Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

622 She told Dr. Drake the story and begged him to promise to help. “Of course, I will,” he told her. ‘ But I’m not sure that your plan is wise. There may be a sad remembrance, somewhere in her past. To imagine herself back in it, might not work out as we hope.” IV. For the next ten days Mary moved in a fever of excitement. Every morning she phoned Mrs. Trouth. Each evening she hurried from the store to Mrs. Brayton’s bedside. She only went home to her board- ing house when it was almost midnight. She did not breathe a word about it to any one in the store. Not even when Gladys Moore remarked on the Tuesday absence of Old Lady Five-and-Ten. Then, one morning, Mary gasped as she opened a legal envelope she found at her breakfast plate. A firm of strange attor- neys had written to advise her that a cousin of her father’s had died and left her a thou- sand dollars. If she would present_herself at their office at her convenience, the money would be paid her. At first she could not believe it. It seemed like a fairy tale. Her convenience proved to be noon that day, and when she was back in the store again, Mary had ten hundred-dollar bills tucked safely away in her stocking. A thousand dollars! Her thoughts ran wild. Smilingly she figured what the sum would buy in the store. Twenty thousand nickel articles; ten thousand at a dime! But she didn’t mean to spend it like Old Lady Five-and-Ten. The pleasure she would get out of it would be real, not make-believe. Wasn’t that what Mrs. Brayton herself had prophesied. When Mary arrived at Mrs. Trouth’s, Dr. Drake was leaving. “Well, well!” he said. “How happy you look! You must expect good news. Luckily, you may have it. Our patient’s progressing splendidly. She’ll be out in a day or two. If we could only get her away she’d be herself in no time.” “What about taking her to the shore?” Mary had an inspiration. She could get a vacation for a week, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Splendid idea!” agreed Dr. Drake. ‘“ Some little hotel or boarding place, where there is heat and the food is good. It would be the making of her.” ) Mary said nothing of it that night, but when she had slept upon her plans, she ex- plained them boldly to Old Lady Five-and- Ten. They would go to Atlantic City, to the Hotel Diplomat. ‘We'll pretend that I’m your ward— that you’re chaperoning a débutante who’s resting from the nervous strain of a furious social season. You must have shoes and hats and gloves, but I wish you’d wear the gowns that I’ve seen you in. They’re so much more aristocratic than anything new would be. I'll fit myself out to look the part, and we’ll have a wonderful time. For one whole week we’ll actually live the world of make-believe!” There were tears in Mrs. Brayton’s eyes as she slowly shook her head. “ You don’t know what you’re saying, my dear. If couldn’t think of it. It’s a handsome thing you offer—sweet to put it as you do—but you must keep your money for a rainy day.” “Oh, no, I mustn’t!” Mary laughed. ““*Tt ain’t goin’ to rain no moh!’ Can’t you see it’s what I’ve been longing for, and never hoped to enjoy? It isn’t just that I want you to go—although, of course I do. I want to go myself—more than anything else in the world I possibly could have. Don’t you see that you’ve taught me what fun it is to pretend? This would let us play at being rich, and we’d have a perfect lark!” Mrs. Brayton was obdurate but Mary was persuasive. In the end she had her way. Then, like two children, they made their plans for their week of masquerade. Each evening Mary brought new frocks that she had bought for herself. They were inexpensive things, copies of costly models. Mary was charming in them. Then Old Lady Five-and-Ten went out in a taxicab. This time she went to differ- ent stores, and sparingly selected the things that Mary insisted she must add to her scanty wardrobe. They hugely enjoyed their little niot: impatient for the Saturday when they EComicbooks Eom —