Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 7, 1928 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

42 thoroughfare, and spent two or three hours in the most popular female in- door and outdoor sport the world has ever known—to wit: shopping. Fora solid hour they nosed through the five- and-ten-cent store, and bought a total of twenty cents’ worth of goods. Milly tried on fourteen new hats, and walked out of each “ shoppe ” with the assurance that she’d “ look around and maybe come back if she found nothing that suited her.” Kate tried on twelve pairs of shoes too small for her large “ gunboats,” and vowed at last. that the shoes in this neighborhood were no good. Viola gazed at and fingered long- ingly many expensive pieces of silk, classified with a word which every one pronounces uncertainly—* lingerie.” If anything in the whole run of fe- male enthusiasms stirred her profound- ly, it was lingerie. She turned sigh- ingly from many an alluring window. After two hours. she was dead tired and heart-weary of Milly’s prattle of boy friends back home, and of Kate’s heavy, sententious remarks or crude, worn-out wisecracks. Milly suggested that they rest up by going to a chop-suey restaurant, and thither they presently fared, to be served by a grinning Celestial, who brought bowls of Yat Kor Mein, Chow Mein, and Foo Yong Dun. Viola liked the orange table lights, but heartily dis- liked the jangling mechanical orches- tra, which operated with a nickel in the slot. Milly babbled incomprehensibly of parties and clothes, and Kate, the great Amazon, ate her Yat Kor Mein noisily. After the session here they made their way to the beauty shoppe across the street. By this time Viola was sick and tired of the whole thing, and particularly so because of one annoying feature of the afternoon. Both her companions had continually been interpolating in their inane chattering praises of Albert. Albert was this and he was that; ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Albert was a dear; he was sweet, dar- ling; if only Georgie were like Albert. Albert had such nice hair; Albert had such nice eyes and such a’cute smile; Albert was so sincere; Albert reminded them of Lindbergh; Albert— Viola longed to take them both by their necks and shake the nonsense out of them. She was disgusted with their silly, fatuous raving over her husband. And why was she so disgusted? she asked herself. Because she admitted, she was violently, furiously jealous. In this mood she entered the beauty shoppe and sat unhappily and silently by while Milly and Kate had their hair trimmed and waxed. She shuddered when she thought of the hours she still had to pass in com- pany with these two women; but AlI- bert would be at the Archer house around supper time, and that would make things easier, eee in a way, more difficult. The three tired women plodded the long blocks back to the Archer house, and, once within, Kate flopped upon the couch, and Viola sank exhausted into the armchair she had occupied the night before. Milly, however, was of a breed that could dance all night with- out tiring, and, to overcome her fa- tigue, she took a different method— she turned on the radio and did her Black Bottom variation upon the frappe carpet. “Ya-cha-cha’”’ once again darted against Viola’s eardrums and increased her headache. Then Milly invited her upstairs to see her “ things,” and they both went up to the guest bedroom, where hat boxes, trunks and suitcases weré sprawled all over the floor. While Viola sat wearily on an un- comfortable chair, Milly spread out her possessions on the great bed, or held them up for the young wife—who loved those things so much—to look at and env As Milly dressed, Viola’s eyes nar- rowed with a new realization; The girl was getting all dolled up. Gomichbooks (E@)