Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

183 thia!”’ yawned the elder lady, and waved it all away. “I'll ask no more questions until the lad himself gets home and releases you from—whatever the promise was. We'll just chat comfortably. You’ve done a wise thing, my dear!” “In what way?” “Tn selecting my grandson for a hus- band, of course. He has his faults; they all have; but fundamentally he ought to be pretty sound—he’s my grandson. Some day he’ll get down to brass tacks and have a business of his own. Meanwhile, he’s young and irresponsible, but he won’t starve.” ‘““ Er—nor”’ “ You knew that, perhaps?” “Frankly, I never thought anything about it,’’ Cynthia said patiently, and went on searching the recesses of her brain for a phrase or a sentence which should halt the train of this positive being’s meditations and turn it about in the direction of the actual facts. “ Frankly, that’s another tiny deviation from the truth,’ Mrs. Stone chuckled quite flatteringly. ‘“‘ Drat it! Don’t you know yet that you can’t fool me, you minx? I might even guess, without hitting so far from the mark, that our Neville has as- sured you that when he’s married you he'll be in the way of inheriting my money?” “ Neville never mentioned anything of the kind to me, because—” Mrs. Stone’s head poked forward; her expression was not quite so amiable. ‘Look here, honey!” she said. “I set a little store by perfect honesty of speech. I don’t ask you to kowtow to me, but I do ask you to believe that I’m not quite senile. However, I suppose if you were absolutely truthful you’d be sheer perfection and just naturally die because you were too good for this world,” she muttered, relaxing again. “ He told you the truth about that, anyway, whether he knew it or not. When I’m gone, you'll! have better than three millions be- tween you!” “ Yes?” Cynthia said brilliantly. “Not so bad, eh? Yow’ll be a million- airess in your own right, unless I change my mind before I die.” “Oh, but I hope—” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘* Oh, fiddlesticks!” the elder lady chuck- led rather wearily. ‘“‘ And in the meantime, I assure you that you'll not want for any- thing— How old are you, my child?” ‘* Twenty-one,” said Cynthia. “Don’t belong to this town?” “TY wasn’t born here—no. And now—” began Cynthia, for, while it was still rather foggy in her mind she fancied that she had the correct line of attack. ‘““ People living, I suppose?” *““ Oh, yes.” ‘““Not the Baltimore Blairs, are they?” “No, I come from up New York State. And now—” ‘Well, wherever you come from, you’re a great comfort to me, deary!” yawned Mrs. Stone rather tremendously. ‘“ You don’t know what devilish bother we’ve had with that brat of a boy lately—going to marry this one, going to marry that one, and his mother having fifty fits of hysterics over every one. I’ve been near distracted!” ‘““ Er—yes?” Cynthia said patiently. “Fact!” said the lady hotly, and thumped just once with her cane. “I was at the point of hiring some qualified female to marry him and have an end of the damned nuisance! I told my daughter that, this very afternoon— And then she decided to ask you to call and she did. I’m a candid woman, Cynthy; I tell you candidly that we supposed you were another scandal in petticoats!” “Yes?” said Cynthia, with a weak smile.” - “And instead—oh, my soul, that boy has no brains at all!” the boy’s grand- mother cried disgustedly. “If only he’d brought you here in the first place and in- troduced you, we’d have fallen on your neck.” And now the lady leaned on her cane and again bathed Cynthia in her vast ap- proval—and Cynthia shifted and sighed and prepared to rise. Whatever this convincing line of attack had been, it had eluded her again; and in any event, there was no need for any sort of attack. This one-sided and slightly fulsome conversation might go on forever, whereas there were several things Cynthia wished to do elsewhere. Mainly, she wished to re- turn to the flat and Nora and then to tele- EComicbooks