Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

‘ 304 He pushed his way slowly through the crowd and the minister followed him. There were whispered comments as they passed and a shuffling of feet as the groups re- formed behind them. Every one was de- termined to see for himself what was to come. Dusk had fallen and as they stepped into the living-room Mrs. Grant was placing a lighted lamp upon the table. Jim Amsden glanced about him sharply. Then he walked forward and spread out the handful of jewelry in the circle of light. “J want you to tell me how these came here, Flora.” The girl lifted her head from her mother’s shoulder and stared at him. Mrs. Wi in-, slow’s dry lips moved. “Flora doesn’t know—anything about them,” she said. There was a slight stir in the hall as a ‘young man shouldered his way out of the group by the door. Dark, thin-faced and muscular-looking in his flannel shirt and corduroys he lounged forward deliberately to the table. One by one he picked up the trinkets there—the ring, the earrings, and the bracelets—examining them in the lamplight and dropping each contemptuous- ly. Then without glancing up he laughed and turned away. Flora Winslow started from her chair, shaking off her mother’s determined hand. “TI want to tell about those things,” she cried, “ and I want Will Davis to hear what I say!” Her blue eyes flashed at the young fel- low as he stopped half-way to the door. He had not turned toward her, but he stood listening. “Mr. Swain gave me those things, be- cause I promised to marry him. But I only promised to marry him, because I had quar- reled with Will.” She came forward to the table and stood facing the minister. There was a faint flush in her cheeks now and her lips trem- bled. ‘There isn’t any use in saying I wasn’t here at the parsonage this afternoon—the way mother .wants me to! She thinks we can keep every one from knowing why I came. But you talked with me, Mr. Grant, and ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. other people must have seen me come up the path with Mr. Swain. We came to be | married. We planned it more than a week She kept her glance fixed on the minis- ter’s face. ‘Whenever he met me he used to tell me how much he cared for me and hint what it would mean to marry a rich man like him. And he used to buy me presents. He’d show them to me and—sometimes— I’d keep them for a while. But I always gave them back. He said he locked them away and that they’d all belong to me again on the day I promised to be his wife. “I always wanted jewelry and pretty clothes and I never had them. Semetimes I used to put on the things he’d buy me and wear them just in my room, where mother wouldn’t know. I put the earrings * on once to tease Will—when we were going driving together, and I told him they were a present from some one I could marry any time I said the word. I didn’t know he’d be so angry. He hadn’t any right to talk to me the way he did.”” At the recollection of the quarrel she clenched her hands. “I said he’d begun telling me what I could do and what I couldn’t a little too soon! I'd had nothing but that all my life. told him I could marry some one who’d et me have my own way—-who’d think everything I did was right and who’d be rich enough so that other people would have to think so, too.” “It sounds foolish now! I kept hoping afterward that Will would feel ashamed of the way he’d acted and would come and tell me he was sorry—and I waited. I waited until I got so angry T decided he didn’t care. “ Mr. Swain gave me a silk dress for the wedding and I had it made up without let- tng mother know. He said we'd go to the city and I could buy whatever I wanted. He said I could bring home trunks full of clothes. I kept thinking of that. But I never could have come here to the parson- age to-day if I hadn’t kept telling myself that I was angry at Will and it wasn’t until I saw how you felt about it, Mr. Grant, that I began to realize what I'd done.”’ comicitoe SS ww (CO