Page:Weird Tales Volume 7 Number 6 (1926-06).djvu/7

The
Foot Fetish
by Howard R. Marsh

"She shrank from the burning glances of the leering, luring eyes which appraised her golden beau-u-ty!"

June Hubbard struck a dramatic pose, one arm crooked before her face, the other extended as if to ward off a blow. She was jostled forward, almost from her feet, by hurrying pedestrians behind her. Still she maintained her pose, murmuring, "The beady little eyes, set deep in the yellow faces, seemed to caress her beau-u-ty!" With dramatic impulse she hid her face in her furs, mocking fear of those "leering, luring eyes."

A dozen paces ahead of her a tall, gray-haired man, suddenly conscious of her absence from beside him, turned and pushed back. Before his long arms tourists, shoppers and Chinese men in heterogeneous garb fell aside as snow from before a plow. In a moment he was beside the girl.

"June, don't act so like a child!" he ordered, grasping her arm. "What's the use———?"

"Dad, don't be angry with your only daughter!" June's blue eyes begged forgiveness even while their depths brimmed with mirth. "Honestly, I had to have one outburst! For years I have been reading about the 'leering, luring eyes of Chinatown'. Magazines, books full of terrible eyes! And all afternoon I've been watching for some of them. Dad, there isn't a pair of leering, luring eyes in all Chinatown unless they're set in the head of that Irish policeman who's holding up that corner store. I came down into Chinatown expecting to feel cold shivers as 'beady eyes watched and appraised but never promised'. Dad, I haven't been appraised once!"

Mr. Hubbard's scowl of vexation vanished; a smile replaced it. It was a sudden smile, one of the attractions of his lean brown face. "You're forgiven, June." His voice had the same muted vibrancy as the girl's.