Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

o44 band; Martha knew that, and she loved him and was content. | This was Henry Jones’s wife—not the woman he knew—but the real woman, as she was on this summer morning when his soul suddenly expanded. Martha was in the kitchen preparing the meal when he returned. He pecked her upon the cheek, hastily mumbled some- thing about not feeling well; and going out to get the morning air, and then escaped into the dining-room with his morning paper. | During the meal he sat silent, pretending to read. , ‘“ Eat your eggs,” said his wife abruptly. Henry Jones came back with a start from the rippling little stream beside which he had been lying, and ate his eggs almost suilenly. Martha was glancing at the newspaper. ‘‘T see the shoe factories are in trouble again. That ’ll put-up your prices at the store.” , “Yes,” said Henry, and went on eating his eggs. Martha waited a moment. “ How’s the new clerk getting on, Hen?” she volun- teered again. “Are you going to keep him?” “ Guess so,” said Henry. His inner be- ing shuddered at the nickname his wife used so frequently; but outwardly he felt he was maintaining his composure. “Jt must have been that salad last night that upset you,” went en Martha after an- other interval ef silence; to which’ Henry answered nothing. All that day at the store Henry’s work revolted him as nothing had ever revelted him before. He longed for freedom. He wanted to wander through dim, cool, mossy woods; or to lie - beside babbling brooks upon his back and watch the birds in the trees overhead; or to sit braced against a. tree-trunk with a book upon his knee, read- ing poetry to a pair of blue eyes staring up into his face. Henry had never read much poetry, but he knew now he wanted to. And she would brush back her straying locks of golden hair and implore him to read more. And then he— ‘That hurts my corn;” said Henry ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, Jones’s customer irritably. “Can’t you give me one a little wider at the toe?” At dinner that evening Henry’s malady was unimproved. He ate very little, seemed disinclined to talk, and equally un- able to read his evening newspaper. To Martha’s anxious questions concerning his health Henry guessed his “ liver was out of order ”’—a surmise that the pink and white of his cheeks and the clearness of his little eyes stoutly denied. He would have none of the pills she tried to force upon him, but promised, if he could be allowed to spend the evening at Williams’s Billiard Parlor, watching the games, to take it when he came home in the event of his not feeling better by then. ' So, immediately after the meal was over, Henry put on his hat and escaped from the oppression of domesticity into the freedom of the great outdoors. But he did not go to Williams’s Billiard Parlor. Instead he turned sharply, as soon as he was out of sight of his home, and headed in exactly the opposite direction. Now you can readily understand that in this state of mind it was inevitable that sooner or later Henry should meet the other woman. That is in no way peculiar; . but it is rather surprising that in Henry’s case she came into his life this very first evening. There is a little lake near Rosewood, which during the summer menths is ideal for canoeing. It was toward this lake that Henry bent his steps. The night was warm, but not unpleasantly so, for there was a stiff breeze blowing. Almost a full moon hung overhead, with scudding, low-- flying clouds passing swiftly acress its face at intervals. Henry jammed his straw hat down firmly on his head and strode for- ward with rapid steps into the wind. Not that Henry was particularly inter- ested in canoeing. Mr. and Mrs. Jones had, in fact, never been in a canoe to- gether. Henry had never been in one in his life, for he was an. indifferent swimmer in spite of his fleshiness, and the obvious frailty of this form of boat held no appeal for him; and if his wife had ever been in one he did not know it. She had never suggested it except once—soon after they 10 A Comicboc S Colin