The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

150 “Rotten taste, yes, and still—” he be- gan, and then straightened up abruptly. ‘“‘Ask her to step in, please.” “Jimmy! You’re not going to waste time now talking to a girl who—” The inscrutable misery in Darton’s eye gave pause to his friend, as the door closed behind Miss Daymore. “Thomas,” said the chairman of the American Committee, “if I make a geta- way, I’m going a long distance and I’m never coming back. If I don’t make a getaway and they don’t get the police here in time, I’m going to make an even longer trip, I fancy. Don’t screw your face up like that; there will be no emotion scene here—or elsewhere! But before I go, I’ve got to have just one last look at her, Tom!” It really seemed te be final. Darton, expressionless, was standing there beside his desk and waiting. His eyes ached for one sight of the Sibyl who had been his, and he gazed and gazed at the doorway— then grew colder of expression, for Sibyl had appeared. Ever since his first glimpse of her he had known that she was far the loveliest of earthly girls, but hurrying in now with anxious eyes and cheeks flushed, she was even lovelier than of old! She nodded at Thomas Morely, in the smallest fraction of a second, and Thomas Morely for a time thereafter ceased to exist. She came up to Jimmy Darton and then, noting his cold eye at last, stopped short and faltered: “Why, Jimmy, what is wrong?”’ “Nothing,” the chairman informed her suavely. “Why?” got eens “T am going away in a few minutes,” Jimmy went on. “If there is anything I can do for you before I leave, I am yours to command.” He smiled, a chilly smile, one which held no interest in the beautiful girl before him, who looked around wildly and then cried: “Jimmy, what are you doing here?”’ “At the moment, waiting to learn how I can serve you,” he answered with a bow. THE ARGOSY. “T know, but what does it all mean? What has happened? What is this non- sense in all the papers about a committee for—for—what is it for, Jimmy?” Darton merely shrugged his shoulders. “That’s rather too long for discussion just now,” he replied. ‘I haven’t read the stories myself, but I presume they are ac- curate in the main.” There was no doubt about the sound which came from Sibyl; it was a stifled sob, largely of excitement. “And why do you talk like that?” she hurried on. ‘“‘What is it that you’ve done, Jimmy? That crowd—that horrible crowd out there! I’ve been among them for ten minutes and they’re saying the most terri- ble things about you! They’re threatening to hurt you, Jimmy!” , The chairman of the committee merely laughed wearily. “Don’t let that concern you,” he said frigidly. “They can’t do any more harm to me than has been done by—” He had all but said it! He broke off with a jerk and gazed at her who had once been his own. He found her, curiously enough, with brimming eyes, which looked real fright into his own. For another thing, Sibyl, who had stopped short some eight or ten feet from him, was moving swiftly toward him; yes, and now she caught at his arm with both hands and choked out: “Jimmy, what is it? Why do you talk like that and look at me like that, as if you hated me? Jimmy, sweetheart, w/at’s the matter?” James Darton’s heart stopped! A great, shuddering breath left him and his teeth ground together. He had hoped, had meant, to gaze on her for a moment and then carry the pic- ture through all the rest of life—sSibyl, the fickle, the wife of another, but still Sibyl. Now she had taken even that small con- solation from him and shown him her true self! She, who had married a wealthy young man rather than become the wife of a poor and rising one, was actually mak- ing love to him! COmmiclooolkX< (C@