Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-06

~YNOPSIS. Daniel ONeill, powerful self
- made man. forces his only daughter Mary
into a loveless marriage with the impe-
cunrous and proAigate Lord Raa that his
ambition 10 have his descendants the rightful
heirs Of the one earldom In ELAN may be real
lied Mary, cOnvent-raised young woman
shocked TO find her husband man Of sordid
sensual passions, refuses utterly TO have any
thing 20 do with him until such time as he can
prove himself worthy OF her love. During the
honeymoon abroad Alma Lier. divorce who
had been expelled from the convent Mary at
tended in Rome, attaches herself the party,
and makes the honeymoon trip long series
of sights and insults for Lady Raa
At last Lady Raa becomes certain Of the in
fidelity Of her husband and Of HIS misconduct
Mary encounters her old playfellow, Martin
Conrad. who has returned from his triumphant
expedition to the Antarctic. Drawn into ever
closer relations with the only man for whose
friendship she had ever cared, Mary finally
awakes to the fact that she is hopelessly In
love with Martin. Terrified by this knowledge
and finding herself more and more in love with
Martin she determines to run away from the
cause Of her distress. and go home.
Mary's Homecoming to Castle Raa is a sad
affair. Her husband fills the tumbledown old
mansion with his fast friends from London, in
Guiding Alma Lier. who assumes control Of the
household. Ultimately the illness OF her father
tolerable environment. But before visiting her
old home Mary appeals in turn to her bishop
Published by Permission Of and Copyright
1918, by HEARsTs MAGAZINE.
TINDING it necessary to account for my
r self just as at the boarding house, had
adhered to my former name but said
was the widow of a commander lately lost at
sea, which was as near to the truth as dare
venture.
had also made no disguise of the fact that
I was expecting a child, circumstance which
secured me much sympathy from the womanly
women who we're now my neighbors.
q, oh
I was alone l occupied myself in the making of
clothes for my baby-buying linen and flannel
and worsted, and borrowing patterns from my
Welsh landlady
This stimulated my tenderness toward the
child that was to come for the heart Of a young
mother is almost infante, and ! hardly know
whether to laugh or cry when | think of the
childish things | did and thought and said to
myself in those first days when | was alone in
my room in that back street in Bayswater
Thus long before the baby was born |
christened her. At first / washed to call her
Mary, not because / cared for that name my
self, but because Martin had said 1t was the
most beautiful in the world. In the end, how
ever, called her Isabel Mary. because Isabel
was my mothers name. and she had been far
better woman than | was), and as | finished
my babys garments one by one used to put
them away in their drawer. saying to myself:
That's Isabel Marys binder. or Isabel Mary's
christening robe as the case might be.
! dare say It was all very foolish. There are
tears in my eyes when | think of IL now, but
there we're none then, for though there we're
moments when, thinking of Martin. felt as II
life we're for ever blank and bare, was al
most happy in my poor surroundings and II It
were a cage had fixed myself in there was al
ways a bird singing inside of 1.-THE bird that
sang in my own bosom.
when Isabel Mary comes everything will be
all right" used to think
But what about the child itself?
being born out of the pale Of the law, as
my husband would say 1t must be, an outcast,
a thing of shame. without father to recognize
It, and with its mothers sin TO lash its back
for everi
When ! thought of that, much as had longed
for the child that was to be living link be-
tween Martin and me, asked myself If | had
any right to wish for it.
felt had no right, and that considering my
helpless position, the only true motherly love
was TO pray that my baby might be stborn.
But that was too hard. II was too terrible.
II was like a second bereavement l could not
and would not do it,
Never never, never!" / told myself
Thinking matters out, concluded that pow
erty was at the root of nearly everything II
| could stave of poverty no real harm could
come TO my child
/ determined to do so. But there was only