Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-14
CHAPTER VII.

IN URING the long evening while l sat in
my little new home waiting for Norman
l. to come home thought the whole mat
ter out. I realized great many things as
sat there, but the most important of them all
was that must not allow Norman to suspect
the true state of my mind.
1 had married him, knowing what he was,
and even now although 1 admitted frankly to
myself that l was furiously jealous I forced
myself to be reasonable
I told myself over and over that Norman
had chosen me, that it was l whom he loved,
and no one else, and whatever his reason was
for remaining in the city in order to take
Alice to dinner, it was probably good one.
I came pretty near to realizing, as I
thought matters over, that I was no super.
woman. l had let myself in for great deal
of suffering, but I had done it with my eyes
open and had no one to blame. Therefore I
would never show by flicker OF the eyelash
that cared what Norman did. 1 would accept
pity and commiseratiCn from no one although
knew that my friends in Hilton would all
be ready to sympathize with me, while behind
my back they would shake their heads sadly
and say that they had known all along it
would happen.
1 regretted one thing, and that was the
fact that Norman and had decided to settle
in Hilton.
At first 1t had seemed a delightful arrange
ment. 1 had met Norman first at tha
Hunters. He had gone to Harvard with Jim,
and Margaret and I had been friends from
early childhood. Of course, the Hunters were
eager for us to come to Hilton to live, and
Arthur and Ruth Fulton had added their per-
suasors as we'll as Alice Wilson At that
time 1 had given little thought to the draw
backs of living in small town. I went occa-
sionally to Hilton to stay with Margaret or
Ruth or Allen, generally when there was
dance at the country club or tennis touTna-
ment CT something of that kind, and the COM
partnership of it all had charmed me. myself
had been brought up in the city, where it
was virtually impossible to drop in informally
on people, and almost before l knew it, Nor
man and I had bought house within walking
distance of all our Hilton friends.
Now / was sorry that l hadn't given the
matter more consideration. In the city Nor
mans delinquencies would not have been no.
ticed. 1 would have been able to hide them
from every one, while here l would be con-
scious Of the fact that my friends were watch
ing me. I would never be free of the feeling
that they were discussing my affairs among
them, and I shrank from the idea of such
thing.
The grandfather's clock In the hall doomed
out ten strokes, startling me out of my
thoughts
Like flash it came to me that Norman
had mentioned taking the nine fifty-tnree. If
he had, he would e home in little over half
an hour. Hope leaped suddenly into my heart,
and with it the thought that perhaps after all
my vivid imagination had painted things in
the blacklist colors. Norman might have
stayed in town on business. I had no real
proof that he was with Alice, and l might
easily be wrong in my suspicious
1 decided suddenly to go to bed. In novels
and stories l had read, the jealous wife always
stayed up waiting agonzedly for the return
of the prodigal husband. l, for one did not
intend to be that kind of wife. Unless the
time came when 1 was sure that Norman no
longer wanted me, I would play the game. I
would fight every woman who happened to
cross my Path, and in each case I would use
the Weapons that she happened to use. Surely
in that way would keep Norman's love- Men,
l knew, hated jealous woman.