Atlanta Tri Weekly Journal

THE SUPERIOR SEX
An Enthralling Romance
BY HAZEL DEYO BATCHELOR
What has gone before.--John Steele takes Anne Temple home with him on a stormy night when he finds her asleep in his taxi, and weak from illness. During the fight that ensues for the girl's life, he falls desperately in love with her, and in spite of the secret in her past, which she refuses to divulge, he marries her. Marcia Steele, his mother, disapproves of the match, but she makes the best of it. From the beginning there is no question of love on Anne's part, and Steele promises never to ask more from her than she is willing to give. A desperate need of money has urged Anne into taking this step, but on the honeymoon trip in the tropics, Steele's considerateness and generosity gradually undermine her resolution never to trust a man. The time comes when Steele's iron will breaks and the two are swept irresistibly together. But Anne's elusive personality baffles him, and even in the midst of their love he does not feel sure of her. On the steamer returning home, a man by the name of Norris tries to flirt with Anne; and for the first time Steele begins to wonder about the secret in her past.--Now go on with the story

CHAPTER XXIX
An Unworthy Attack

In his stateroom after they had left the Norrises, Steele sat down on the window seat beneath the open porthole and lighted a cigar. The even rhythmic chug of the engines and the swish of the water as the boat cut through it were soothing, but Steele's brain was in a turmoil and he could not seem to get a grip on himself.

Beneath the jealousy that seethed in him, burned the flame of his love for Anne, even and steady, but his jealousy obsessed him, made him see things in a wrong light, made him inclined to blame her, even when his reason told him he was wrong.

He could hear her moving about in the next room, and a sudden desire possessed him to have things out with her, to demand as his right that she tell him everything concerned with her past, But he throttled the impulse and remained where he was, until suddenly he realized that she was there in the room.

She had come to him. He knew it without turning his head. The subtle delicacy of the perfume she used floated to him, but stubbornly he did not move until she spoke his name.

"John!"

Instantly he was on his feet; he was looking at her with unseeing eyes, his face impassive.

She came up close to him: "John, what has happened, are you angry about something?"

His dark eyes blazed down into hers.

"Anne, I want you to tell me something. I must know the truth. Was there a man in your past before you came to me? Answer me, I have a right to know!"

She shrank away from him, and into her eyes there crept that look of fear that had been absent from them for so long.

She drew a long breath and when she spoke there was a strange quality in her voice. It should have warned him, but he was too blind with jealousy to note it.

"Why do you ask me that--now?"

"Because of Norris the way he looks at you. There's something about you that draws men. Oh, I don't say it's your fault, but it makes me think things, it drives me mad!"

"I'm sorry you should feel that way--very sorry." Her voice was like ice. But still he blundered on.

"Can't you appreciate my feelings? Oh, Anne, I love you so much that the thought of another man in your life is agony to me."

"There is no other man in my life but you."

"I know there isn't now, but was there before you knew me? Is that why you hesitated to give me your trust, was there someone else?"

"I cannot answer that question. Before you married me, you took that chance, you were willing to take it against my judgment. I told you then that my past was buried, that I could never tell you any more than you already knew and you were willing to take me as I was."

She did not speak accusingly, but as one who stated simple facts, and standing before him she looked childishly young and inexperienced. Looking at her, the realization swept over him that he had broken his word to her, that he had played the cad, and that in doing so, he might have forfeited her love and trust.

The agony at that thought burned away his jealousy, all at once his suspicions seemed mean and trivial and unworthy.

"Anne," the words burst from the very depths of his soul, and the next minute he had her in his arms. In a passion of remorse he kissed her, and after a time her arms crept up around his neck and clung there. He forgot everything in that moment and remembered only the fact that he loved her, but in the heart of Anne, it was different.