The Argosy, August 1905 — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

: me ‘2 “that the Keelers told you to } » You see, we have only this night in. Venice, and I would not consen* to come out without an escort. And p or Ethel was most disconsolate. Did Miss Keeler find the ring she lost in Paris?” The perspiration broke out on Dix- on’s forehead, and he wondered in alarm what would come next. “ Who the mischief is Miss Keeler? ” he asked himself. But he knew that he who hesitates is lost, so he replied glibly: “No; not yet. But detectives are at work on the case, I believe, with hopes of success.” “And what have they heard from home lately?” went on the old lady. “Oh, Mr. Dixon, I’m sorry,” ex- claimed Ethel. Her glass of water had overturned and sent a stream trickling over the table into his lap. Damages repaired, “mamma” re- turned to the charge, this time from a new quarter. “They tell us, Mr. Dixon,” she began, “that listeners never hear any good of themselves, but I should like to have overheard the Keelers’ description of us which enabled you to identify us so readily.” “How absurd, mamma,” broke in Ethel. “Don’t you remember those snap-shots on the ship? They were very good indeed. I am sure Mr. Dixon must needs be very dense imdeed if he could not readily locate us after a glimpse of them.” Dixon did not dare flash her the grateful glance which was inspired by her words. “She is either ‘on to me,” he told himself, “or else all the gods in the world of chance have camped on my trail.” Meantime “mamma” was rambling on. “You know we met the Keelers on the basis of a blunder. We were all stopping at Narragansett one summer, and our letters were continually getting mixed.” “You see,” Ethel struck in, “ while Keeler and Riker don’t sound much - % [AN DODGE ay most fortunate, Mr. Dixon,” alike, they can be made to look writing.” ae Dixon fell back in his chair. Could it bi katae | i “Are you Ethel Riker,” he gasped in astonishment. Oe eg “Yes; to be sure I am. And why not?” “And you knew the Gliddens at Narragansett ? ” “ They are our best friends,” declared Mrs. Riker. “Then T’ve carried a letter of intro- duction to you all over Europe. What an idiot I’ve been! ” “How remarkable!” exclaimed the chaperon. “I should haye thought that the letter would have occurred to you when the Keelers told you to look us up.” “ Yes,” added Ethel wickedly, as Dix- on fished the letter in question out of his pocket and handed it over to her mother, “ Mrs. Keeler might better have been talking about the Gliddens than telling you about the detectives she engaged to hunt the ring that she wrote me her brother found the very next day. I forgot to tell mamma Of 11.7? Ethel had lowered her voice and was leaning across the table toward him while her mother was absorbed in the letter from Mrs. Glidden. ‘““T believe you were ‘on’ from the first,” whispered Dixon. “You mustn’t talk slang in poetical Venice,” the other admonished him. “Did you say you weren’t leaving until to-morrow afternoon?” “ Yes, but we'll have plenty of time to do the Doge’s Palace together? ”— eagerly. “T hope so. You certainly should make a pilgrimage across the Bridge of Sighs to groan over your sins of this evening.” “ But isn’t it better to le a little, as Blanche Bates used to tell us in ‘ The Darling of the Gods, than to be un- happy much? Besides, maybe I made two people happy,” he added anuda- ciously. ’ *T wonder,” rejoined Ethel, with the glint of mischief again in her eye. “Shall we not ask my mother to tell us?” vy wh a 34 . ‘ « P %, 4 comicbooks.com