Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-21
CHAPTER XXXV
ImnOrtant Decisions

IN URING his absence Courtney reviewed
/ J the situation between himself and Ior-
/ry from every possible angle. For him
there had never been any other woman, his
love of her had been the biggest thing in mis-
life, and yet he forced to admit that his
love for her did not admit of sacrifice. Ev-
cry time he thought even remotely of giving
her up, passion rose in him like a wall of
| flame. 1t beat down his tenderness it con-
sumed him entirely, and at times like these
he eralized that to have her as his wife even
against her will was something too sweet
to relinquish.
How small thing she was, and yet her
will had been strong enough to hold out
against him. If woman like that ever real
ly gave herself up to loving a man-but
when Courtney reached this point in his
thoughts fear swept over him, fear lest
some other man step in and take the thing
that he. desired more than anything else in
the world
The thought of Lorry's approaching moth
erhood filed him with exultation, but
strange to say he never visualized his child
nor himself as father. Most men desire to
see themselves reproduced in their children,
but Courtney was the type of man who
would always be more of a lover than he
erev was a husband or a father His child.
when it came, would take secondary place in
his heart. Lorry would be his first consid-
Grafton, and Lorry as a mother was wonder
full to him, only because motherhood would
make ner more than ever lovely
AS for Lorry, during the days that follow
ed Coralles dinner party, she, too, had come
to a decision. Her awakening in Corale S
guest room the morning after her meeting
with Tom had made her realize that she
could not let Courtney come back into her
life and dominate her as she had in the past
She must make stand for freedom; she
could not go on with life as it was, and if
she made things clear to Courtney, if she
told him exactly how she felt about every
thing, surely he would see things from her
point of view and they would come to some
kind of an agreement. Lorry had no clear
idea of what she wanted to do, everything
was hazy in her mind, and, of coarse, her
life was not free to plan until after the ar
rival of the baby. But her most pressing
need was to get away from Courtney en-
| tirely; to be free from his influence. Unless
she could do this, reason would snap in her,
she could not go on thinking, thinking and
waking up in the night with the strange
dread clutching at her heart. Surely. Court
ney would understand, if she explained it
to him reasonably, if she could manage to
conquer her fear of him and tell him ex-
actly how she felt.
And so it happened that while Courtney
returned to the city filed with the determi-
nation to hold his wife at all costs, bent on
discovering new methods of wooing her, low
ing her, if possible, more than he ever had
| before Lorry had come to the end of her
rope and was planning open defiance. lire
NAMED to be See which would win out, but
Lorry, in her planning, had forgotten to
take into account one very important thing.
She had made up her mind, while Courtney
was far away from her. to ask him to let
her 60 But what of the strange influence
of his personality, that compelling dominance
Of his that always forced her to surrender
whenever he was near her? "a
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