Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 153: what you’re looking at

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

uP et ~~ mm ee eS oe . _ . ENTIRELY WITHOUT NOTES. He rose, and his voice was hoarse and — uncertain. “ Listen, yot've got to listen to me, Sally Ames. J—I can’t stand this any longer. It’s all a lie, a miserable cheat. I’ve. got to get this off my chest, then I’ll go away and never insult you by coming near you again. I’m not bright, Sally. I’m not the kind of chap you think I am. I’m just a mutt, a kind of yellow mutt that buys other people’s brains and passes them off for his own. That’s all I am, just a crook with stolen brains.” ' There were beads of sweat on Bowman’s face. It hurt him fo tell the truth, but he went on with a fine sort of stubbornness. “All that bright stuff you admired, Sally, all that—that’s Eddy Denby’s brains. Every one of those ideas belong to Denby. Poor devil, it’s his job to make me appear like a regular, honest-to-goodness brainy man. And I’m not. Not in the least. Never will be. All this stuff about art, for instance—a pose, that’s all. Art? I don’t give a damn for nine-tenths of the art I see. Sometimes I see something I like, that’s all I care about it. The rest is bunk. Music and literature, all the rest of it the same. I say what Eddy tells me to say. I stole Eddy’s idea to-night, just to make a hit with you. But I can’t stand lymg any more. I can’t stand it because—” Bow- man hesitated a little. When he finally spoke he had a proper pride in the confes- sion, “I love you too dearly, Sally, to try to fool you any longer. Now, good-by.” Bowman was half-way out of the room, blindly intent on finding his hat and coat when Sally’s exclamation halted him. “ Thank God,” she cried, and he saw she was on her feet, her face radiant, her arms outstretched. 66 Eh? Sally! 33 “Come here—come back here.” Bow- man returned slowly. Her eyes met his steadily, though her voice fluttered as she demanded: “ You meant—-what you said— about me, and about thmkmg—of me— that way?” “ God is my witness I meant every ward of it,” Bowman answered. . Then she was in his arms and it was a long time before she resumed the topic. Se ime, one 435 “ You old fraud, you funny old fraud!” she giggled finally. ‘‘ Why I knew, I knew all the time—”’ : “Huh?” Bowman blinked. | “Of course I knew! Don’t you sup- pose any woman would know? You're as transparent as plate glass and as for fooling anybody, why you—you couldn’t get away with sleight of hand in an asylum for the blind. And if you had been what you pre- tended, what Eddy. Denby tried to make of you, I’d never love you in a million years, never! One brainy is enough for any family. Absolutely Mou re honest— and you are you, that'e af I ask.” “ Sally,” Bowman demanded eagerly, _“ how soon will you marry me?” - Sally Ames considered 2 moment with knit brow. “I had an engagement with my tailor for to-morrow at eleven o’clock,’’ she murmured, “and 2 matinee for the after- noon, but I needn’t really keep them, need }?”? 4 THEY were not married at eleven. It was past four o’clock next afternoon that a justice pronounced Walter Bowman and Sally Ames one and indivisible and Eddy Denby and Lydia Crawford were the only guests and witnesses. The newlyweds caught a train from Grand Central at five o'clock leaving the faithful Eddy to talk to reporters: “We have an engagement this evening to plan the book,” Eddy reminded his fellow witness. ‘Suppose we have dinner some place together?” Lydia Crawford, who had been shedding @ surreptitious tear as women will do at weddings, started like a frightened horse. She agreed to dine with Eddy, but from that moment her manner toward him changed. She showed sudden fits of gaiety and unexpected relapses into quiet during which she looked almost -frightened. She talked either too much or not at all. At first Eddy thought she must be pretty badly cut up about seeing her friend mar- ried to Walter Bowman. ‘Then he did not know what to think. Fmally an explana- tion came to him and the very thought of it ‘mace hun pale: : Glook aS = 5 ginal f Frc Kola) CO THE OH 10 STATE UN