Argosy (UK), January 1955 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

~ oe Py, ~ ‘ inl 7 ~~ r a”) ea a Pa ¥ -— a = adi a “<= - =a THE PICTURE 55 hung there was out of the question. But the frame was heavier even than she had expected. The cord refused to unloop itself from its hook. Her heart continued steadily thundering against the cage of — her ribs. She tried again, and was compelled to desist. Very — _ gradually she allowed the portrait to slide down the full length _ of the cord again; but the strain was too great, and even as, with - amiurderous splintering of glass, it crashed to the floor, she heard ___ his step along the corridor outside. In sheer panic she leapt from _ the chair, stumbled, all but fell, attempted to escape, and met him full in the doorway. a ‘““Why, my dear, my dear! You poor thing, what’s wrones - What’s the matter?” Her teeth were chattering, she had begun to hiccup. “T tried, I tried,” she was almost shouting at him. “I had been watching you. I was anxious about you. Don’t look. Come away. It was a miserable deception—worse. I can’t bear it.” “Watching me?” he repeated. ‘“ Couldn’t bear it—can’t bear what?” His face had gone a deadly grey, even his lips. “ Just that? My own dear, loved, loving thing. How can that matter? Anxious about me? I should have to have told you soon. But I don’t understand. Why, only a week or two ago I—you know how mere time wears out everybody, and I... And now,” he added, turning towards the wall, “ this horrible thing has happened. It __ must have startled you to death.” x Still clasping her hand, he stooped over the portrait lying face - downwards on the floor, and lifted the end of the severed cord. No attentive eye could have been deceived by that. “Why,” he began meditatingly, ““ how queer! That’s not an ordinary ... It’s charred. It’s been...” a Releasing her hand, he turned to look at her. The dark dis- — __ traught face, fingers clenched, eyes shut, seemed to be as brightly | illuminated in the half-curtained room as some ridiculous painted clown’s in the limelight of the stage. “It was I, me,” she was saying. “I fancied she—you—l.. I must go now. ‘What did you mean, what did you mean by ‘Ta should have told you soon?’ Not that—that.” She nodded her head towards the fallen portrait. % “That!” he exclaimed. “ You poor, precious, angel thing. My dear, my dear! That! Why, I hadn’t a notion! It was only —only the letter that came from—that was enclosed with Dr. Brown’s. I fancied you had guessed it had—it had not been very favourable. But, my own dear, we had both foreseen it, known ont comicbooks.cOn