Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-24
CHAPTER XXXVUI
The Power of Love

A NNE'S words, IT would have gone away
II out of your life forever just as l intend
n to do now" had fnality about them
that was terrifying. And suddenly John
Steeles terrific need of her rose up in his
heart and blotted out the thought of every
thing else. He couldn't give her up. No mat
ter what stood between them, she was his
wife. Through her he found happiness that
few men experience, even though that happl-
ness had brought restlessness and pain.
He crossed the room to her and caught her
up in his arms.
He kissed her roughly, and the joy of hold
ing her close against MS breast OF KNOWN" ing
that no matter what the pain of the past few
hours, she was his own again, was for the
present enough.
"You are NINE" he said hoarsely "mine.
Do you know what that means? 1t means
that you have given me your life, that you
belong to me- Do you think would let you
go now? Do you? Answer mel
And again he kissed her. His lips touched
her soft lids that hid her eyes from~hlm, the
tumbled golden hair. the trembling scarleI
mouth, until, in sudden shyness, she turned
her head against his breast and chung to him,
her cheeks flaming.
And so in the ecstacy of finding each other,
the cloud that had hung over them was dis
PEELED.
They had a gala evening Anne wore her
prettiest dress and they went downtown to
dinner and afterward to the theater Anne
had never been so gay, SO sparkling, nor had
john steele ever Deen SO much tHe duoA 1hS
lover But each knew that behind the gayety,
behind the eagerness of their love. there
lurked the shadowof the wor Is that had been
spoken that afternoon.
AS they were leaving the theater they ran
into Katherine Cleveland, who was with
party of friends. Katherine was looking her
best and, as she greeted Anne gayly and
smiled up into Steele's eyes, it struck him
for the first time that she was very beautl-
full woman Behind her dark eyes there
f,,I tho NXnC
poised serene. The man who loved her
would know peace and cOntentment even
though he missed the tingling of the pulses
and the passionate longing that went to make
up love like his for Anne.
1t was Steele who suggested that they all
go on to supper somewhere, and in the res
taurant he talked to Katherine and found her
interesting She gave him feeling of we'll
being that soothed his tangled nerves, and he
could not help remembering that 1n the past
he had avoided her as much as posslole; IL
was good of her not to hold it against him,
for a friendship with a woman like that
would be a splendid and worth while thlnH
And then suddenly, in the midst of their
conversation, the orchestra began haunting
waltz. It was one of the selections he and
Anne had danced to on their honeymoon, and
it brought back wildly the moonlit night IN
Panama, and Anne's slim figure, balancing
perilously on the breakwater.
He turned abruptly from Katherine ana
met Anne's tawny eyes full. In their depths
little lights were dancing, he realized that she,
too remembered.
The next moment he had swung her on the
floor, and Katherine was torgotten. But Us
she watched Steele dancing with his wife,
smile of satisfaction curved her lips. She had
Interested Steele for the first time in her life
and he would remember and come back to
her.
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