Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

THE STRANGER went out to him in an unwonted fashion. Again she was on the verge of a confession, and again something restrained her. “ The truth is,” she said, “ that when I was coming in I thought I heard some- thing behind me, and that big, shadowy - hall— “ Olivetta, upon my soul you were afraid and ran from the dark!” “ Exactly,” she said. “ And now you'll make my life miserable for a month about it!” “On my honor,” he-replied, “Ill say not a word. I hate the infernal dark my- self. I have only sympathy for you, my dear. Not a word about this from me!” “ Dad,” she said, “ you’re a darling!” “Only,” he went on, “you'll have to promise to take a bit better care of your- self. Nightgowns are made of stuff too thin for the night wind. You see?” She promised with a smile. She was about to go, but still she delayed a moment. Something kept her back like a restraining hand. ‘‘ Dad,” she said, “‘ there’s something more than insomnia that’s started you walking about to-night.” “ What makes you think so? Isn’t that reason enough?” “T mean—you have worries that have kept you awake?” “ Naturally,” said Hugh Dascom. “If you think back a little you may even be able to guess what the most important of them is.” At this she flushed. But he went on smoking quietly, seeming to pay more at- tention to the enjoyment of his cigarette than to her. - “Tt was because you seemed to count on me as—as—”’ “As a business investment?” said her father. ‘Perhaps I talked that way. That’s because I’m frank. I’m in a corner. I hope that there will be found a way out. And the one source of money which I can trust to is the income of your husband-to- be. Do you see? As for treating you so commercially—why, Olivetta, I suspect that you yourself have rarely looked upon the romantic side of marriage!” ~ His assurance piqued her. — AT THE GATE. «701 “You think that I have been a fortune hunter, frankly, from the start?” “‘ Something like that.” “We're about to quarrel again,” said Olivetta. “I can see that.” : “‘ Impossible,” said her father. “I never quarrel with any one. It is your right to marry whom you please. But I refuse to argue with you on the point. You know my wish. If that cannot be made to coin- cide with your own wishes, then we drop the discussion, if you please, and pass on to others which are more pleasant. Is that clear, Olivetta?” ‘“‘ And there is no hard feeling on your side?” “On mine? None in the world!” “Yet you are worried?” “* About money, not about you, my dear,” he answered. She stepped back with a sigh. The smoke from his cigarette was rising slowly before his face. It shut her away from him. More and more she came to understand that there was little of either love or hate in him. She would rather have had him storm at her, by far, than meet with this utter in- difference. She half guessed at something better than indifference behind the veil, so to speak. But it was not a guess which she could put into words. But out of this interview with her father she had learned at least one new thing about him, and this was that, under the softness of his exterior, there was concealed a pride as strong and stern as iron. “Tf I could change—” she began. He raised a hand to halt her. “Hush!” he said. “I cannot allow you to forget that you have pledged yourself to marry a very definite man, Olivetta, The historian, Mr. Hodge. You must not forget him, my dear!” He spoke with a singular smile. : “You don’t like him? What have you found out about him?” she asked. “T’ve found that he has an income of exactly what he can make by his writing.” “ What of that? Many writers make ang fat incomes, dad, don’t they?” “ Not historians, I believe,” he siiweed Olivetta shrugged her shoulders. “Tt doesn’t matter,” she said. «= 9... ae - comicbooks com) —