Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-05
Forty-Ninth CHAPTER.

VI on our return to England. We
were to reach home by easy
stages so as to see some of the great
capitals Of Europe, but l had no in
terest in the journey
Our first stay was at Monte Carlo,
that sweet garden of the Mediter-
ranean which God seems to smile
upon and man TO curse.
If I had been allowed to contem-
plate the beautiful spectacle of ma
ture, think could have been con-
tent, but Alma, with her honeyed and
insincere words, took me to the Ca
sino on the usual plea of keeping her
in countenance.
l hated the place from the first
with its stale air, its chink Of louis
dor its cry of the croupiers, its
strained faces about the tables and
its general atmosphere of wasted
hopes and fears and needless misery
and despair
AS often as l could I crept out to
look at the flower fetes in the streets
or to climb the hill of La Turbie and
think l was on my native rocks with
Martin Conrad, or even to sit in my
room and watch the poor wounded
pigeons from the pigeon traps as they
tumbled and ducked into the sea aftar
the shots fired, by cruel and unsports-
manlike sportsmen, from the rifle
range below.
In Monte Carlo my husbands vices
seemed TO me to grow rank and fast
The gambling fever took complete
possession of him. At first he won,
and then he drank heavily, but after
ward he lost, and then his nature be-
came still more ugly and repulsive.
One evening toward o'clock | was
in my room, trying to comfort a
broken winged pigeon which had
come floundering through the open
window, when my husband entered
with wild eyes.
THE reds coming up at all the ia
bles," he cried breathlessly. Give
me some money quick!"
I told him | had no money except
the few gold pieces in my purse.
you've a cheque book-give me a
cheque, then"
told him that even If I gave him
a Cheque he could not cash 1t that
night, the banks being closed.
THE jewelers. are open, though,
and you have jewels, haven't you?
Stop fooling with that creature and
let me have some of them to pawn"
Pointed to Jewels.
The situation was too abject for
discussion so I pointed to the drawer
in which my jewels were Kept and lie
tore it open, took what ne wanted and
went out hurriedly without more
words.
After that I saw no more Of him
Q, A.. nh wit h4onl piOcre
about his eyes he came in to say he
must leave this accused place" i'm
mediately or we should all be ruined.
Our last stopping place was Paris
and in my ignorance of the great
French capital which has done so
much for the world I thought it must
be the sink of every kind of corrup
ton.
We put up at a well-known hotel
in the Champs Elysees, and there las
well as in the cafes in the Bots and
at the races at Longchamps on Sun
days. we met the same people again,
most Of them English and Americans
on their way home after the winter,
il seemed to me strange that there
should he so many men and women IN
the world with nothing TO do. merely
loafing round ii Ike tramps-the ricl-
est being the idlest, and the idIeSt
the most immoral.
My husband knew many Frenchmen
of the upper classes, and ! think ne
snent several hours every day at their
clubs. but (perhaps at Alma's m
stigation) he made us wallow through
the filth of Paris by night.
1T will be lots of fun" said Alma.
"And then who is to know us in
places like those
At Communion.