Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 11, 1925 — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

-FLIGHT TO ing to maintain the front of a man who had not been jolted into absolute amazement. He stood looking into the eyes of this woman who, in spite of her corduroy and flannel attire, was trained in worldly wis- dom, and he smiled his acknowledgment of the home thrust. “‘ Astonishment is a weak word,” he con- fessed. ‘I hadn’t supposed Cynthia Meade would unbosom herself to any one. Did she happen to tell you that she shot me and left me for dead—without even sounding an alarm ?”’ 7 “No,” answered Anne Purviance with unbroken composure. ‘ She told me—and she convinced me that she did not shoot you, but that the case was so circumstantial that panic seized her and she ran away. She had no doubt you were dead. She listened for a heart beat, but throughout her terror she believed that if you were alive to speak you would exonerate her.” ‘ She lied to you, Miss Purviance. There can’t be much question that she did her best to murder me.” “T believe she told me the truth, Mr. Harrison. You’ve paid me the compliment of calling me a judge of character, and I’ll stake my judgment on her innocence.” ‘“‘T can’t, in politeness, contradict you,” he said dryly. “You see in her a light and criminal girl,’ declared the woman. “ And I think she’s a godd bit better than that. She sees in you a man whose instincts are all pred- atory, and I fancy you are a good bit better than that, too. I’m not quarreling with either view. I see in the whole situa- tion the working of a vicious code and nothing more.” Even in the face of a surprising discovery, Stacy Carroll’s attitude did not veer to the weakness of self-defense. His smile was cynical, but not at all that of a discovered wrongdoer. “Codes are slowly and strongly built, Miss Purviance,” he suggested, and If suppose the one you refer to is that which permits men to divide women into two classes—and treat them differently.” “Ves,” she said, “that was what I meant.” Neither you nor I made that code, and ~ THE HILLS.. ee ee ee oe ee Se ee eee, 8 ee eee ee ee ee eA owe «'s ee ee eg ns ee Soe | ~ ~ = > ~~ $2 ae ta - = - . : r ~ ae -“ ee ee ‘ be : <a —- =o a Sn, — — += 261 neither of us can undo it,” he said thought- fully. “ We both know it exists. None: the less, it’s disconcerting to a man who thinks of himself.as a gentleman to have a woman on your side of the line catch a 7 glimpse of his affairs on the other side. gr The reticences of. life constitute a good proportion of its decency.” She nodded and there was no flare of indignation in her retort, but perhaps for that exact reason it had a bite which he did not altogether escape. “I’m not accusing you of monstrous evil, Mr. Harrison,” she answered. “I re- cognize you as a gentleman, but I was’ thinking of a line in a play of a few years back—* Common Clay,’ wasn’t it? A character was made to say: ‘I’m a gentle- man. -t prey only on the daughters of the poor.’ ee emptied his pipe and his lips twisted to a wry smile. ‘In principle I agree with you,” he told her. ‘“‘ Unfortunately, nature intervenes and nature is strong. I believe our whole con- ception of gentility goes back with a sort of worship to Arthur and his Round Table, Arthur invented chivalry, yet if I remember aright, Arthur’s most ‘ parfait gentle knight’ was a paramour of Arthur’s queen—and Galahad, whose ‘strength was as the ~— strength of ten because his heart was pure,’ well, he was Lancelot’s son.” $f Tm not denying,” she said in a low voice, “ that the code is old, I only say it’s bad to the core. And as I recall my ‘ reading, Lancelot failed to find the Holy bs: Grail—because of his sin!” Harrison was looking at this woman with a keen interest. After a moment he spoke again. “In a novel or play, Miss Purviance,” he reminded her ironically, ‘‘ I would shrink guiltily under words such as you have spoken and hide my diminished head in shame. But life is tougher fibered, Perhaps there isn’t even any new note in your argu-- ment. All that you say I’ve thought for myself, but I’ve had certain misgivings of =| late that you are—well, perhaps crys tall iz. | ing. May I talk candidly?” - = S33 = “Certainly, It’s the only worth qwhik way to talk.” |