Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 7, 1922 — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

A NEW GIRL IN TOWN. drawn toward the. shelter of the portiéres’in* the window embrasure. ‘What for?” she asked. “To speak to you alone!”’ “Don’t we always Have just as good a time when the colonel’ is with us?” ‘How dd you know, when we’ve never been. alone together?” ‘'He’s often out of the roem.”’ ‘Oh, for a moment or two. And always likely to pop in.” . ‘““Why shouldn’t he? You make more fuss over him than I do.” ‘You Know that’s only so I' can get to you.” ‘* Heavens! ceivers.”’ THis seeming pretense of innocence an- noyed. Sutliffe. He determined to break it up rudely. ‘Oh, why pretend that you don’t under- stand what I mean?” ‘What do you mean?”’ asked Diantha. ‘“‘ Suppose the colonel’ were to come in and find me making love to you?” It was received not at’ all in the way he expected. Diantha laughed. ‘“‘T suppose the poor old dear would be. upset,” she said. “But he'll have to get: used’ to it, won’t He? I’ve got to be made love to some time.” Sutliffe stared. This seemed to him like superhuman Hardihood in a woman. For the moment it quenched his ardor. ‘Why do you look at me so strangely?” demanded Diantha, laughing. “JT don’t understand you,” he said blankly. “That’s because I’m so transparent!”’ And they say women are de- Meanwhile Guyon was pursuing a .mis- erable existence in outer darkness. He had not returned home to live. On the morning - following his quarrel with Sutliffe his things had. been sent home, but. in-the afternoon of that day he received his grievous wound at the hand of Diantha, and'he could not bear to reveal it to the kind and inquiring eyes at home. He had. left the Iberia in a daze and walked the streets for hours while the pain bored‘its way in. The bitterest part ofthe 229 pain was the suspicion of Diantha that formed ‘in his mind. ‘“If' sHe was straight,” he told‘ himself, ‘she must have seen that my motive in warning her was straight. Anybody whose conscience was clean wauld .at.least have in- vestigated my story. She must have made all that fuss just as.a smoke screen.” Late that night he presented himself at Kurt Oddie’s door again. ‘““Here I am!” he said‘with his hang-dog air. Qddie pulled tim in. He presented a sad change from the night before. The light of resolution was quenched’in his eyes; his plan of: reliabilitation was abandoned’ before it was begun. He hung his head: and mumbled his words. Oddie, im the off« hand way that concealed:so muck kindness, did his best to rouse him. But all‘ that he could get out’ of him were such youthful- cynical tags as: ‘“What’s the use? . . . Life’s a rotten mess!’ . . . The only thing to do is to harden yourself! . . . The man who gets along is the man who doesn’t give a damn!” In the morning a gleam of hope occurred to Guyon. Though Diantha had repulsed him: so thoroughly, she might nevertheless begin to think over what he had‘said. She might make inquiries. She might leave the colonel’s house. He hastened back to Cen- tral Park South and watched all: morning from across the road with his hat pulled: over lis eyes. When finally at: noon he saw Diantha and the colonel come out, the pair of them smiling, gayly dressed, and: ob- viously in perfect harmony, he abandoned himself to bitter cynicism. That night he went back to the Forty- Four Club and played until morning. He slept at Oddie’s, and at night was back at the tables, and every night thereafter. For a bitter and desperate young man he was supplied’ with far too much money. He did not care whether he won or lost, and so he generally won. Meanwhile, his dark eyes receded’ farther than ever into his head; and hard lines were drawn around: his mouth. When Qddie, keenly distressed; .remon- strated: with Him humorously, Guyon said: ‘Sure, I’m a fool! The biggest fool on comicboooks C©