Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

THE ORCHID HUNTRESS. “So de—others!” said Norine Lawton. Her eyes narrowed slightly as though in displeasure, then lightened with girlish daughter. 3 “ Marriage!” She gave her attention fully to her questioner. ‘‘ Marriage is so ‘frightfully permanent, Mr. Cordon! It’s like—this gown! Only the gown can be remade while a husband—the only addl- tions he would be likely to undergo are adipose tissue and a dyspeptic disposition!” ‘Afraid you're’ cynical!”’ Cordon stroked his well-clipped gray mustache and drew his’ brows together in an expression ludicrously firm. ‘‘ Very cynical! Bad policy, Miss Lawton! Very bad policy!” But Norine was not looking at him. She had turned to Masters. Her brows were questioning, her mouth puckered in mock anxiety. “You’re not pleased,” she began. Then —‘“ So you think it is a bad policy, too! I wonder—perhaps it is.” “Not at all!” stammered the young man. “I was just thinking—” “T wasn’t that kind of a girl after all,” Norine completed the sentence for him. Her brows wrinkled slightly with the plead- ing of her lips. ‘ I’m not always cynical! Perhaps, after all, it’s just a pose.” “TI thought so,” said Ranfield Masters. “The music, Miss Lawton!” James Cordon was rising. As they swept away, Masters had a glimpse of her eyes and surprised in them a new expression, a narrowed, thoughtful concentration as though Norine Lawton were trying to solve some very knotty question. He left the divan and wandered past a conservatory, atinkle with the flow of fountains, its Roman benches well hid- den in flower-screened nooks, but easily lo- cated by the sound of low voices; down a wide, soft-rugged hall to Jim Lennon’s smoking-room. Laurie Truedale sat there alone, though from the den beyond came the voices of men and the rattle of poker chips. ‘Hello, Laurie!”’ said Masters, and seat- ed himself across the table from his friend. “Hello yourself!’’ Laurie mouthed the words around his, thick cigar. ‘“‘ Are you giad or sorry I dragged you here?”’ 291 ‘It’s not so bad!” “Indeed it isn’t when you’ve just fin- ished dancing with Norine Lawton!” Laurie smiled a little as he listened to the music coming in the open door. Mas- ters answered the thrust with a boyish grin that showed white slightly crooked teeth. His smile was the only very noteworthy thing about him, unless you included his pleasant gray eyes that were wide-set, and dreamy except when they responded to the humor of his parted lips. “That was a corking fox-trot!” he mused. ‘She seems to throw an electric spark into a fellow and warm the old en- gine up a bit! Makes you hit off steps you never dreamed of*before. Does she affect you that way?” ‘“ Something like it!” admitted Truedale, smoothing his vest over the place whose rotundity betrayed him as nearing forty. ‘And that’s not the only step she inspires you to, my young friend!” ‘Sorry to be dense! But I don*—” “The marriage step. She makes you think of duplex apartments on—say Fifty- Seventh near the avenue! She trains your mind to a twosome, and then—”’ as Yes! ” ‘Brings you back to your room at the club with a thud that could be felt from here to the Battery!” ‘And you’ve thudded?”’ ‘“Um-m-m! Rather!” said Laurie with sudden reluctance to further confidence. ‘““Who’s that Jerry chap she fills her program with?” “Jerry Brent. Nobody seems to know overmuch about him. Her find, I guess. The first time I ever saw ‘him was at a dinner of Jean Fathom’s last spring. Since then he’s pretty well trailed around wherever Norine went.”’ , ‘“ Engaged?” Masters was painstaking- ly pulling a minute brown flake from the cigar he was about to light. ‘“'That’s what the crowd is asking. They all seem to agree—not yet. Norine rather shies at marriage, though, according to re- port; she’s had a voluntary offering of most of the young eligibles and a few middle- aged chaps like—” “Yourself, eh True?” 3| (oe) (9) Eom <S (E(0) mn