Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

168 Mrs. Ronalds’s eyes dilated; she also swallowed audibly; but her smile was as brave as it should have been. “ Bub she—ah—she hasn’t the flat, Mr. Forbes?” ‘Pardon me?” “T mean to say, it is the home of her parents, of her family—this flat?” Corne- lia explained, with greatest difficulty. “ No—oh, no,” the attorney replied, un- concernedly. ‘It is Miss Blair’s apart- ment, according to the elevator man.” One of Cornelia’s pale hands caught mo- mentarily at her throat. “ Mr. Forbes, did—did Neville go to— to the flat with this woman?” she forced from frozen lips. “ Blessed if I know,’’ Forbes responded. “1 didn’t carry my inquiry as far as that.” “Vowre shielding him—he did!” Cor- nelia gasped. “ Oh, my boy!” Philip Forbes regarded her for a moment, much as Mrs. Stone had regarded her a little while ago. Then he sat up. “May I be quite candid?” he queried. “T’m going to be, whether I may or not. Mrs. Ronalds, I suppose that almost any child of wealth lives under a handicap—to whatever extent—and when he happens to be the only boy in the family, with a nervous mother, he lives under a tremen- dous handicap. But recognizing the gen- eral condition, I make bold to say that in this specific case more sheer hysterical twaddle and poppycock are being expended on Neville than—’* “ We understand all that, Forbes!” Nev- ille’s grandmother snapped. “ What does the woman look like?” “ Why—lI give it up. I saw her for a moment only, you know, face to face.” “Ts her hair bobbed?” “ Can’t even tell you that. She may be bald, for all the assurance I can give you to the contrary. She was wearing a hat. However, I can tell you that she is not a strikingly disreputable type, if that helps any. She struck me as a rather plain, rather nice-looking girl, not startlingly dressed or startlingly shabby or startlingly anything else!” “And that’s the most dangerous type!” said Neville’s mother, with conviction. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘“T suppose so,” Forbes grinned. ‘*“ And—and Neville; did he seem infatu- ated with her?” “That’s a strong word, Mrs. Ronalds,” the lawyer laughed. ‘ At all events, he had a sort of death grip on her arm and he was doing all his talking directly into her ear—which, of course, is what prompt- ed me to follow them in the first place— and there you are!” he concluded and pre- pared to rise. “Since Neville refused to reveal the lady’s identity, and since you were so very anxious to learn it, I broke principle for once and learned it for you. And that ends my connection with the matter.” “Only it does not!” Mrs. Stone cor- rected dryly. This thing’s going to be settled now and you’re going to do the settling.” “You mean that I’m to go to Miss Blair and—” “You bet I do!” “Well, Dll do nothing of the sort,” Forbes said serenely. ‘‘I attended to the matter of the little Burgess girl for you, and the bad taste is still in my mouth. I think she was honestly in love with Neville, and she’s a sweet, common sense little crea- ture who would have done him a world of good by marrying him. What is more, as you know quite well, Mrs. Stone, my of- fice does not accept that sort of case or—”’ ‘“‘ What the devil do I care what your of- fice accepts?” the lady demanded, vigor- ously. ‘Do you prefer looking after this thing for me—or having me look up an- other lawyer?” “You can’t bully me, madam!” Forbes grinned frankly. Seconds Mrs. Stone glowered; then she sighed and chuckled in her own remarkable way. “You wouldn’t be sitting there now, if I could, Forbes,” she said. “ All right then! [ suppose your cursed principles will permit you to give us a bit of advice on the sub- ject, as man to man?” “That seems possible, at least,” Forbes laughed. ‘‘ What sort of advice do you want?” “How to get him out of the woman’s clutches, of course.” Go NOOLKS “Don’t bounce up, Forbes. . (E@)