Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-30
HER MONEY
BY CAROLYN BEECHER

ID OFAINOL ~ DLhSllLN
What has gone before-Althea Crosby,
dying, leaves her home and $4,000 in
bonds to her orphaned niece and namesake.
The $4,000 becomes the girls on the day
she marries, provided it is before she is 80.
The condition was prompted by the love-
less and lonely last days Of the old maid.
Althea rents out the home at Holden and
resumes her work in New York DEPART
ment store, and her roommate, Molly, tells
Althea's friends about her good luck. AL
thea begins to fret over the condition in
the will, and falls in love with young DR..
Peter Graham.-Now go with the story.
CHAPTER XII
THOUGH Peter Graham's unmistak-
~ able interest in her was softening
Althea's attitude toward life, it did
not make her any easier to live with, so
Mollie declared.
Knowing he was her lover, even though
he had not declared himself Althea wanted
him mercilessly. She would know-if she
could-if it was only the money she would
have that he cared for, or if it was herself.
All this was profoundly distasteful, but she
felt it necessary Didn't she have until she
was thirty-five to decide? But would she
care then? She would be almost old and
the things she longed for now would per-
haps lose their allurement.
y Would Peter wait upon her 1ndecision?
She had heard that doctors married early;
| that people preferred married man as a
the one almost startling idea She wanted
! Peter. Wanted him more than she wanted
| the money that she could have by taking
| him. .N
Vague visions Of a happy future as his
wife floated before her eyes. doctor held
a good social position, looked up to.
He was young enough to win peoples con-
! fldence. Peter was thirty-two.
Althea had been in particularly uncer-
tain mood all through dinner 1t was Sum
! day and she was dining with Peter at a
| small restaurant. In the course of the con-
| yersation she remarked that every one lived
Tor themselves-tried to get all they could.
Il think you are mistaken" Peter said.
| Then you don't think people are always
! on the make, just looking out for number
one?" she asked, more to hear him talk
| than that she had thought much on tha
subject,
"Of course not! That's rotten idea to
| hold in ones mind. I believe there are
hundreds of men and women who lead abb
solutely unselfish lives, who give them
selves to others to try and help. to make
the world less unhappy, a better place to
i've; There is no joy like service
II dare say what you say is true, only I
never happen to have met that kind"
! She changed the subject. Later She wou1d
| think over what he had said
. AT home, thinking it over. she wondered
II ne were quite honest, if what he said an
pned to himself as well as to Others. II
ne would give himself to make another
Happy II ne were to gain nothing?
She smiled cyncalIy.
MAD ne made that speech not knowing
ABOUT her money she might. probably would
lave DeheVed he meant it, but now it was
asking too much of her credulity
| II only Mollie had not told him,
Below all these innocuous conversations
Althea hello within herself unrecorded in
any words, deep within her ached the fear
| ta is tnls money she so wanted would cut her
| off from love.
| In the beginning Mollie's interest in her
chum's affair with Peter Graham was onlv
one OF friendly curiosity. But as time
passed and nothing happened she firted a
| bit with the good-looking young doctor.
thinking that if Althea didn't know her own
mind, making her jealous might helm her
Then, too, she really liked Peter, would have
quickly grabbed him had she the chance He
was tar more attractive than the clerks in
the store and had more and interesting
things. to talk about.
Althea saw, and her heart-strings tighten
| ed: Had she been too cold? She had shut
OH MS ardor often, too often perhaps. She
became little keener softer. Not so often
| did she show her moodiness to Peter.
| Seeing, his love-making gathered conf
nence, yet was not the less considerate In
its sef-control; it was as if he planned a
siege And Mollie, knowing her little firta-
tlous ways had no effect on him but were
perhaps acting as a spur on Althea, smiled
roguishly and kept right on.
Cant she see he's crazy over her. that
he don care about her money-that it's her
he wants?" she said in disgust. "I'lI bet 7
wouldn't be blind"
Althea kept a grain of applicability
against Peter, but it grew harder and harder
TO DO so. Young, very much in love- longing
with all her soul to give way to the prompt
1ngs Of that love, yet she held back only be-
cause of it.
IF I didn't love him I could marry him
and not care II he was after my money"
she told herself. No could reap any
benefit from it without her permission
Then to show her state of mind, when
Peter spoke Of needing some expensive
equipment and said he would have to wait
while to get it, she felt like rushing right
off and buying it for him.
She admired his energy, liked him to be
ambitious, but above and beyond that love
surged In her. demanding, urging her to take
what the gods had given her.
Continued Thursday. Renew your sub.
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