The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

HAMPTON OF said tremulously, “I’d much rather walk. I want to breathe cool air and be out of doors.” He assented quietly, and they walked up Haven Avenue without another word between them until road-construction oper- ations forced them to go over to Fort Washington Avenue. As they approached One Hundred and Eighty-First Street the girl’s steps lagged perceptibly, and Jerry proposed going down the hill to the cab stand at St. Nicholas Avenue, but she still demurred. “Tt am tired—nervously exhausted, I guess,”’ she said wearily, “but I want to keep walking. We’ll go on up the hill, if I’m not imposing on your time.” “T’m absolutely at your service, Miss Delroy,” Jerry answered stiffly, though it was farthest from his wish that the speech should sound otherwise than gracious, They went up the Fort Washington hill, and when they came to the marble settle that marked the northeast bastion of the famous Revolutionary fort, Hampton urged her to sit down and rest for a while. She sank down with a sigh of relief, and he paced slowly up and down the walk in front of her, silent and thoughtful. “You were very good to do this for me,” she said, when the silence was becoming oppressive. “I don’t know how I could have got along without you.” “TI don’t deserve any credit for it,” pro- tested Jerry. “Mr.—er—that is, a friend of mine managed the whole thing.” “Managed?” she queried. ‘Managed what? What do you mean?” Jerry saw, too late, that he was court- ing disaster in dragging Exmoor into the case, but he could not retreat now. “It would have been more considerate not to tell you,” he said, “but now I shall have to, I suppose. My friend and I saw that you were in an embarrassing situa- tion, and he left the room and—as I be- lieve—got Mr. Foxford out of it by a trick. What he did with him after that, I don’t know. I should have offered my services sooner, but I hesitated to pre- sent myself so abruptly, and unbidden.” THE HEIGHTS. 35 “Then there was no telephone call for Mr. Foxford?” Eugenia asked. ‘Not unless my friend was telephoning from across the street,” said Jerry. ‘He didn’t have time to go far.” She sighed faintly and was silent again. ‘‘Mr. Hampton,” she began rather cold- ly, “you overheard something of what hap- pened last night when I got home from the theatre, didn’t you?” “Yes,” Jerry answered bluntly, finding it impossible to be tactful in-his perplexity. ‘Then you must have very little respect for me!” she declared. He made a gesture of protest. “Miss Delroy,” he said tensely, “there is no one in the world whom I have more respect for! In the first place, I have no right to interest myself in your affairs; but, if I have any feeling in the matter at all—any feeling that I may express—it is, that I don’t understand—anything.” “No one could understand, I am sure,” she agreed. “But about this awful affair in the restaurant,” she added hastily; “was it your friend that I met on Broadway, who wouldn’t accept any help from me?” — “Why, yes,” Jerry answered reluctantly; “ves, it was.” “Mr. ‘Tarleton! Wasn't that the name?” “Yes, Tarleton,” he said nervously. “T am very grateful to him,” she said solemnly. ‘Please tell him that.” She arose from the marble settle and took his arm again and they walked north- ward, past the Libby castle and the Bil- lings chateau, and the remnant of old Fort Tryon. There were bright lights in the Abbey Inn, and motor-cars standing in the yard, and Jerry felt a shudder from the girl as the scene suggested to her the one that they had left so recently. - He guided her down the serpentine drive toward Broadway, and as he reminded her perfunctorily that they had no great dis- tance farther to go, she spoke again. “T would like to have you believe that I was not motoring with Mr. Foxford, or having supper with him, with any idea of enjoyment,” she said bitterly. COPMICLOOOKS (C@)