Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 3 — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

400 woman built up around a vivid pair of eyes and making flesh and blood women seem rather tame in comparison. Somehow, while he had a great admira- tion for fresh pink and white English girls, he was more intrigued just now with an ori- ental woman! It was the mystery that was getting Masters. He was caught fast in the lure of the subtle East. He was going this evening, alone, to the Chinese restaurant the hectic music of which kept dinging in his ears. Perhaps the brown eyes might be there! Masters found it very little like the hy- brid Chinese restaurants that happened eyery few minutes on dear old Broadway. In an alcove made entirely of carved teakwood, sat the gorgeously coated Chinese musicians. Lanterns lighted the room with a subdued varihued glow. Ornamental bam- boo partitioned it into small alcoves, where diners sat around pearl-inlaid tables. Incense burning here and there in wrought iron jars mingled with the cigarette smoke made the place rather stifling, though the air was artificially cooled. As Masters fol- lowed the soft-footed waiter, he was sur- prised by hearing a voice calling to him in French. He was not wholly sure that he was pleased. Ivan fvanovitcha, young Russian official, was sitting at one of the tables with sev- eral of his countrymen. Ivan appeared to have no prejudices against fraternizing with an American. Alec had met him in the course of business. “Join us, won’t you?” he queried after presenting the other men. ‘I see that you are. alone.” “ Charmed!” acquiesced Alec. He ac- cepted a cigarette from the gold case of a young bewhiskered Russian who looked like a Red, but was perfectly harmless and very well mannered. ‘You have come to see the famous Chi- nook Winds?” hazarded Ivan pleasantly as they reseated themselves at the round table. ‘“What are they?” queried Alec in his faultless French. “Not ‘they,’ her!” corrected Ivan. “There is only one!” “Oh, a woman! What does the name mean?” THE ARGOSY. The Russian shrugged his broad shoul- ders. ‘““What does any name mean?” he queried pertinently. ‘‘ However, the girl was named by some poetical wanderer from your own Alaska. It appears that the winds that blow acrogs the ocean from the Flowery Kingdom carry with them through the early spring and summer the fragrance of the flowers of that most delightful land. The girl is sweet and lovely and dances as lightly as the winds—hence the name. Her feet have never been bound, which is strange. She is the daughter of old Wun Sing—’tis said that her mother was white— he always sits there in his corner and watches her like a fat old spider. He owns the restaurant and his ten sons play in the orchestra. The girl often dances the European dances, and is always veiled. No one ever sees her face, only her glorious eyes. Masters’s pulses leaped. Perhaps his quest was ended! In the lovely young dancer, the daughter of old Wun Sing, he might find the girl about whom he had thought and dreamed ever since he had come to Vladivostok. But even if he did, what would it profit him? She was separated from him by train- ing, color, environment; all the differences that bars the East from the West. At that moment there was a clashing of cymbals, a horrible beating of drums, a wailing of wind instruments; then into the room glided a fairy, a sprite. She was clothed in a dancing costume of bespangled chiffon; her rounded arms were bare, only a thin strap of spangles held her bodice over her beautiful shoulders—a costume that was of the West, not of the East—which does not. display the feminine charms in quite this way. She wore tiny white satin slip- pers of European make. Jewels sparkled in bracelets upon her rounded arms, jewels twinkled at her throat. Lightly as thistle-down she pirouetted around the sunken garden in the center of the room. And as she neared the table where Alec was seated, he saw again, above the veil, the beautiful eyes of the girl of the sedan chair. She faltered an instant in her dance, (C@ MIC IOOKS (C@)