The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 103: what you’re looking at

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

A TRADE DOLLAR ‘TRAGEDY. 295 meet the lower one with an unusual degree of pressure, and there was a woodenness about her shoulders that was not inviting. ‘“My dear,’’ I said soothingly, ‘‘I certainly think it a shame that the gluttony of that child should give you a bad night. Let me insist upon his being kept from all fruit.’’ “If he is at all like the rest of mankind that will only make a sneak of him,’’ said my wife icily. Neither of us seemed to know exactly where it came in, but we felt a breeze somewhere, and Jim rushed into the conversation in an effort to close the gap. “We didn’t get to bed until late, either. Mr. Winthrop andI sat out on the steps talking until almost midnight.”’ ‘“T heard you,’’ said my wife laconically. 3 Jim gave me a frightened look, and, regardless of consequences, I dashed into the breach. ‘‘ We were talking about Miss Marston across the way,’’ I said. I knew she had heard that name, but I also knew that we were generally speaking too low, and especially upon important points, for the full conversation to reach the nursery windows. ‘‘I was telling Jim what a very beautiful young girl she was,’’ ‘It seems to me,’’ said my usually well bred wife, ‘‘ that a man with a child suffering from cholera morbus might have found something better to do than discuss a young woman.’’ ‘“ Indeed, my dear,’’ said I, ‘‘ had I known you were going to have such a trying night, I should have come in to stay with the boy myself, at least part of the night.”’ | ‘“ After you were through extolling Miss Marston, I suppose.’’ I said no more. When a woman is tired and unreasonably cross, there is no remedy. Jim didn’t have his drive that mortiing. But three hours later we saw Mary out walking with a cub of a boy about twelve years old, and in the noon mail there came a note saying that her young brother Cecil had come down to stay for a week, and he would be certain to see and report every- thing she did. Accompanying the note was a little square box containing a silver trade dollar. A slip of paper was across it. ‘‘ Press on the E in the word ‘ States.’ "’ 3 Jim brought it to me just as it was, and then he took it out and looked itover. It looked exactly likeatrade dollar, and indeed that is what it was : but its lightness, to one accustomed to handling coin, would have shown that there was something unusual about it. Jim put the tip of his thumbnail upon the E, and the side lifted itself, discovering a tiny miniature of Mary Marston. It was almost as lovely as she was—innocent and sweet, with tender, trusting blue eyes; it gave one a pleasant feeling about the heart. Bright, eager, and beautiful, I made up my mind again that she was exactly the wife for a good, honest young fellow like Jim, and that I would indulge myself in the pleasure of furthering their little romance to the best of my ability. It isn’t so often in these days that CoOMmicaoolks 5}