Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

7 VP ri at -~ *, "ie tf STVEMG Titel? AMP dec ial i Weg 2 tt) Se italy Ce hates A a a ten AY ba , &” Pet val ‘ye ety \ MOV CAP Lote, IAL AAW et ry tt ih go over there and try to make his peace J allow no man to go around tacking my wife’s pet name on any da—” “Sam!” said Dr. Harkton; and the word was like a pistol shot. “Last night I told you precisely what I meant to do if we had any more of this nonsense. I assumed that the subject was closed. It will be closed within a few mo- ments, one way or the other. New, do you really doubt me, or do you not?” “T—no, of course I don’t, Nellie,” Sam- uel said, and flushed. “ You know that. But at the same time—” “Then let me say just this, Sam: I cannot—no, really, I camnoi—permit any utterly childish jealousy on your part to interfere with my work. Until yesterday I tried to keep it even out of our conver- sation, because I know that you are. not interested, and I, as a matter of fact, had accomplished nothing remarkable. But now I have accomplished something, Sam— something of real importance. JI am very happy. I should have liked to share that happiness with you, or let you share it with me. Instead, you endeavor to heap your cheap abuse on me and—well, so be it. But t#is is the end of your cheap abuse. Do you understand that?” In a brighter, better state than our pres- ent one, stringent laws will be passed, making compulsory the erection of large, prominent warning signs at the crucial point of every situation, domestic or other- wise, just as railroad crossings and danger- ous curves and deadly drugs are marked nowadays. Just now, for example, he might have worked happy wonders by stepping around the table and gathering into his great arms this new, incredible wife, and then laugh- ing boisterously over ‘her and petting her, and so summoning back the older wife he loved so dearly. Or even last night—he might have bounced out of bed and caught Nellie and held her close and allowed her to cry it out and— Well, he had not done that, had hep Last night he had been an iron disciplinarian of an unruly female of no more consequence than any other fe- male. And just now he’d be hanged if he’d ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, with the strange, uppish being who sat in his wife’s place! He—that is, he—he— “‘T understand!” he said gruffty. But he could have made no statement more remote irom the truth. In point of fact, at this strange moment, he seemed unable to understand anything at all. The blow had come too suddenly upon his house- hold. ‘his scientific tommyrot of Helen’s he had always regarded as a harmless freak, of course. It was something which had ap-- pealed to her active little mind in college days, and more recently with young Sam- uel out of the baby stage, had popped up again to take the place of mothers’ meetings and prepared foeds, in the same active lit- tle mind. Latterly its consequences, in the shape of her absence from the home, had begun to annoy him; and only a day or two ago he seemed to remember, he had determined to put an end to it, and at the time he had considered that no formidable task. That it might be of the slightest im- portance in any way had never even oc- curred to him. And yet now—now they were calling her “Dr. Harkton,’ and printing columns about her, and handing her money in fifty- thousand-dollar lots and—” “ Yesterday,” said Dr. Harkton medita- tively, in an uncannily cool, even voice, ‘“ they came trooping up to the laboratory to cheer. They—they went quite wild for a fime, and my hand was almost shaken off before they’d finished the informal recep- tion. Some of the big men came in from two or three universities before night, and they—they came to learn, from mef And you never even congratulated me!” “Eh? Well, they probably knew it was coming and knew what it—it was all about,” Samuel said dizzily~ “I didn’t, you see. You never hinted to me that you were getting ready to pull anything as stupendous as the papers seem to think this is, Nell, but—-why, I do congratulate you, kid!” Unsmilinely, Dr. Harkton raised a hand of protest. it seemed almost that she shud- dered delicately. “Oh, not now, Sam—please! late now!” she said. . It’s too