Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-29
THE SUPERIOR SEX
BY HAZEL DEYO BACHELOR
CHAPTER LII
Mother and DAUGHTER

Mother and Daughter
r T was the last of March when Marcia car
ried Anne away to Virginia, to one of the
- most famous resorts in that part of the
country. Their rooms in the hotel were
! beautifully appointed, and there was nothing
! TO do all day long but take walks and ,bask
! in the sunshine that flooded the long We
! randas and the terrace
! The two women were strangely congenial,
and Anne found herself growing very fond
| of Marcia. She found under her rather
| naughty exterior many qualities that she had
never suspected, and one day she told Marcia
| her strange story from start to finish
! When she had finished she said quite sim
! ply, II wanted you to know so that you
would understand everything, but l realize
now how wrong was in thinking that I
could ever bury the past. That was where
How do you l1'n mean, dear?" Marcia's voice
was strangely gentle.
tits mistake to fear anything" Anne
said suddenly.
Marcia nodded. Eyes. think that's
quite true. And besides, you had done moth
| ing wrong"
Anne's white face turned a scorch red.
you don't understand" she said in half
whisper. I felt soiled, degraded, as though
my very soul had been blackened It WASH t
| strange that I felt my one chance for re-
demption lay in forgetting. I was glad that
l had no one very near me; it seemed a
| blessing that my mother never knew; it
would have hurt her so terribly"
| Marcia led the conversation around to
Anne's people, in order to get the girls mind
away from those three horrible years. and
| Anne responded with something like en-
! thusiasm. She told of her early girlhood in
| the sleepy old Connecticut village, and of
| the death of her father when she was ten
! years old.
"He was a DOCTOR" she explained simply.
'and of course he did not leave mother and
me very much to get on with. Mother died
! when was 16, and I sold the house and fur
niture and went to New York. I wanted to
sing" she said with a little laugh. ST had
the idea l could make my fortune with my
voice. Isn't that absurd? I didn't realize
! then how many years of study and what a
very great deal of money it takes to develop
even very big voice and mine never
| that
Marcia was silent, but her thoughts were
very busy. She was thinking that during all
Anne's recital she had never once mentioned
| Johns name. She had made no slightest
reference to him in all the time the two
women had been together and Marcia Won
| dered at this. What did it signify? Was
it a good or bad omen, and how was she
| to find out?
| AS the days .passed Anne grew physically
| stronger. She lost that look of fragility
that had been hers when she had first ar
rived at Pine Crest, but Marcia noticed at
| CuG uOCG1 CudL sue dNO1uou p6OplG,
men. In the dining room, if she happened
| by chance to encounter the gaze of a man at
some adjoining table, she would shrink as
| though some one had struck her, and in
| stantly avert her eyes. Marcia understood
| this, but she wondered if this feeling in
Anne would persist. She had reached a
| point where she coveted Anne's love for her
son, not only because she knew that John
needed it, but because she had grown fond
of the girl and appreciated her worth. She
longed for chance to talk to Anne about
it, but the girl gave her no opportunity, and
then finally there came day when Anne
came to Marcia with the news that she must
go away.
! $50 far I've been drifting" she said visit
! fully, land all my life I'll remember what
you have done for me, but mustn't let you
do anything more. 1 must work out my
! problem for myself"