Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-10
INSTALLMENT VII
Katherine Cleveland

"a m ARCIA confided her fears concerning
MI Anne to Katherine Cleveland. For
AVA long time Marcia had hoped that
Katherine would attract John. She was
exactly the type of woman that Marcia
would have welcomed as a daughter-in-
law. Tall and dark and the only daughter
of Arthur Vincent Cleveland, of Wall
street fame, she would have made an ideal
wife for any man, and if the truth be
told, katherine herself was not at all averse
to the idea.
She wanted to marry and settle down.
She was tired of living in her fathers
house, she wanted a home of her own to
manage, and John Steele's .reticence with
women interested Katherine, who was
rather bored with the men who attached
themselves to her and hung on her every
word.
Like most girls who are fairly attrac-
tive and possessed of plenty of money,
Katherine had been much sought after. She
had never had to exert herself in the least
where men were concerned, but with John
Steele everything had been different.
In this case it was she who was the ag-
gressor. 1t was she who had sought him
out, who had made a personal friend of
his mother, and although for a time it had
amused her to do this, she was beginning
to be irritated because he remained ada
mant against her charms
Katherine was not strongly sentimental,
nor was she inclined to be at all emotional.
Marriage to her did not mean the culmi-
nation of a great passion, she herself was
too cynical where men were concerned to
believe them capable of giving a woman
anything deep or lasting. What she wanted
in husband almost any well-bred, clean
cut man could have offered her; mutual
tolerance, consideration and social posi-
ton. She had hoped to obtain all of these
things from John Steele, but Marcia's con-
fidence had dashed her hopes and filled her
with an intense resentment.
The two women were seated at tea in
Marcia's sitting room, which adjoined her
bedrooms and Marcia, because she felt that
she must unburden her mind to some one,
had been telling Katherine some of the in
cidents connected with the night when Anne
had been snatched back from the very
gates of death.
81 tell you, Katherine, I had the strang-
est feeling when I walked into the room
and saw the girl in Johns arms. For a
moment I couldn't believe my eyes, for
John has never cared for women, and in
that moment L had a queer premonitfon
that this girl would figure in his life.
Since then 1 have alternated between hope
and fear; you know a man of Johns tenn
permanent is apt to lose his head if he
fancies himself in love with woman
haCner1ne SAT DdCK IN Dig Cna1r. her
dark eyes under the rolled brim of her hat
were reflective. She held a cigarette loose
ly in her fingers, and, strange to say, her
thoughts were occupied with wondering
what it would be like to be held in John
| Steeles arms. 1t was the, first time she
had visualized such thing. The touch
of his lips on hers had not been part of
| her campaign to marry him, but now, as
she called him up before her in her mind S
| eye, she found herself suddenly curious.
There was no gainsaying the fact that he
| was attractive. She had always admired
the lean swarthiness of him, the naughty
| set of his head on his shoulders, the cool.
| level expression in his dark eyes. His dom
| 1neering manner and the ease with which
he kept women at distance had always
| seemed to Katherine indicative Of a cold,
rather austere temperament. Therefore,
| Marcia's confidence had been something of
| revelation, and katherine found herself
| wondering if there weren't hidden fire
buried deep under John Stee1e's surface
| GOODNESS
The idea was interesting because she
| herself had never been able to rouse the
i slightest feeling in him.