Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

THE DEVIL’S RIDDLE. “Tf she goes wrong,” he said aloud, “ killing would be too good for me!”’ He sat down suddenly, dropped his head in his hands, and sobbed as only a strong man can sob. CHAPTER XX. ‘S WHOM WILL YOU MARRY?” BARNES had failed, through telegrams, both to Sam and Miss Mattie to get ’ Esther’s address. Meantime preparations for his wedding went forward rapidly. A day was set for the following month. But Aline’s secret ro- mance had proved a pale and sickly affair from the first. The doctor had not seemed the least bit worried over not seeing her every night. Her elaborate excuses and apologies fell flat. He seemed hardly to hear her. Then her mother put up no opposition when Aline invented reasons for going out. That lady was too absorbed about samples and hemstitched sheets and fashion books to look after her daughter; while, as for Mr. Potts, he never concerned himself over anything but banking reports and the war. To make matters still worse, the tele- graph operator actually seemed to look at Daisy’s doll-baby prettiness more than he did at Aline’s. Altogether it was not a bit exciting. Aline much preferred looking at the samples and the fashion books with her mother. ‘“‘] don’t think he’s so nice,” she con- fided to Daisy one day. “JT do,” flared the other; ‘he’s a, lot nicer than the doctor, I think.” ‘“‘ Oh, the doctor!” sighed Aline; she had given up calling him Jim. ‘“ He’s so—so solemn! And he used to be so gay and lively: I don’t ever know what to say to him any more.” “They say a man always gets like that after he’s married,” sagely remarked Daisy, her blue eyes wide with the wisdom she propounded. They were taking a walk,. arm in arm. “But he’s not married yet.” “No, but it’s the same thing — being engaged.” 473 ( “Oh, dear, do you suppose he'll get Aline’s brown eyes were gloomy worse?” with foreboding. “‘T don’t know.” “T always feel so young with him.” “]T shouldn’t care to marry a doctor,” Daisy mused. “ Why not?” “Oh, they have so many women hang- ing around them all the time!” “Patients,” Aline defended. stopped before a shop window. “Yes, of course; but some of them are young married women, and so good-look- ing, and they tell all their troubles to the doctor, and, of course, it’s only polite for him to kiss em and console ’em.”’ ‘“‘ Not his patients!” “Course his patients. Not somebody else’s. There’s that Professor Lawson’s wife; she’s just crazy about Dr. Barnes, right now.” rT 4 Daisy! ” “‘ It’s so. Mama says she isn’t any more sick than I am, and she goes up to his office every day, when she knows he will be there, and she gets him off in the corner and talks low to him for hours. She does the same thing in the drug-store and every- where.” “T don’t believe it!” Aline raged. Her brown eyes grew black. Her fluffy light hair quivered about her small pale face. ‘“‘ And you’re a bad, gossipy girl, Daisy— just like your mother.” ‘“‘My mother’s not any more gossipy than your mother is, and everybody knows she set you up to catch Dr. Barnes, and she don’t even care if he is crazy in love with a show-girl! Mama saw the name of the show on the envelope.” ‘* What’s that?” asked Aline sharply. ‘“* Nothing—nothing,” Daisy stammered, her rosy face going white. ‘ I—I was just fooling, because I was mad.” “‘ Look here, Daisy More!” Aline grasped her shoulders and looked straight into her chums face. ‘Look at me. You were not fooling. You were mad, and you let something out, and now you're scared, and I want to know what it is.”’ ‘“‘Oh, mama would kill me!” Daisy be- gan to whimper. They ECOMICLOO© UO) S CO in