The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 1 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

96 BY RIGHT OF SWORD. ‘You must hear me,’’ I said quietly, but with some authority in my tone. “““Must !’ I don’t understand you.’’ ‘“ Must—for your own safety.’’ ‘Thank you. I can protect myself. Your other cares and responsibili- ties have a prior claim on you. Will you please leave me now ?”’ ‘No, I can’t go until I’ve told you eS ‘‘T will not listen! Didn’t I tell you?’’ She was vehemence itself, I shrugged my shoulders in despair. ‘*This morning ” JI began; but the moment I opened my lips she broke out again with her vehement interruptions. ‘Ah, things were different this morning. I had not then been insulted. Do you forget I am a Russian ; and think you can treat me as you will—keep me waiting while—bah, it is unbearable. Will you go away? Is there no sense of manliness in you that will make you leave me? Must I call for assistance? I will do that if you do not leave me. You can write what you have to say. But please spare me the pain of seeing you again.”’ Her words cut me to the quick, but then roused me also. ‘“ You had better call for assistance,’’ I answered firmly. ‘Then I crossed to the door, locked it, and put the key in my pocket. ‘‘ I will spare you the pain of another interview, but now that I am here, I decline to go until I have explained.’’ ‘You cannot explain,’’ she burst in. The word seemed to madden her. ‘*Cannot explain what ?”’ ‘‘That woman’s kisses !”’ The words appeared to leap from her lips involuntarily, and she repented them as soon as uttered; and drawing herself up she tried to appear cold and stolid. But this attempt failed completely; and in her anger at the thought behind the words, and with herself for having given it utterance, she stood looking at me, her boson heaving and tossing with agitation, and her face and eyes aglow with an emotion which, with a strange delight, I saw was jealousy. There came a long pause, during which I recalled her mauner and the way she had played with my words while on one of our rides when we had spoken of Devinsky’s proposal to make her his wife. I have always been slow to read women’s hearts, and have generally read them wrong ; but I began to study this one with a sense of new and peculiar pleasure. She was growing very dear to me for a Sister. If my guess was right, my conduct with that infernal woman, Paula Tueski, must have been gall and wormwood to Olga. How should I have relished it had the positions been reversed, and Devinsky been in Paula Tueski’s place ? These thoughts which flashed across me in rapid succession produced a peculiar frame of mind. I had stood a minute in silence not looking at her, and when I raised my eyes again to her I was conscious of sensations toward her that were altogether different from anything I had felt before. She had become more beautiful than ever in my eyes; I, more eagerly anxious to please and appease ; while at bottom there was a dominant fear that I might Eomicbooks (S@)