Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

J 274 she waited, she tilted a pink-lined hat more daringly and adjusted a string of corals. Then the door opened and she went in. Behind the rheumatic maid, who had opened that same door for fifty years, ap- peared Miss Agnes, wearing a delightful Victorian hospitality, that which is a little heavy, echoes an “ You’re-not-eating-a- thing!”” atmosphere, and smells of pound cake. “Will you lay aside your hat, dear?” she said, after the greeting. “TI don’t believe so, Aunt Agnes,” said the adopted niece. She caught a glimpse of the hat and herself beneath it in a mahogany-framed mirror, and tilted the pink-lined one even more daringly. “Won’t it be heavy, dear?” asked the old lady. “Oh, no!” said Frances, ‘I never feel it!” And then, with an arm about the elder woman’s waist, she entered the dim, faded, yellow drawing-room that smelled of lav- ender and musty memories. Miss Letitia was there, sitting behind a pie-crust tea table and sitting very erect, as she had been taught was proper in her youth. Orlando was there, the cat that had had some forty kittens in her years on earth. Last, but not in the least, Philip Carpenter was there. He rose as the ladies entered, and bent above Frances’s hand. She looked at him clear-eyed and inquiring, as she always did at those whom she met. It had become a habit, through her wish to probe, and to find whether they were critical or the rare and wonderful gentlefolk who tried to believe the best of every one. “T am so glad to meet you,” she said and, as she said it, looked a little impish. He smiled down at her, decided that her hat was too far tilted for good taste, and then suddenly forgot matters of propriety. And, back of the young people, the Misses Salberry exchanged beautiful looks of hope. “We're sort of cousins,” said Frances to Philip Carpenter. ‘‘ You’ve adopted me, haven’t you, dears?” she ended, appealing to the two watching old ladies. They nodded, and smiled. Miss Agnes nodded for some moments, after nodding ceased to be necessary. The years had softened her until harsh stoppings would not respond. = THE ARGOSY. She sometimes found herself waving a fan, after the fan had been laid aside; or nod- ding, after the need of a nod had quite passed. It was the little finger of world- tiredness which had laid itself on her gentle old spirit; and the tiredness was as pretty as a thin-stemmed rose waving in the wind. Frances looked on her and smiled. “Don’t you look beautiful!” she said. ‘ All fixed up for your niece, nephew, and a tea party!”’ The old ladies preened and said they weren’t fixed at all; but Miss Letitia rearranged a real lace frill at her throat which needed no rearranging at all. Philip Capenter looked at Frances and smiled from pure enjoyment. He had made his first acquaintance with a living Dresden lady from a painted plate. In her pink and whiteness she was that. And added was much expression, with eyes of melan- choly trend which turned down at the outer corners, beautiful eyes, beautifully placed. No wonder his aunts had talked of their small neighbor until his nerves had jarred from others’ enthusiasms, too-forced on him. Frances, he saw to make a little face, and then, still looking at his aunts, slip down to a foot-stool which was beaded artistically with a dog, lying on roses. ‘“T have sat here since I was so high,” she said to him, holding out a hand a foot from the floor; “and I can’t be proper even at a tea party and sit where I should, upright on a stiff chair. You’ll excuse mé?-’ He smiled, and murmured something apt. “I hear you know lots about scarabs, and can read those things that are written on their tummies.. I think it’s quite won- derful of you!” ** Not at all, he said, and laughed down at her. ‘It is very simple if one becomes interested in it. I picked up something the other day, little shop back of the Metropolitan. The fellow had an English- man’s collection, and this was set in a scarf pin—very good example, by the way—” He reached in a pocket, brought forth a small disk which he handed to his aunts, with the information that it was the eye of Horus. “Tt seems rather small,” objected Miss Letitia. “Do you mean it was used in (EO) NVOOKS AAG (C@)