All-Story Weekly, Vol. 112, No. 1 — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

130 to the position he was in his face was quite red, and also quite near to her own, and she could not fail to catch the words he hissed into her ear. ““ When are you going to marry me?” Billy might possibly have had an idea that she would be surprised into saying ‘When you get down from that tree?” but she didn’t. Instead she began to giggle in a very un- dignified way. However, there is no need to give the details of that absurd argument here. The whole affair, as ridiculous as it was, just goes to prove the once-a-kid-always-a-kid theory. And eventually Billy found that he either had to get down off the branch or succumb to apoplexy or something, and he chose to get down—still unanswered. Then followed other subtle methods. There was the tissue-paper note in the bon- bon which, unfortunately, was drawn by Mrs. Van Zandt and thus missed fire and queered that particular brand of confections in the Van Zandt household. The late-at-night telegram, addressed to Nanny, and received and opened by Mr. Van Zandt resulted in nothing more than a record-breaking outburst of severe lan- guage from Nanny’s father. An underwater proposal, unique in itself, also proved unavailing. Thus it came to a matter of asking her perfunctorily every time he met her—in church, at parties, during dances; and Billy finally realized that it was necessary to cut this out or he would change in her estima- tion from a lover to a nuisance. Three weeks passed. And then there was a party at the Van Zandt home at which some home-made phonograph-records were played. They proved a decided novelty. And the selec- tions by the Crescent Bay Canoe Club quar- tet, of which Billy was a member, achieved enormous popularity. There were several of these records. And in one of the records each member of the quartet had a line to sing alone. Great was the sensation then when Billy’s voice was heard singing in its turn: “Oh, when will you marry me?”—which ALL-STORY WEEKLY, was in every way irrelevant to the balance of the song and was clearly interpolated by Billy for some particular purpose. Regarding the exact nature of that pur- pose those present had only to glance at Nanny’s face when she heard the words— repeated three times in Billy’s very excellent barytone voice. It was Mrs. Van Zandt who stopped the machine and took off the record. And it was Mr. Van Zandt who later smashed it Into smithereens with an ax. And it was Billy who suffered. ‘IT was never so humiliated in my life,” sobbed Nanny late in the evening, when Billy had lingered after the others. ‘‘ Every- one there knew who you meant.” To do Billy justice he was keenly aware that he had stepped beyond bounds, and he was truly sorry. He said so. “Sorry!” exclaimed Nanny. ‘ What good does it do to say you are gorry? Everybody will be laughing at me.” “T don’t think anybody will laugh at you just because I asked you to marry me—”’ : “In public? It was awful.” “But, Nanny—I want you so badly I would do anything to get you to tell me at least that you will marry me sometime. I’m desperate—just desperate, that’s all.” ‘“Don’t you dare ask me again, Billy Knapp. If you’ve asked me once you’ve asked me ninety-eight times and if you ask me again I’ll say 2o!” “Oh, you wouldn’t really do that, would you, Nanny?” “Yes, I would—I will. again I'll say no, no, xo!” And with this warning—a warning that shot straight to Billy’s heart and lodged there with a sickening thud—she fled an- grily into the house. ‘A nice evening,” said Sims, the butler, who had ventured out upon the porch. ‘Oh, is it?” snapped Billy. ‘“‘ Where did you get your information?” Then the night and ‘despair swallowed him. If you ask me IV. A DARK, dreary day dawned for Billy. He rose so early that he was able to cCoOmiclbooks C©