Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

836 all he knew. After all was said and done, Hubbard was Alice’s husband. The one thing that Kemp could do was to visit Alice often and comfort her in every way he could, and this he proceeded to do. As week succeeded week, however, it be- came plain that, despite all he could do for her, the strain of daily and hourly expec- tancy was telling upon the woman. The possibility that, at any moment of the day or night, the man whom she loathed might rap upon her door, etched lines of care on her comely features. Kemp dared net even hint too strongly that her husband weuld not call on her for the time bemg at least. In fact he feared to say anything at all on the subject for fear he would say tos much. Therefore he was compelled to endure in silent agony the spectacle of the woman he loved gradually breaking under the increas- ing strain of suspense. Alice’s appearance suffered in a manner that must certainly have cooled the ardor of a man who loved her less than Kemp did, and that was not all, either. As her dress became more and more untidy, so did her dwelling. She had wisely not gone to the expense of painting or installing expen- sive furniture, but at least !t had been neat and spotlessly clean. Now it was becoming shabby. There were times when it was even unswept and undusted. One day, when Hubbard’s sentence of three months was nearing its end, Alice was a particu- larly pathetic spectacle. She looked almost as bad as some of the ignorant slatterns who came direct from Russian and Polish vil- lages to the free lands of Alberta. Her shack looked as though it might be housing the poorest and most unfortunate woman in the whole district. ‘Only three weeks more, dear, and then the strain will be over,” Kemp told her. “Three weeks,” Alice repeated agoniz- ingly. “It seems like three years. I don’t know whetner I can hold out that long or not.” “Why not run in to town and stay there for a few days to relieve the strain?” Kemp proposed. “No, no!” she vetoed. “I must be here all the time. An hour after I left might be the time he would choose to call. Not even ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. for half an hour can I absent myself. It’s conscience, Peter. It’s a terrible thing to possess a conscience, isn’t it?” * It is,” agreed Kemp with great fervor. “ There are times when I almost wish he would come and relieve this awful strain,” Alice went on. ‘“ There are times, too, when I feel that I am a wicked woman for not wanting him to come. Do you think it is ‘wicked, Peter, for a woman to pray to God to keep her husband away from her?”’ ‘** Not when he mistreated her as that man mistreated you,” Kemp replied. “But would he have mistreated me if I had acted differently?” “Your action in protesting when he wouldn’t support you was perfectly right and proper,” Kemp argued. “Yes, yes—that’s what I’ve been telling myself all these years—but now I’m not so sure. Maybe I did nag at him. Maybe I didn’t make our home quite as attractive as it might have been. Maybe, instead of re- maining here and waiting for him to come to me, I ought to be searching every vil- lage and settlement throughout the whole north for him. Maybe he is not in a po- sition to come to me. Maybe— Oh, I don’t know what to do, Peter!” Kemp patted her shoulder gently. He longed to take her into his arms, but he knew only too well that she would not per- mit him to. One woman in a hundred? She was one woman in a million! He reassured her as best he could and went away, proceeding slowly and thought- fully. All these weeks he had refused to meet the issue of whether he should tell Hub- bard that his wife was in the country. He realized now that he could postpone the matter no longer. The man would be re- leased in a few days. In less than three weeks Alice would leave the country, pro- vided Hubbard did not appear, convinced that her husband was dead in fact as well as legally. By withholding the knowledge that her husband was alive would he not be deliberately separating a man and wife? Could he assume the responsibility for that act? Did any consideration whatsoever justify such a proceeding? Kemp’s per- plexity, as he made his way toward the lo- DOOK C©