The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

HAMPTON OF agine such a thing. What are you going to do, Mr. Hampton?’’ “T am sure of only one thing,” an- swered Jerry: ‘‘that I can’t pay a hundred dollars a month to keep it out of the grasp of the movie man. And as that seems to be the only line along which there is any argument, my reasoning stops right there. I don’t know what I can do in the least, Miss Delroy.” “T know that it looks rather bad for me to be here talking like this,” said the girl gravely. “It looks as though I were ready to enter into a conspiracy against my father. And perhaps I am!” she added, her eyes flashing anew. ~“‘I never felt so utterly against him before in my life. I haven’t done talking to him yet, either!” Jerry was dangerously near to laughing again. “J am more grateful to you for feeling like that than I could ever tell you, Miss Delroy,” he rejoined, “but I don’t think talking will do any good. Knowing your father as well as I do, I am sure that money would be the only effective argu- ment. And we have no right to blame him for it. If business men were to con- sider the feelings of all the old ladies who like gardens and chickens and things, the progress of the real estate business would be very slow, wouldn’t it? There might still be some little cottage standing on the site of the Singer building and the New York Central Railroad might have had to depress its tracks under some old-fash- ioned rose garden. It would be very idyllic and charming, but it wouldn’t be New York. “Vou see, if I were to go to your father and implore him to refuse the offer of twelve hundred a year and let me keep the place at the present rental, in consideration of my poor grandmother’s feelings, he would think me several kinds of a fool, and I surely would be. Some men will do remarkable things, of course, just to satisfy the whims of their wives or daughters, but I think your father is too good a business man for that. And then, you see, I couldn’t accept a favor like THE . HEIGHTS. 15 that; I couldn’t let a girl beg for mercy for me and for my grandmother.” Eugenia tilted her chin to an angle of defiance. “T suppose you are too proud to ac- cept a favor even if it would save your grandmother’s—well, perhaps her life,” she said. ‘‘Well, I never meant to tell you, Mr. Hampton, but I did save you once! Father was going to tell you that he must have fifty dollars a month and I talked him out of it; I think I made him ashamed of himself. That was over a year ago, too.”’ Jerry flushed. “I’m very grateful to you, Miss Delroy,” he said, “but I wish you had not done it. I can’t repay such kindness, you know.” “YT assure you that I didn’t do it on your account at all!” she returned sharp- ly; “it was all for your grandmother. I could make father ashamed of himself again, too, but he’s in one of his worst moods now. He’s been frightfully trou- bled for two weeks or more, and as cross as a grizzly bear.” “That’s too bad,” said Jerry politely. “You see, we all have troubles of one sort or another. No matter how desperately worried I am, some one else is in far greater trouble. If I were to calm myself and go and explain the whole thing rea- sonably to my grandmother, she might take it philosophically and we might be comfort- ably settled in another place within a week. I must consider this part of the matter closed, at any rate. If your father is having business troubles, there’s no doubt that he needs all the money he can get for the property, and I shouldn’t dream of standing in his way.” “T don’t think he really needs money,” — replied the girl, thinking hard. “He al- ways seems to have plenty; there’s always money coming in. But if anything goes wrong it puts him in an awful mood. He has a lot of business of some sort in the Middle West, and he has a man out there somewhere—sort of an agent, or manager, J think. He doesn’t tell me much of any- thing about his business, but I can’t help COMMICGLOOKS (C@