Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 27, 1925 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

ARGOSY- $70 _ C «He did that little thing and 8 there He suggested driving wn oe ort for dinner.” T here 4 ee cain and an tronical chuc e. br igh a ig point in the narrative, witts necessary for you « Now right at th went oD CYD i It’s necessary for to Be propo hal ; dinner at the Bre- en. I’d been Aunt Erie would say; the e, and 85 ner i t right good, too.” d then? What was the out- — wasn't any comeback just then,” answered the girl. “ of course, in the uny with the moral, that dinner would e e first false step and all that. But little a thia was keeping 4 sharp lookout uP alo. t that gentleman's number Tg t quick + wasn’t any wrong number either, She hasnt taken the false step yet ~_unless happening to be on-stage when he t was it.” rc si say you got his number. What was it?” “ Maybe, credit for that,” “ There wasn't m rison. He was wi ber any minute you ask M ready to be nice to me. He was willing to smooth out all my money wrinkles—and all he asked was that I should be nice to him. A girl couldn't get up and rear and rave about being insulted—because he beat her to it by laying his cards right down on the table. He wanted to be friends—and he was so plain about his notion of friend- ship between a rich man and a busted girl that if the girl got any false notions it was her own fault.” “Then, at least your eyes were open.” “They were—and they still are. I didn’t pull any offended virtue stuff. I just told him I was much obliged, but there wasn’t anything doing. I saw that there was class to the man. He wasn’t any of your cheap Broadway sports He was the sort that snows women li like me. To omer ike you be'd be omen ’ e Sim- after all, I don’t deserve much acknowledged the fugitive. uch bunk about Jock Har- lling to give you his num- ed for it. He was ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ply slopping over with honor and chiva} To women like me—well, he looked for’. ood fellow. I've got to hand it to hie in one respect, though. He declared himself at the start.” -¢ And when you told him that—that were not—what then?” you “ He took it in the same spirit that J sa; Said he was for me if I- saw it that it. way, and no harm done. But—this is w I blame him and blame myself, i djdn’t mean what he said. He pr to drop that angle of our friendship offered me a straight loan of five crisp eee ties—to be paid back when I got a as They didn’t mean a thing more to me ius then than five life preservers toa poor ie mer with the cramps, bobbing up for fhe vhird time, and I reached for them.” Anne Purviance sat with grav standing eyes. med unger “You. realized, though, didn’ , he was still of the same mind?” * Yous that Cynthia nodded. “Sure,” she said. “But I didn’ realizing there. I went a step Pras = ther than that. I tried to outguess pj . Jock Harrison was falling for me ie hard, see? I could read the signs retty enough to know that. He saw me only as a cuty worth chasing after, just then—but why shouldn’t he come to see me as gs ut thing else? That was how I figured a be said one thing and meant another “oh shouldn’t 1? ay “Oh, yes, I might as well it j fell for him, too, like a ton ee " be from the start. He wasa gentleman—-we the stage was set for that. He was hand. some. He was rich. Well, he could Fave me—and welcome—provided the little d tail of a wedding ring wasn’t wutlockal That’s the game I set out to play with hi n — you didn’t win it?” ™ e girl shook bh decdea er head .and her eyes “ No—I didn’t win it—and if he’ lived, I believe I would. He was die hard—and he’d begun fighting foul. He was getting me jobs that weren’t good enough—and he was keeping me from get: ting jobs that were—but he couldn't cut loose—and, if he’d lived—lI’d have won." COMmica@oo SS (CO)