Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

THE ORCHID HUNTRESS. Her lips parted as though for some bright witticism. Then: her eyes caught his, and what she saw there seemed to make her hesitate. After a moment she said softly, “Thank you!” and turned from him to look idly down into the pit. Her glance al- most instantly met that of a round, well- rouged woman who was staring up at her. Norine inclined her head slightly. The other woman answered the bow. Masters had notieed the incident, for he said: ‘I don’t remember meeting her.” “No. She doesn’t do our sort of thing. Person I met in a more or less business way.” For a moment the people about her faded from Norine’s sensibilities. Her eyes were on the woman in the pit, though she main- tained a pretense of looking at the box be- yond her. Lola Day! Or so she called herself. Norine ad met her once, and in a way that, as she had said, was more or less business. This woman, too, was one of Jerry Brent’s coworkers. But where Norine scaled for him the heights his birth and breeding could not attain, Lola dipped into another world of coarse-jowled, heavy-faced men, quick to make and spend, wary, sus- picious. It was one of these that sat be- side her now, his shoulder pressed against hers, his hand beneath the fur on her lap. To Norine came the words Jerry had said that afternoon: “And now that you’ve rather chucked that highbrow bunch—”’ Chucked that highbrow bunch! Substi- tuting—Lola. Norine half turned to look at Masters’s quiet, high-cast features, but the movement brought Jim Lennon, too, within her range of vision. Did it make any difference after all? she wondered. Could this man beside Lola Day tell a story more spicy than that Jim Lennon had just rehearsed for his wife and her two friends? Was Lola herself less refined than Jean Fathom, always on the edge of divorce because she loved some one better than her husband? Why, the gossip of her had reached even Jerry! Norine’s instinctive loyalty to her own set had made her halt him to-night, but he knew. The thought made her turn and steal a 297 side glance at Jean’s face. It was in re- pose for the instant, and the sulky lips seemed to embody all the dissatisfied aban- don of her nature. Yes, Norine thought, Lola and Jean had much in common. As for Jerry and Masters— Her host had hardly spoken the entire evening. She might as well admit that he was stupid! Jerry’s hand seemed to be on hers, his voice was saying: ‘Ym keen for you, sister! best little pal I’ve ever had!”’ Suppose Jerry kad kissed her in.the taxi that afternoon. An apartment on River- side Drive—fifty-fifty— By Jove! she wished she were with him now. The only difference she could see between him and what he called. her “ highbrow bunch ” was that he was more amusing. Furthermore, she knew Jerry would never have told her the story Jim Lennon had. But her sense of justice had to admit that neither would Ranfield Masters. 7 ‘You haven’t been home very long, have you?” she asked. ‘* Only a few weeks.” “You think you will stay in New York now?”’ “For a while at least. line on business affairs. my lawyer so far.” “Don’t blame you for leaving them. Business must be rotten boring! Unless you dabble in stocks, and I think we agreed the other night that tat was dangerous.” He glanced quickly at her, piqued by her insinuation that he would not be sporting enough to enter an unsafe game. Perhaps it was a princess not so far different from Norine Lawton who had thrown her glove into a lion’s den, that her cavalier might have the very uncertain pleasure of rescu- ing it for her. The strain of the cavaliers has not died, however much the modern cynic may preach to the contrary. So it was Masters said: = ‘Stocks! A fellow might get some fun out of them. I’ve thought of going in for them once or twice.” ‘“‘ Safe thing to avoid, I should imagine. Of course, Jerry Brent plays it, and suc- cessfully. But I think he has rather grown up with it!” You’re the I want to get a I’ve left them to comichook co