All-Story Weekly, March 1, 1919 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

i! = A SS — oan > — | ie = — —_* a —— = ® e2 = — - : _ a car “aid told the driver to go straight home, in a hurry. - He had lost not a little weight in these E gives weeks. Friends had commented on it. It was to be expected. The first month — of unwonted exercise always reacts that - way on men past thirty. That is what his _ friends said. Jefferson knew better. He was losing eercent because inside him was an aching void, a constantly gnawing cavity. > These three weeks had reduced poor lit- ’ tle Mary Lawrence to an almost penniless condition. =z offices of the United Machineries Corpora- tion after that fateful day of her break- She had not gone back to the down. She couldn’t bear the thought of = = going back, now that /e knew! Instead, she moved her modest effects to - another part of town, and had worn her- self out hunting another job—when she a search for her. ing Hooverized like wheat, and more so. discovered Compton Gray had _ instituted Jobs were evidently be- Every day was a jobless day for Mary Lawrence. - Now, eating a sandwich in her hall bed- room, she glanced through the news col- ~ umns of the evening paper after having scanned the ‘‘ Help Wanted, Female ” col- -umns. Not a little space was devoted to the advance description of the Red Cross ball to be given that evening by the crack regiment of which Compton Gray was colonel. She wondered if she could manage to get in—as a spectator, in the gallery. In the waning light of the warm June day, she began a pitifully inadequate attempt —— . » , a «= z -. lene “a a to make herself presentable. At the same time, in her magnificently appointed boudoir, Helen Lee was trying to _ choose between three new ball gowns. ‘was a vision. Each _ It was her French maid a decided for her. When Annette declared with Latin enthusiasm that the old rose with silver trimmings was assurement the most be- ee F ining—Helen promptly chose the simpler & creation of filmy, white tulle. - a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother— “ez but, thank Heavens, she was after all just Helen was ALL- ST ORY WEEKLY. Hearing Jefferson come in, she hurried © forward in the apartment and found him in the library. He kissed her perfunctorily, and abruptly stepped away from her. If she felt hurt she managed to conceal it, smiling brightly as she explained they must both hiirry and dress for the dance. Jefferson said it was out of the question for him’ to think of going to the ball. Helen voiced her astonishment. They had planned to go—for weeks. Jefferson realized he must explain. The three weeks of physical training, he told her, combined with the hard study that had ended in the mental examinations yester- day, and the closing up of his legal affairs to-day, had left him exhausted. He was sorry to disappoint her, awfully sorry. “It’s all right, dear,” said Helen impul- sively. “I'll stay home with you.” Jef- ferson wouldn’t hear of such a thing. She must go. “Tl stay home and try to read,” he said. “ Perhaps I cah take a nap. I'll come for you, say, at eleven thirty.” The dance > was to end at midnight. Jefferson saw his wondrously beautiful wife, in a great evening cloak of white crépe de Chine with deep trimmings of white fox, out of the apartment and down in the ele- vator, into the limousine. He stood on the sidewalk a moment and watched the car roll silently away. Then = he turned and started back into the build- ing. In the library he sank into a chair and picked up a magazine. He turned the pages idly, staring at them with unseeing = eyes. Suddenly he sprang to his feet and began to pace the room. = He stopped short and looked toward the door leading into the hall. A cunning de- termination showed in his eyes. He left the room—a fleck of steel drawn by a mag- net. In a@ moment he was in the butler’s pantry. Feverishly he threw open the white- = enameled doors of the built-in cupboard. Perhaps some one bottle might have been : overlooked. He slammed the doors shut ag and went back to the library, pacing back = and forth—back and forth. 3 Mary Lawrence maser} to- ree her- = = 7 4 : « 0h) PORN WIE: R ay " Lv uN. ~w Pe. 4