Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 4 — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

600 Elizabeth Burton was what Samson would have styled an old maid. The preser- vation of her virginity had not been from choice. She was well aware that she had been denied the outward and visible charms of her sex, cursed with a dull eye, a dry and sallow skin, a body denied all curves. Equally she knew herself blessed with a nature at once loving and maternal, pos- sessing the intuitions of her sex, where man was concerned, as fully as her niece, and, added to them, deductions derived from observation of the experiences of others. Between attributes and drawbacks, she managed to preserve a happy balance. She had some of the unavoidable traits of the spinster, but they -were not of the spirit. Perhaps because she had never known fruit of her own ripening, had never felt the ennui of love, she was the more interested in other folk’s plantations. Her soul had not shriveled; her common- sense matched her good nature. If her life had not been rounded-out according to the law of sex, she had achieved a very satis- factory oval. And she had fully counte- nanced and encouraged the suit of her niece by Captain Martin. Mary Leigh had retired with a headache promptly upon going below. But her aunt remained to chat with the skipper. While he smoked she sewed under the cuddy lamp and led the talk around her subject. Yet she felt that she broached it clumsily at last. “What happened on deck, John?” she asked. Martin had seen nothing of the embrace. But he had sensed, with a lover’s quick- ness, the tension between the two he had left chatting, left reluctantly. He knew his - own failings in light speech, he was envious of Samson’s facility. A seed of jealousy had been already planted, and, as he heard the sibilance of the mate’s whisper while he had been mounting the ladder, a tendril - had been flung up and out, coiling about his heart. Now he turned squarely to the spinster. ‘What do you mean?” ‘““ Between Mary and Samson.” ‘ T saw nothing.” ‘“There was something. Mary thinks “myself, - ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. you know. She thinks you should have acted.” “Did she tell you?” His voice deep- ened, quickened. ‘“ Never mind, I don’t want to know—from you.” ‘‘ She did not tell me. It was not nec- essary. You love her, John?” He looked at her. She nodded at him. ‘‘ Mary is only a girl, John. You know how she lived with me. Never seeing any one worth while, any one of interest. She loved you for the you that is inside, hidden. She doesn’t realize that as yet. She loved you for what you stood for, romance, the high seas} adventure, strange places. She was like a child with a book. She admired the pictures first; the sound-sweetness of the tale she had yet to learn to read. She was untouched by passion. You were the first man who ever kissed her. You haven’t followed up that kiss, John. You treat her more like a big brother than a lover.” ‘‘ I haven’t had much experience in that Elizabeth. I have seen rough things, done them. There is a side to my life far apart from hers. “Not if you love each other. she is to be your mate.” . “She is—Elizabeth, she is the woman of my sea-visions. Like a flower. I have feared to let myself go. I can talk to you. You understand. There is nothing of the prude about you. If I showed her all I felt, if I could tell her? I am no iceberg, but I am crude. I might frighten her. She would not understand. ‘She is dainty.” “ She is asleep. Or was. Wake her up. Frighten her, if you can. But—love her. John, I know Mary. She is ripening to womanhood. Young love, young passion, first aroused, often mistakes glittering pinchbeck for gold that may be pure, yet unpolished.” She had laid aside her sewing, and her pale eyes lost their dulness. They shone with earnestness. The cuddy door was open for air, and a step sounded on the ladder. She stopped speaking until Sam- son came back again, and they heard him above them. And she watched the skipper. As she had said, she knew her niece, she had seen signs that night that told her of Not if sex aroused. And not by Martin. She | Original froma : a