Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

on the Tivonia, dear. Remember me to old Blake. children of his own!” Ii. PAULA arrived at Songolo one hot morn- ing about a week after leaving Vahiti. She had sent no message of her coming to Odette or the Blakes, deeming it advisable to appear on the scene without warning, After her luggage had been safely landed, and instructions given for it to be sent after her, she walked slowly in the direction of Blake’s house. The place was familiar enough; it seemed only a few months since she had brought her sister to the care of the stout, motherly woman who vied with her hus- band in her admiration for the dashing, high-spirited Odette. the end of a long magnolia-skirted avenue, where the white sandstone path gleamed like a silver stream in the tropic sun glare. The heat seemed tempered by the swinging vines of rubylike petals and oleanders that swarmed in an unforgetable pageant before her. roundings had little fascination for the moment. Her active mind was obsessed by the thought of young Mr. Chiang, and wondering, after all, if she had not come too late. A native maid met her on the veranda— a girl from the Line Islands, named Naura, Her dark eyes widened in surprise when Paula stated that she had just arrived from Vahiti. ~“ But Missa Blake nor madame not here this week,” she informed her visitor breath- lessly. “ They go on a steamer to Macassar to see the big rajah, Lotang Bu.” ~‘‘ Where is my sister Odette?” Paula in- quired sweetly, yet coldly apprehensive of the girl’s answer. Naura cast rapid glances about the house and lawns, and then, unable to con- trol her excitement, ran through a banyan grove calling: “Odette, Odette! Come, please, quick! Oh, come, Missey Odette!” Paula watched her with a faint smile, yet subtly resenting the fact that the Blakes had left her sister, unchaperoned probably, Terrible pity he never had any The house stood at - But the tropic splendor of her sur-. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, in a house where boys like Chiang came to play tennis, no doubt. Glancing down the white road, she saw an automobile slide swiftly toward the place. It carried only one person, a Chi- nese youth in the early twenties. He was dressed in immaculate white Shantung silk clothes, with tennis shoes and eyeglasses. He pulled up at the veranda and got out. At sight of Paula he hesitated, glancing about him nervously and was about to re- enter the car. “I beg your pardon,” Paula began eas- ily. ‘“ May I suggest that you are looking . for Odette?” He pivoted slowly, and she had time to note the delicate molding of his ivory-white hands, the clear olive skin that many an Italian beauty might have envied. His glancing eyes met hers shyly as he bowed and remained uncovered in the broil- ing sun. ‘Yes, I called for Odette,” he confessed. “She promised to run out with me to. Mount Lavender. The road is a good one for these parts,” he added with a soft smile, the one he used, no doubt, when speaking to Odette, Paula imagined. She nodded at his words, and wondered why artists did not put more Chinese boys and girls into their pictures. She had never seen anything so piquant as this young Ce- lestial. The blood-red orchid he wore in his coat might have come from a pagoda or temple garden. She could not guess how he would look on Broadway or Piccadilly, but he fitted Songolo like a bit of pearl set in a fan. “Tt is very good of you to take an in- terest in my sister,” she said at last, and waited, The quick look of surprise she had ex~ pected failed to appear. He merely smiled, and she confessed that his teeth were as white and even as her own, “Odette told me that her sister is the most beautiful woman in the islands,” he stated slowly. ‘‘ When you spoke I knew you were Mrs. Wyngate.” The inflection of his voice reminded her of a famous contralto’s. middle-register. It was the kind of voice that could read Keats or Shelley without making people wish that Ss t Thy : Pil ‘ Ml te t FX tLe marry i i EO im - Eomichboo a <= — al te ee ee el Oe oe ————— 7 ye eS So ee