The Argosy, January 1906 — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

ae man with an irregularly spotted vest. -- “J think he’s a pick pocket, ” said a - sharp-faced old woman with spectacles. ee “ Look at the di’ mon’ in his ring. I ey ‘got very red in ‘the face, and then I oe much redder as I realized that She sat beside me, listening to it all. What did she think? How did she regard me? As a fanlight-worker or a murderer? The others seemed to have usurped almost every other branch of erimi- nology. Angry and somewhat arated I tured upon the conductor. “Lye got four thousand shares in beastly road,” I announced, aes Wy don’t yez cash ’em in an’ git ee: some nickels, den?” asked the conduc- tor pertinently.. “ Come, pay up er fall off. Dem fairy tales don’t make no hit wit? me. See?” And then the girl—the Angel—beside me (and this is fact, not fiction, that I am relating) turned her great, dark eyes on me, and said: “Why, Tom, J have change.” And _ she handed the conductor a dime. “Gee!” said the large man with the spotted vest. “His wife settles. He —- must be a dook.” he girl blushed a glorious red and looked away. And as for me, the whole affair, culminating in such a surprise, ‘was so bewildering that I sat there — dumbly, a victim of disseminated intel- lect. ae At length I came to and then I began = to. wonder what the proper course of * procedure might be—whether it would be her wish to persist in her angelic de- ception for the benefit of the rest of the ¢conventionalities that her _ kindness had led her to make. It was quite clear that she had done what she had done solely from goodness _ of heart and an unwillingness to see a _ fellow-being placed in an embarrassing _ position and (I feared) in quite an im- _ personal way, and so, under the cireum- ee I felt that I would be a brute } passengers or to forget the break in the ~ impulsive. = THE “ARGOSY. out a word, the other passengers might misconstrue, and so, when'she signaled the conductor to stop, I, too, arose, and, alighting from the car, assisted her to descend. And then it was that Providence, in the shape of a large, ornately clad man, who was considerably more illuminated than the laws of either good breeding or the city allow, came to my aid. Tor with maudlin, East Side gallantry he attempted to throw his arm about her. But he didn’t succeed, for I landed on the point of his jaw, and down he went, hard. And-it wasn’t a minute before we were the center of a large, in- quisitive audience that was constantly growing larger and more curious. Luckily, there was a cab drawn up at .the curb close by, and I hailed the driver. “To the park,” I directed. Then to the girl, who was standing beside me, frightened and helpless, I said: “ Get in, please.” She saw that I was right, and, without waiting to question, entered the oa0: I closed the flaps. “Tell him where you wish to. go,” I said. “I am very grateful. Good- by, and thank you.” “And you?” she queried. “Oh, Pll stay here and talk things over with the police,” I replied lightly. With a quick, impulsive gesture, she flang open the flaps. “Come,” she. said simply. She turned upon me her dark, glow- ing eyes and—well, the police went with- out explanations, unless they got them from the red-necktied Providence who was now snoring lustily on a Belgian block. . It was in a rubber-tired triumphal chariot that I rolled up the avenue, for was not she beside me? I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I could only gloat. At length she glanced up at me shyly from beneath long lashes. Se I don’t know what yowll think of me,” she said, hesitatingly. -I tried to tell her, but I became too incoherent. Still, as she blushed and didn’t seem angry, I judged that my re- marks were somewhat intel be ble: and | HOM. say obRonie. . ©].