Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-04-05
A Song Of
SiXpenCe
Continued from page 81

eight figures. "Need it! Why, my girl
it's "a drop in the bucket-a flea bite
Spend it as you lille-the prettier you make
yourself the prouder shall be of you"
She realized that he thought she might
need it for her trousseau, and the thought
annoyed her 81 have bought all my things
already-all that shall need for the pres
emit
Really" He seemed surprised. "I-I
didn't know you had fortune of your own. u
not quite pauper," she said. 81 at least
do not expect you to buy my clothes until
until we are married.
The thought of their marriage, now SO
near at hand, made him forget the reproof
in her tone.
"Only a week now, Emmy. I've had
the house at Elmwood done up like new.
Mrs. Holmes has engaged a batch of ser
vants-it's beautiful down there in the fall.
Well spend couple of weeks Thereon
longer if you lke-all to ourselves. Then
We'll take the Red1Vlng and ofor cruise to
the Mediterranean.
Emmy was delighted with the prospect.
After all-love-the love she had felt was
soul-racking experience, likely to burn out
and leave one but fallen roCket-with only
its one heavenward flight to cheer the long,
aging years. What Ransome offered her
meant luxury, travel, everything, in fact, that
she had always desired She thought of
Katie, struggling to make ends meet, on
Willow Avenue CHAMBER grinding out
his soul for a few wretched dollars, and
shuddered. Life was giving her just what
she had asked of it, and she had no wish
now to withdraw from the bargain.
Ransome had been making arrangements
for the wedding. He had no relatives, ex-
cept his daughter, who could not, of course,
be present, and a sister of his dead wife
whom he cordially hated. There we're a
few friends, men mostly, who would, per-
haps, want to come-these, with Emmy S
mother, would comprise the wedding party.
Blunt, not over-refned in his ideas,
he fully realized that his social position
in New York, in spite of his yacht his
country estate, his millions, was nil. A big
church wedding would make it necessary
for him to invite a raft of mere aCqualnt-
anCes, who would come only to stare, to
criticize, and, perhaps, secretly to laugh.
He hated them, one and all, because they
only tolerated him and fattered him when
his money could be of use to them. 1t was
his belief in the sincerity, the absence of all
mercenary motives in Emmy, that had
caused him to ask her to marry him. Her
beauty, her vitality, had appealed to him
powerfully, but for that alone he would
not have made her his wife.
1t was arranged that Mrs. Moran, i'm
mediately after the ceremony, was to return
again to Gainesville and make her home
,,;4, Tho oIJ,+;O,, To tho fo
ily-a boy, Emmy learned-would require
her mature experience for some time to
come-at least so she and Katie thought,
and Harvey's opinions in such matters
were, of course, quite unimportant. Emmy
intended to present her mother with check
for S5,OOO-IOO per cent. upon her invest
ment, and also to make her a regular allow
ance. Mrs. Moran's presence in the Cook
household as a paying guest would be a
help to the family exchcquer; they were
all quite delighted with the arrangement.
For some time they had come to regard
Emmy as a being beyond their sphere in
life Mrs. Moran's feelings were not unlike
those of little brown hen who has uneX-
DcCtedly Matched out beautiful bird OF
paradise.
At last the fatcful day arrivcd-a golden
September day, warm and soft and full
of melancholy. Emmy was quiet, subdued,
quite different from her usua! vivacious self.
Ransome sent his car for her and her mother
and met them at the church. He had or
dcred a huge bunch of liles-of-the-valley for
her. but Emmy wore only a few orchids. In
her soft grey gown and demure little hat
that showed its cost only in its exclusive de
sign and rich material, she was far removed