The Argosy, March 1907 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

aN PT a THE BEAUTIFUL MADNESS. ‘got 4 away. George is on the ocean, bound for Europe, but I’d ’a’ got the old man sure if I’d only been ten minutes sooner—I* was that close on his trail. The rest of the gang,” he added, “ are all in jail, including Spear, although he has agreed to turn State’s evidence, and. may get off with ten years.” ok * 7K *K *K Six months after the foregoing events Gardiner Davis took a journey down to Rossmore. His visit to the town was purely one of sentiment; but this was a sentimental journey. It was, in fact, his honeymoon. And as they walked, one evening, through the familiar scenes of their childhood, Phcebe said to him—for of course his companion could have been no other than Phoebe: ‘How gloriously have you succeeded, THE Gardiner. I wonder if success would have come to you in the same measure if you had held to your original ambition and stuck to poetry?” | “ Hardly,” he laughed. “In fact, I have a shrewd suspicion that as a poet I should have been a, failutfe. Still,” he added, “these old scenes do bring back my youthful yearnings. I made a rime in my mind just now— the first one, I believe, since I was seven- teen years old.” “And what was it?” she eagerly. “Repeat it to me,” ‘Well, then, close your eyes,” he ad- jured her, “and stand perfectly still. Now, listen: asked “The summit of my earthly bliss Is kissing Phoebe, just like this!” ‘And thereupon he suited the action to the word. END. —— — — eo THE BEAUTIFUL MADNESS. An ene that seemed like a dream, but which blossomed into a blissful reality. je was some few minutes past eight, and crowds of people were pouring into the theater. Cabs, hacks, and pri- vate carriages fell eaten line, disgorged . their occupants, and drove away. The street-cars were drawn up four or five at a time, blocking traffic. On the curb, many onlookers surveyed the hurrying throng—onlookers mostly of the cheaply smart youth, somewhat won- derfully attired, and smoking vigorously, that none might deny their manhood; men of the world of the shop-clerk class, who in ennuied, languid fashion pointed out and disclosed the identity of the vari- ous individuals descending from the equi- pages, regardless of the fact that they knew none of those of whom they spoke. A broad-shouldered young man in an Inverness passed in. “That’s Eldridge Hunter,” said one of the youths, cocking his bowler hat a little farther to the left side. ‘“ He’s the fellow who was challenged to a duel ~ _ by that French count, and The broad-shouldered youth (whose name was not Eldridge Hunter) passed through the swinging doors into the foyer. Noting the long line stretching from the ticket-office, he sighed, and took up a position near a huge potted palm, surveying aimlessly the photographs and paintings of celebrated actors and queens of comic opera hanging on the walls. The foyer was alive with color. Peo- ple hurried,. singly and in_ couples, through the narrow gateway leading to the auditorium. Most of them were just people, commonplace, every-day, healthy people; and very few of them were in evening dress. passed muffled to the chin and with a silk tile or crush-hat, accompanied by a girl, bareheaded. ‘There was a _ pene- trating odor of perfume in the air, cer- tain whiffs of which struck the broad- . shouldered young man as being in bad taste. There was a stir now and then when some better-known person passed, and Occasionally a man 4s comicbooks.com.-