Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-07-22

we musln [ Whine. You believe me-
Believe you, Jack? l can't bear til
can't can't. Jack it is very cruel. I'm
pound and tied in a net-such net
She broke into passion of sobs and
leaned her head on his arm
Betty, what's troubling YOU? Nothing
fresh? -has-he"-
mo, no. She spoke quickly. as though
IN terror of name being mentioned.
hes done his best-accordng to his
! lights"
Last Request
But If the light within you be dark
ness, how great is that darkness Rim
ington quoted, grimly, under his breath
Betty dear, we haven't many moments;
put before You go | want you to promise
me one thing-if the worst comes to the
worst, II he tries to coerce you in any
way promise me-you will tell your father
the whole truth. | shall be dead then,
Betty"
My father!" whispered the girl, with
SO strange an intonation, so convulsive a
grip on his hand, that Remington added.
quickly:
Or Barrington-better still, your broth
er-1n-law He will cut the meshes of the
net for you. Promise me, darling"
Tony Betty repeated "Oh, Jack
|
ing A vision of Anthony harrington as
she had seen him last f1oated before her
tear-drenched eyes-the vision of a man
| turned to stone with eyes that seemed to
hold only hatred
i movement from the watchers. that
made her cling tighter still.
"eetty"-he bent over her. al must 40
now--eo out of your life forever Before
go want to near you say what you said
TO me under the trees by the river" His
face was near her own. He felt that
nothing could have separated her from
him before he heard her speak.
jack love you! Jack-if could die
for you! II it were only l-onIy myself"
"Jack!" There was such a sharp agony
OF reproach in her voice that he ceased
he could find no words for what he
wished to say-that she was not to waste
ner freshness and her youth on memory
OF him. It was monstrous to think of her
going mourning al! her days.
She strained closed to him.
"Oh, my dear, | love you! | am yours
always, only yours. Whatever may hap
per t. the shell of me, all that an1-the
real Woman-ls yours, and yours only
Jack-Jack-"
The time for parting had come With
out sight or hearing she knew It,
Betty-for my sake keep a brave
'front.' His eyes We're fixed on her face
, IN one last look-on that child's face
grief distorted as it seemed to him now
as It had looked that night down by the
river when the sight of her bag found in
the empty room at Tempest street had
brought back her lost memory
Good bye. His lips touched hers; not
passlonately-there was something sacra-
mental in the last kiss and received at
the altar of death. Then he was gone. He
did not so much as dare to look back.
TO the woman watching him, sick and
faint, hardly knowing where she stood
knowing where she stood, knowing only
| the ache of utter desolation, came a swift
] remembrance of familiar words:
BE not afraid of them that kill the
! body, and after that have no more that
they can do
Jack had no fear. Wronged, trapped
an innocent man going silent to his dea tn
! through love of her, when speech might
perhaps have saved him-Jack had no fear
No, it was for her that fear lurked at
the crossroads. The awful fear of one
able to destroy the soul" of the
man who had already dealt so mortal
blow to her soul
The world rose up to meet her-the reel
ing, swaying world-and the great merci-
full darkness rushed in on her from every
side Overwhelmingly. She cried and
stumbled and fell with the roar of many
waters sounding in her ears.
The Choice
1t was nearly o'clock on the afternoon
of the day following Jack Rimingtons
trial that Edith Darlington awoke. She
woke slowly, after the benumbed manner
| of he 6r11cy alfar fOr, of
onds lay listlessly. with hardly opened
eyes, still half under the influence of her
dreams. feeling that this awakening, so
painful, so horrible, was one of them also
this unfamiliar place of drah uglinesS on
which her eyes rested-one of those phan
toms conjured up by the drug that brought
stupor, if not complete forgetfulness
Then, with little moan, a writhing of
her lax limbs under the coarse sheets
with the weight of blankets heavy with
cotton, she remembered. 1t was no dream,
this drab lodging house bedroom. 1t was
her home-the only place on earth she
could call her home-since the morning
she had fled from her husbands house in
| Princes Gate.
She knew now how mad thing that
flight, which in the moment of her fear
and anguish had seemed the one thing
possible, had been A tacit confession of
guilt-that Anthony harrington judged it
so she knew from the simple fact that, so
far as she could Judge. he had made no
effort to trace her He had been content
that she should disappear out of his life.
Tony-the man she had believed to be the
truest worshiper woman ever had, the
man who had loved her beautiful body,
surely, as well as that hypothetical soul
had cared so little that he had not trou-
hled to discover where that body was
housed or how it was fed. Welt would
he difficult soon for her to tell herself, she
thought. with the surface tears of self
pity rising n her eyes. The small stock
of money she possessed raised on
the few trinkets she had carried away
with er-the simple jewelry Of her unmar-
ried days-a few ornaments belonging to
her mother-would soon be gone. And
after?
The End Of It All.
/ Her thoughts, that had raveled out
formlessly, came to a sudden halt.
To Be Continued in Next Issue.