas boiler-plate shoulders; Miss Hayes’s bosom heaved visibly, but the exertion of the dance had nothing to do with the heaving. “That girl beckoned to yon three times!” she observed. “Twice,” Thomas conmacted, “T opuldn’t help that.” *“ Yeu could have helped leaving me!” You “ Of cowrse, Dolly, but ske seemed to be_ in seme sort of distress. I think—I think Horace Steers was annoying her.” * Yes thing.” “Why, the poor, delicate little flower!” said Miss Hayes. “ At an affair lkke this, where everybody knows everybody else— where all the old animosities are being buried and everybody’s chaffing everybody else! And he feally was talking to her and she had to summon her knight te protect her!” | “ Not her knight, Dolly. Your knight,” Thomas said, quite miserably. “ You know that! Don’t be so unreasonable!”’ + Er—talking to her, or some- ee Original fro ap 5A Ty . THE OHIO STATE UNEASE DOOKS.COM