Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-23
CHAPTER X
Dismissal

<r ORRYI" he gasped "Lorry you
can't go on with this! You can't, dc
~ you hear me? You don't love this
man. You're marrying him to put me for
ever out of your life, and it's not fair. He
crushed you into this thing. You can't look
me in the eye and say that isn't the truth"
But Lorry hardly heard his words. Her
shocked eyes were taking in his appearance
ooh, Tom what have you been doing?" she
walled, "and why do you come to me like this
now"
Because I had to come" he went on fever
shly. "Lorry, you threw me over the night
before our wedding Why can't you do the
same thing now with him? It's not too late
and, dearest, 1 love you. I've never loved
anyone else
If Rom had but known it, that last remark
was his undoing, for suddenly Lorry remem-
bered the other girl, and her heart, which
moment before had been torn half with pity
and half with love, suddenly hardened against
him.
"How can you say~that when it isn't true?"
she burst out.
/ Instantly Tom saw his mistake ana hasteneu
to retrieve himself
"But it is true If you weren't so innocent,
dear you'd understand. man has all xmas
of temptations You don't think that every
girl he makes love to has won his heart, do
you?"
It was a poor defense, the very worst he
could have made, and in a fash Lorrys BRAIN
made a lightning comparison. she loved IoIn'
and she did not love Courtney Harrington.
Yet in that moment she knew the truth.
Courtney could never have done so contempt
ible thing, let alone make that KIND OF an
excuse for himself afterward. She loved Tom,
she still yearned him, her heart was
sick within her at the change in his appear
ance but she had to admit that he was weak,
| that his love for her not the fine, big
| thing that she felt for him. In that moment
there was born in her heart certain allie
glance to Courtney. Whatever had happened
in the past, she had promised to marry him.
Tomorrow she would be his wife, and Tom
must never suspect that she didn't love him.
Tom, desperate he was, could not know
| of the thoughts that were flashing through
| Lorry's mind. He saw only that she was
hesitating he believed that she might be
weakening, and he FASTENED to press his point.
Perhaps if he had been endowed with Her
rngtons magnetic personality, his tremen-
dous wll-power, loving him, as she did, he
might have succeeded in sweeping LOrry off
her feet. But his appeal to Lorry had never
been of that nature, and now as he sprang
| forward and seized her in his arms, she
shrank away from him because his lOve-mak-
| ing had always been essentially gentle, and
she had always loved him for just that thing.
| With all her strength she pushed him away
from her. Loyalty toward Courtney surged
| up in her, and she remembered now that
Courtney had made no attempt to touch her
until she had promised to be his wife, not
even AFTER she (naQ broken OIL WIN 1Om
''You have no right to do that. You have
no business coming here today with the idea
that you can make me break my word"
| Tom stood back, breathing heavily. ooh,
l. see,' he sneered, you're that kind of a
woman! Perhaps you realized at the last
moment that you liked Ierrington better
than you liked me. Perhaps that other was
| just an excuse to be free"
But Lorry Interrupted him, her eyes like
bits of ice, her voice utterly cold. That's
enough, Tom. I think you'd better go now.
1 don't owe you an explanation, but I'll say
just this much. l loved you more than any
one else in the world. You can believe it or
not, just as you like. But 1 don't love you
now, because you've changed; you're not the
same man"
But even as she walked out of the room
with her head held high, Lorry realized that
she not speaking the truth Weak as it
was, she still loved Tom, she still yearned
over him, and she never in all her life eX-
pected to be happy.
Observation-Disclosures