Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-22

L as ne left her had shaken he"
very soul.
1T will be the end" she said wear
lily as she gave Adele her promise to
write him in the morning.
1T will be the beginning!" Adele
declared. You never would have
been happy with this between you,
never been safe, never at peace"
1T seems to me, Adele, that / have
muddied away all my chances of
happiness, Why couldn't have met
Lansing first? Oh, 1 shall be so
afraid he will leave me! L am 60
frightened that I will lose him!"
You won't, dear" Adele told her
Now I must go to bed, and so must
you, Try and believe, trust, and have
faith that everything is coming out
all right; that you are to be HAPPY
Put unhappy thoughts away-we are
told they react on others you know.
Now good night, and sleep we'll"
But neither Helen nor Adele slept.
Helen miserably unhappy and doubt
full; Adele fearful that with the
morning Helen would refuse to keer
her promise for fear she would lose
Lansing.
Adele left in the morning without
seeing Helen. Either she would tell
Lansing now, or she never would.
But all DAY she almost unconsciously
prayed that the letter would be writ
tSiiJ IA4CAG 4LS1S1l NOu1C hSSp uGI pIOul-
Use.
1T was a very pale, very distressed
Helen that sat at her desk that morn
ing. Before she had had hec coffee
a box of flowers had come from
Lansing and a tender loving note.
Great tears he'd on the note and
fell on to the flowers as she bent
over them, inhaling not only their
sweetness but the love that had
caused him. to send them.
Finally she commenced her letter,
the letter that she firmly believed
would blast all her hope of happi-
ness, that would lose her Lansings
love.
Dear Kirk:-IIow can L write you?
Yet must. L have tried not to think
1t necessary, tried to think I've
would be happier if you never knew
But it cannot be. Adele has trie,,
for a long time to make me see that
no happiness could come to us-n1
lasting happiness if L married you
without telling you-what it almost
when you have read you can no Ion
ger love me.
My only excuse for not telling you
before, Kirk, is that 1 love you so
dearly 1t has mace a coward of me
L feared you would not forgive me
the deceit [ practiced; feared you
would not trust me, because of my
age-rather because l mid the
fact that I had been married from
you-and that 1 had been deceived
that my marriage was no marriage at
all because of that other-his wife
You forgave that, and condoned my
foolish escapade with Clifford Sloane.
GU have been an angel Of forgive
ness--hoW can L try you further?
Yet L must. And l must hurt you
moroe, than [ hurt myself, dear.
Love, love, remain kind to me in your
thoughts! 1t is SO hard to write
so hard.
when you left me last night you
said that perfect love, trust, and
faith were ours, and because of that
we would surely be happy.
1T is because Of that-What you
sa1d-that ! must write you, not be-
cause of Adele's urging, I have de-
not tell you; that l would not lose
your love. But something within me
seemed to break when you spoke;
something tells me that 1 must tel;
you now. 1 am compelled.
I need not go over what you al
ready know. That terrible time when
l first heard that 1 was no wife al"
though L had been married-as sup
posed. You know how it scared my
very soul; how it numbed every fac
ulty. You also know that I felt no
sorrow, that L dsepised and hated the
man to whom l thought myself
bound. This makes what l did harder
perhaps for you to understand. 1
know now that I never had cared
for him. 1t was a wilful, girlish
whim.
II told you that dad died about the
time [ married, that [ had no rela-
tives. When you judge me, remem-
Der, dear, that had no one NO place
to go, no one in whom to confide If
L allowed my heart to pour itself out
T OH ns -l1 a n
it is to me to write. But 1 must
not.
when in his rage he told be that
[ was not his wife l was absolutely
numb and dumb. I could neithe"
speak nor move. Then when I under
stood 1 was SO helpless, no one to go
to, and-nO money. He took every
penny away from me; did it, l now
think, to make me do exactly what !
did.
Il should have walked barefooted
away from him on my hands and
knees. But, Kirk, did not. For two
weeks after I knew, 1 stayed with
him. God only knows how L loathe
myself-how l would give all l have
in the world if could blot out that
two weeks
Now you know all, dear! have
kept nothing back. You know all my
degradation, all I have suffered;
how 1 have sinned. What perhaps
you do not know is how much l love
YOU. oh, my dearest dear, l have no
hope that you will forgive; that even
such love as you have shown can
stand this last this supreme test Of
forgiveness. You would be almost
God to come to me now. But it will
kill me to give you up-I must write
like this. Life is hard for some of
us, isn't it, Kirk?
Some day when you can forget
let me hear that you have forgiven
HELEN"
(To Be Continued.)
The Licinian law of Rome, eff