Argosy, September 1955 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

ELIXIR OF LOVE i f “You don’t want any more of this party, do you?” “Oh, I’m glad you asked me, ’cause I don’t.” “What say we slip out?” “Oh darling.” “We don’t want to stay any longer.”’ “J don’t want to, darling.” ‘““Let’s go. We can get out by the kitchen door.” “ But this dress—? ” ce Ch” “1 don’t care about the dress, darling.”’ “The bags are in the car. Slip out through the kitchen and Pll follow you.” Well, it is not unusual for bride and groom to steal away from the wedding reception; and I suppose the attempt is made un- successfully even more often. In this case the attempt was quite successful. I saw them pass unobtrusively through the crowd, and vanish into the kitchen. No one else noticed them go, and it was some time before their absence was commented upon. And by then no one seemed to care. Old Jones had his arm round Mrs. Jones’s waist, and there were precious few waists that did not have arms round them. It was the most affectionate party I have attended in years, and, unlike parties where serious drinking is undertaken, it did not last very long. It seemed almost no time after the departure of the bride and groom had been commented upon before the guests began to slip away by ones and twos—by twos more than by ones. Dorothy and I were hardly home before the telephone rang, and it was Macnamara at the other end. ‘* T want you to pour it into the pool tonight,”’ he said. ‘““ Pour what? ” I asked, and I had hardly said the words before I guessed most of what he was going to say. “The bottle of liquid that I left for you. I want to try its effect while the goldfish aren’t chasing.” ‘““T haven’t seen any bottle,” I said. ‘‘ Where did you leave it?” “I couldn’t get any reply when I came to your house,” ex- plained Macnamara. “ I guessed you were at the Jones wedding, so I went on to Jones’s. I just got there as everyone was begin- ning to come from the church, so I gave the bottle to the waitress and ran. Didn’t she give it to you?” “* J think she was too flustered to remember it,” I said, with a clear recollection of the cateress mixing that punch. “Well, can you go back and get it? Id like to start the test tonight.” comiclbooks.conn