Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 198: what you’re looking at

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

380 Jack looked at the bill. It was ten dol- lars. Then he glanced at [Mian helptess}y. She beckoned. He followed her to the kitchen. “ Isn’t it a mess!” he protested. ‘Who do you suppose these people are?”’ She began to laugh. ‘“ TH& deaf old man’s nephew, I guess! Wait until they come together ig the morning!” ~ ~~ To him it was no laughing matter. ‘“‘ We won’t be here in the morning to see it!” he announced with determnation. “This is no honeymoon!” She went over to him and fingered the lapels of dis coat. ‘‘ How are we going to get away, dear? Walk—in the rain?” He drew her close. ‘I’m not going to have you cook wonderful dinners for every _ deaf tartar, lisping baby-doll, and new-rich idiot in the Berkshires!’’ he muttered. “Ym going to prepare one more!” she rejoined, ‘‘ and the best of the three, too!” . He said nothing. Conversation became unnecessary. The couple in the dining-room disposed of everything they found upon the table before them, even to mopping up with bits of bread the butter which had dripped from the roasted chicken. Finally—it was nearly midnight now— the man of the combination mvacied the kitchen. - “You ’’—indicating Jack—“ will get the _ bags from the car and carry them up while I run the machine out to the garage! You ” —t to Lillian—‘“ will attend my wife!” He strode out with dignity. . Jack looked at Lillian. She gasped. To be maid as well as cook! Then they smiled, and as he hurried out to gét the bags she went in to Amy. Amy rose somewhat foolishly as Lilian came in. She seemed about to speak, then thought better of it and led the way up- stairs. Lillian lighted the pink-and-white room in front, and tHe smaller girl took it all m with the naive pleasure of a child. Jack entered with the bags and departed, closing the door. Lillian opened the bag which presumably was Amy’s, and began taking out the things, as she had watched servants do it in the moving pictures. Amy came to her finally. ‘“ You know,” Cc. = ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. uw ecstasy :- © rd she admitted, ‘“I—I never had a maid! I’m—I'm not used to being waited on this way at all!” . Lillian smiled, somehow finding she was growmg to like the other girl. Then some- thing struck her. ‘I thought you lisped!” she remarked. Amy dimpled. “ That’th for Hubert! He thinkth it maketh me cute!,” Lillian laughed. Ary, smiling, removed her coat and slipped out of her skxt. Lil- lian took the suit, finding a place to hang it in the closet. She noticed it was of splea- didly soft material. Amy, tongue unloosened, seemed bound to talk. ‘“‘ It cost two hundred dollars, that suit!’’ she announced. Already she had ‘forgotten that she had an attendant. She threw her waist into a chair, a careless ball, and began to arrange her hair for the night. ‘ Everything is new and expensive,” she went on. “ This ’’—coloring prettily— ‘this is: my honeymoon, and I’m so happy!” In the glass, in proportion to the rest of her tiny features, her eyes seemed impossibly big. The conquest was complete. Lilhan har- ried to her side, forgetting her réle. “I am on my honeymoon also!” she explhamed: softly. Amy swung around | in her chair before the glass, her hair gathered up now in an attractive knot, and held in place by a sin- gie. hairpin. She looked at Lilhan with eyes swimming, for theirs was the closest of bonds—each bride venturing forth upon an expedition into a land of rose tmts and gokien fancies. Flingmg two slender, bare arms about the older girl, she murmured in “ }thn’t it wonderful!” It was Amy’s stock expression, rather than a lapse into her’ affectation. Lilian refastened the other’s hair, which had nearly slipped down; and then the lit- tle bride ran over to the bed, kicking one . pump under it, the other under the dresser. Leaning back in the smothering softness, and overbalancing because she did net an- ticipate finding it so yielding, she pulled off her two stockings, one with each hand,-for all the world like a child of eight or nme; then, Straightening up, she fingered the firm, heavy silk in sheer delight. Gon AOO G SS COlini