Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-12
CHAPTER XLVI
The ChOice1

a first, after Stanley Bartons death,
| ~ Anne had felt that she would never
- wipe out the memory of her life with
him. Sometimes she would wake up in the
night crying out with fear and always there
remained with her the feeling that she had
been soied irremediably. No one who has
not endured an experience like Anne's can
realize what it means to have life dragged
down to the level of man like Stanley Bar
ton but those who can realize what she SUI
fered will understand why Anne wanted to
bury it behind her; why she could not bear
to face the thought of 1t even for a moment.
Her marriage with John Steele had been
purely matter of expediency She had done
it for ElinOr, but with the burden of wage
earning lifted from her shoulders life had
again leaped up in her, and the grim specter
of the past had faded tC an occasional fleet
ing memory.
Then had come the revelation of her love
for Steele.
When she had married Stanley Barton she
had been inexperienced she had known
nothing of life or love, and whatever feeling
she had had for him in the beginning had
been killed during the first days of her
marriage.
With Steele had come first the stimulus Of
his companionship, and as the days went by
the knowledge that she could trust him.
This return of her faith was wonderful to
her, and because of it there had grown up
in her a passionate gratitude that was almost
worship.
Surrounded by every luxury she had re-
sponded as flower responds to the sun and
rain, and always there had been in her heart
the knowledge that he loved her. He
showed 1t in hundred ways, in the sudden
smoldering fame in his dark eyes, in the
tightening of his lips, and the trembling of
his hands when they inadvertently touched
her.
He was willing for her to love him, but
so gradual was her response to him that she
was not aware of it until it burst upon her
with its full meaning. At first she was be-
wildered by the strength of her emotion, it
had taken her by storm and intuitively she
sought to hide it from him by coquetry. She
loved him so utterly that she was afraid to
surrender to so blind al emotion but having
surrendered, she loved him not as a girl
loves, but with all the strength of her wom-
anhood.
If she thought at all during the first rap
turous days of her love for him, it was of
the future and not Of the past. 1t was at
these times that she withdrew into herself,
that she became battling and elusive, because
she feared the suffering that might be hers
if he should ever cease to love her.
And now she sat beside Elinor's bed,
Anne realized that she had met defeat Her
dream of happiness had been only a dream.
Stanley Barton had set his curse upon her,
and she had been a fool ever to believe that
it might be otherwise Through him she had
Iost John Steeles love, the thing that meant
more to her than anything else in the world.
Elinor stirred, and Anne's heart 1eaped
suddenly. No, that wasn't true, she didn t
love him more than she loved Elinor! And
yet even at that moment she wasn't sure
She was torn between mother love and the
love of woman for the man Of her heart.
Which was the stronger? If she could choose
| between the two, which would il be?
Elinor moaned and flung up her arms sud
denly, and in a passion of tenderness, Anne
slipped from the chair to her knees beside
| the bed.
Dear God, let her lve!" She prayed.
"OnIy let her live, and 1 will never ask any
thing else as long as l live
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