Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

DINNER FOR CYNTHIA. need for acting or pretending anything; she’d simply be herself. “Tf you’ll come upstairs, Miss Blair?” Towner suggested. Cynthia smiled sweetly upon him and arose. Towner also smiled, benevolently as any Santa Claus. ‘““She is here, mother!” said Cornelia, and her hands clasped tightly together. ““ Mother, sie is here!” ‘So Towner said, and so am I here and here I’m going to stay!” Mrs. Stone grunted. “Oh, but you mustn’t do that!” “ Oh, but I must,”’ her mother said, rath- er sourly. ‘“ You’re not fit to handle this job alone. You’ve been too much pam- pered, if I have to say it myself. You don’t know anything about this type of female. She’ll do as she pleases with you and—” “Mother, she will not! Won’t you be- lieve that? Mother, this is for my boy!” Cornelia said, quite tragically, and laid a cold hand on either of her parent’s broad shoulders. ‘“‘ The mother instinct tells me that I must do this thing alone—and I am strong now! Won’t you please go and leave me to deal with her in my own way?” ‘Well, d’ye suppose I haven’t got any mother instinct myself?” Mrs. Stone de- manded, irascibly. ‘D’ye suppose I’m sticking my fingers into a mess like this for the fun of it? Still—maybe you can manage it, Corney. I1’ll be somewhere near; send for me if you need me,” she concluded and headed reluctantly toward the door. “Only dispense with the namby-pamby preliminaries! Open up with your big guns the second you lay eyes on her and blow her to bits! If you have to buy her off, don’t make any dicker whatsoever un- til you’ve sent for me, Cornelia—and it’d be a good scheme to bear in mind that—” “‘ Mother, she’s coming! Didn’t you hear that bottom step creak?” Mrs. Ronalds hissed. Alone, she clasped her hands and wrung them—and then resolutely unclasped them again. She drew herself up proudly and squared her shoulders. It was woman to woman now, you see, and Cornelia knew perfectly well that virtue must triumph, and so became a woman of steel. She was, 181 indeed, so filled and thrilled with the con- sciousness of virtue that for a few seconds she experienced a sense of suffocation. And then, although the effort racked her, Mrs. Ronalds summoned to her lips a quiet and perfectly assured smile and forced her tense muscles to relax. She would need guile; well, she had that now—an incredi- ble quantity of guile. The most fatal thing possible, also, would be to show fear before this creature. Cornelia’s smile became lazier, became almost amused and _ just touched with contempt. She listened with pounding heart to the approaching steps; . then she sank gracefully into a chair and picked up a book. Any one looking at Cor- nelia just then would have known instantly that a minor annoyance was about to be disposed of with deft dispatch! The door opened. ‘Miss Blair!” Towner announced gently. Now, as some one entered and Towner closed the door gently, Cornelia seemed to find difficulty in dragging her attention from the book. She finished the line and prepared to glance up—after which, when she came face to face with the creature, she would rise suddenly and stiffen. Thus would the creature be warned at the outset that her true character was entirely appar- ent and that there were only rocks ahead. So Cornelia glanced up at last and she did indeed stiffen, although not at all in the way she had intended. This stiffening process, in fact, was one of the most.natural and convincing things Cornelia had ever done. Her mouth opened, her eyes became dumfounded circles. An instant, she frowned and blinked, and then took her second good look at Cynthia. ““Why—why, you're respectable, I think!” she gasped, with infinite tact. Cynthia started and her own lips tight- ened. . “Thank you, I hope so!” she said. “Oh, but I—I_didn’t really mean that, you know—” Cornelia stammered. “No? Im sorry that you did not.” “ But I mean to say—that is—of course I did mean it, but the—the astonishment— that’s what I’m trying to apologize for,” Mrs. Ronalds explained. ‘“ This is Miss Blair?” Gomichbooks (E@)