Argosy, Vol. 119, No. 2 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

- 174 THE more out of place than Anita had ever seen her. For she had the faculty that so few really lovely women have, of seeming to. become a part of whatever portion of the- landscape was her temporary setting. AS Anita approached she looked up with an expression of astonishment. “ Willard,” she said selUny, you to bring the thing.” @ She took the purse from alee hand without glancing at-her, and the girl smiled erimly. It was evident. she had not pleased Araminta by coming, -but at least she had satisfied herself that the demand for the purse was genuine. She didn’t wait for the man to answer, but spoke firmly, as one speaks to a fractious child: “Vou had over a thousand dollars in the bag when you started off this morning, and I didn’t know this gentleman. I insisted on bringing it myself. If you need any- thing of the kind another time, write it down. I know your signature.” “But you know,” said Araminta plain- tively, for the first time letting her lovely eyes rest on Anita’s face, “how long it takes for me to do that; 1 can never ex- press myself properly.” “ Asking for a simple hand-bag,” Anita almost snorted; “ you can’t make me. think you as stupid as that; any common school- child could write enough for that.” “Tf they chose,” added Araminta spite- fully, and made the twords a dismissal, turning her back on her secretary and smil- ing up at her companion. She had not pre- ted him to Miss Ferndale, but Anita knew who the was, now. Willard Fane had Gotied in the papers enough for her to chide cabeagit for not hav- * a asked _ ing recognized him instantly. But the fact was, he was a bigger man physically than his portraits had led her to believe. | As she wended her way alone through the crowd she thought out the reason, seiz- ing upon it with the rapidity with which she did everything. It was because his features were small and refined, not as large as is usually the case with a tall man. It. gave him a curiously indefinite look, she reflected, and yet from all accounts Wil- lard Fane was anything but that. His record in the police department dlone ARGOSY. proved him to - aggressive. and politic, both. Now Anita felt him to be unscru- _ pulous. “Why hadn’t he told her his name,” she asked angrily, “and prevented her from making such a play for annoyance on Anita’s part?” She turned to glare. at him balefully. But he had disappeared. It was only a moment since she had seen him standing by Araminta, laughing down at* her while she coquetted with him. There was no place they could reasonably have gone, for the room é@nded in a concrete wall against which the black trunk on which Araminta had been sitting now stood out with clear-— ness. And they had certainly not ieee her back through the crowd. In her amazement Miss Ferndale al- lowed herself to stop and scan the place | anxiously. Araminta could not be lost; she was too beautiful and too conspicuous; but it would be just as well if Peters had seen her signal and followed her down, con- sidering Willard Fane’s reputation. ‘ Here,” she heard his voice say softly. The tall, thin man was leaning over the edge of a trunk, staring up the room at the auctioneer. Apparently he had not moved his lips, and he certainly had. not glanced in her direction. He was the same picture of awkward ease that he had been in the: lobby up-stairs, earlier in the day in the telephone alcove, and as he had been on the score of times only that Anita had seen him. He had always amused her, rather, and to Araminta she spoke of him as “ the Yank,” always. He was not unlike the usual “picturized ideas of Uncle Sam, but without the goatee. Yet in one gesture he had always seemed to Anita to be pulling at that imaginary beard. He did not seem to be looking at her, and yet Anita knew that he had spoken to her. She edged her way through the crowd, and stood beside him, following the direc- tion of his glance without speaking. The auctioneer was disposing of his wares rapidly. It was evident that he had another appointment, and did not mean to waste more time than necessary on this one. It was unusual to hold an auction on cComicbook (E(0) bf