Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-09-28
Chapter "

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Loving was to Noras mind part
of a mawkish, questionable expert
ence from which she had escaped
and to which nothing could induce
her to return.
With such a handicap as this. it
Roger Mason should have won,
within a month, absolutely and be.
yond all reservation, the love OF
Nora Sanderson.
Marriages are as the unprotecttesd
mere whir1ing leaves, are swept
when the winds of war are loosed
by destiny. 1t is hard to picture
him Of the palsied arm and pals1ed
budded and blossomed to intensive
fruition as never before, following
the frantic gesture OF him who
plunged a world into conflict.
Nora. that he should resist? The
young man had not planned, by any
means, an early marriage.
He still had his way to make, his
foot was but on the first stepping
stone of the career he, had quite
not the slightest thought of any
thing Use.
When the war broke, his position
as head of a sub-department Of the
big manufacturing company where
he secured employment on leaving
law school-he had abandoned legal
training for the place In CONNER
| cial life two years before-was for
Roger, perhaps, the most important
thing life held.
And the duel that then ensued,
the fight between ambition and pa
triotism, the struggle against that
innate decency which requires man
tn To hn 10Th
have lasted even longer than the
year that Roger held back, had not
fate timed Nora'S entrance on the
scene at that particular period.
From the earliest moment, Nora
was deep in canteen work, bandage
making and all else that her pulsing
patriotism could find to do. With
her there were no conflicting inter-
ests; nothing to be weighed and
measured in the balance; no leash
gallant impulse.
And when she first learned, quite
by accident, of the conflict still in
full sway with Mason, her feeling
was undisguised disgust. They had
known each other slightly as fellow
employees of the same big firm.
Roger had noted each time he passed
ferent manner always served to
heighten.
The young woman, for her part,
had observed with more than usual
interest that Mr.. Mason of the cot
ton seed oil department was hand
some and apparently quite a clever
young man. But that was all.
Perhaps. in due course the ro-
nance would have ripened in any
case: But Fate, impatient of delay,
decided that no more time, was to be
wasted. SO she managed that Nora
Sanderson and Roger Mason should
happen to be alone in one of the
big office rooms at the time a de-
tachment of young men in new
khaki should be passing, headed by
flag and band, in the street below.
The two watched in silence, brok-
en- at last by Nora's exclamation of
impatient longing.
IF only I had taken nurses train
ing when I left school," she. said.
Just think; ! could go, too"
ing there connoted, Nora stared
coldly in his eyes a full moment,
flushing as she did SO, but holding
firm until she was quite sure that
he could read the wonder and con-
turned and without a word made
her way to her inner office. Roger
made his way out also. 1t was not
the first time that year pair of
lovely eyes had looked surprise and
disappointment into his own. But
these last were the eyes of Nora
Sanderson and, therefore, eyes that
burnt and thrilled and burned again
in memory.
Why foreordained to do so, neither
Roger nor Nora nor anybody else
| except, Of course, Madam Destiny,
but never tells them-could be ex-
pected to know.