Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-07
CHAPTER III
The Intruder

| T ORRY had put big cross over the last
! I day on her calendar. Tomorrow she
A would be Toms wife, and her fear of
! Courtney Harrington would be gone never to
! return for to a woman like Lorry, marriage
meant the end of one life and the beginning
of another. In her new life there would be
no place for any man save her husband, and
she was happy, happy as she hadn't been in
weeks.
| Everything was ready for the wedding
! There was her white satin gown trimmed in
silver and the little white and silver slippers.
! There was her going-away gown, gray with
Is soft gray fur collar and cuffs. There was her
steamer trunk filled with cobwebby lingerie,
| silk and lace and the finest of chiffon, and
out in the living room were her presents,
silver and glass and more substantial things
| that had already been sent on to the new
home.
| Lorry was sitting before her dressing
| table dreaming as most brides do on the eve
before their weddings 1t was early, only a
| few minutes after eight, but she had broken
away from the family Immediately after din
ner SO as to feel rested when she opened her
eyes on her wedding morn.
| AS she sat there in negligee. and slippers
her soft chin propped up on her hands, there
| came a soft knock on the door, and in spite
of herself her heart leaped in her breast She
was frightened, all the old fear that she had
| thought banished forever, had returned; and
yet she crossed the room and flung open
! the door, she tried to laugh at~herself she
| tried to apply logic to a situation that seemed
ridiculous, for after all what had she to fear e?
Mrs Granville stood on the threshold, and
| as Lorry scrutinized her mothers face, she
knew in a minute that something unusual had
| happened.
''Lorry, dear" Mrs GrenviIle began,
| there's some one here to see you. At first
said it was impossible, that you had gone to
| bed, but she seemed so insistent, and there S
something about her that made me hesitate
| to put her off,.
| Lorry stood there swaying little. both
hands clasped on the knob of the door. A
terrific impulse had risen in her to refuse to
! see any one. 1t was as though she wanted to
hold off a. calamity that she had known all
ialong would happen in spite of everything,
and she had only to refuse to see this stranger
and she would still be safe.
! But could she do that? Even while the i'm
pulse occurred to her, she knew it was i'm
| possible. Whatever it was that menaced her
] happiness, and she was sure now that some
thing did threaten her, she had to know it
and know it Immediately
Tell her I'll see her, she said a little
/ breathlessly. 'Have her come in here, moth
| er, SO that won't have to dress"
l. And then she sat down in a low chair con-
| sclous that she was trembling all over
A moment later there came another low
knock at the door and Lorry started to her
feet. She was standing as the door swung
open and girl entered the room, and for
an instant OF time, the two girls faced each
other without speaking. The stranger was
shabbily dressed, but in spite of that fact
there was an unmistakable air of daintiness
about her. She was very pale, and under her
blue eyes there were faint violet shadows as
though she had known what it was to live
through sleepIess nights
IT m sorry" she began. 'T didn't want to
come here like thisJ but had to; something
drove me on because 1 thought you ought to
know"
Lorry's eyes had widened, and she was con-
scious of the fact that her throat felt dry and
hot. -
"Know what?" she asked in half whisper
What could you possibly have to tell me?'
i' even as she asked the question, she knew
that the answer had something to do with
rom, and even now she wanted to draw back:
she was afraid to hear what the girl had to
tell.