Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-23
CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER VIII
| In thinking the men who paid her any at
| tention all fortune hunters, Althea probably
misjudged some of them Before they had
not really known her. but taking her out,
| dining at some gay restaurant, at the theater
| or the movies, Althea became more girlish,
| infinitely more attractive. She had keen
| sense of humor, repressed in the store, but
which dubbed when she was with gay peo-
pie. Because of Mollie's urging she spent
! her rent money on clothes and it was won
| derful what even only twenty dollars a
month extra would buy. Then the feel of the
| dainty lingerie-how she loved it! How
could she go back to the coarse, common
things she used to wear?
- Her mind now dwelt often on her legacy.
! She thought of the young men she met in
terms of barter and sale. Was this or that
one worth $4,000? She felt as if the money
were already hers and she was to pay for
| it by buying young man-some one who
| probably would only marry her because he
knew she had money.
But Althea Crosby wanted that money.
Every morning as she shivered in the chill
| Of the rooming house, insufficienty heated
by the old-fashioned furnace, she thought of
those bonds-her bonds, waiting only for
| her to claim them. Every night as she un-
dressed and prepared for bed by the splitter
i
| the light she might have-hundreds of cleo
! trio lights.
The things that had annoyed her, the PIN
! pricks of even fairly successful working
| girls existence would be the very first things
she would have different-all the heat and
! light she wanted, soft beds and downy covers.
Sentiment, romance in a girl, is often
crushed out by some untoward love affair.
| But what sentiment Althea possessed bid
fair to be eliminated by money. girl can't
very well be romantic if her thoughts work
| in this way:
"I wonder if he Is worth it.? I don't have
| to love him? What would I do if married
some one who was always horrid and dis
agreeable?
Every man she met became a prospective
husband. A $4,000 husband. Shit would
have to pay that for him to prevent the
town of Holden paying the same amount for
drinking fountains for dogs and horses.
Much thinking of her legacy unsettled
| Althea; her position in the store became
irksome Now, instead of talking and think
| ing of the few married girls she knew that
| were dissatisfied, she looked about wherever
she went for young couples who seemed
happy together. Her viewpoint was slowly
| changing.
At times she thought of giving up her
work in the store, going to Holden and liv.
ing in her house. But as she had told Mol
lie, there was little she could think of that
anyone could find to do in the little village.
Even for a man there seemed no way to earn
| money, and she couldn't live On air, even
country air.
Mollie's innocent and haive reference to
what she could do when she got her money
helped to unsettle her. Several times she
was on the point of confessing what the
! string was that Althea Crosby had tied to
her legacy, but each time refrained. She
! wanted the money, wanted it desperately
but she also wanted loVe-if she could get
it-a man to ask her in marriage who knew
nothing of the strange will. The cruel, silly
WILL as she now thought of it.
Just because she had been disappointed,
because she had been silly and sentimental,
why did her aunt have to make things so
hard for her?
cts like having something good to eat,
something you like awfully right in front Of
you, and not being able to swallow" Mollie
told her.
Grossly she agreed. She had been sweet
tempered girl, but now she was often ir-
rtable and complained of being nervous.
She had not known she possessed nerves be-
fore She longed to go to places, to do
things that never before had occurred to her,
and brooded over the fact that II she had
her money-the money that belonged to her
She could do whatever she liked. The
$4,000 assumed the proportions OF mill
lion in her mind as she thought of It's posi-
b1lites. She could travel, see Europe other
countries
But to do this she had to have husband.
She thought Of trying to break the will,
even went SO far to consult young law
yer. But he, an honest young man, told her
frankly she didn't have chance in the
world. Miss Crosby had been capable, en-
ergetic woman even up to the day of her
death. Then the town officials would put up
stiff fight for the decorative fountains.
Althea left his office very much cast down.
She must have husband or lose her legacy
The situation now resolved itself into hunt
for a husband, unless some one she could en-
dure wanted her.
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