New Britain herald., 1926-07-29
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~iLANNI LOChE, pretty and gay
 as her nickname. is born firt. \ She has no ambition beyond hay l ing a good time and plenty of beaux. 1 At 20 she fails in her course at business school, to the great dis l appointment of MONS, her ambi. l tlous mother. When her father dies, l she takes job as assistant to LIL- LIE DALE in her little beauty shop.
 At this time she is having the first real love affair of her life. The man
 in the case is TONY GAINES. a
 serious-minded young lawyer who
 wants to marry her. The engagement is broken when Merry goes out with other men, and Tony finds it out. : She sends back his ring, and he goes to Montana to open a law office in : Billings. Presently Merry hears that : he is engaged to KATHERINE
 ZIMMERMAN, the daughter of his friend. old Judge Zimmerman. She tries not to care.
 HELEN, the oldest of the Locke sisters, marries BILL HEPWORTH
 and settles down to have her fam fly. CASSIE, the second oldest, mar , ries her rich employer, MORLEY
 KAUFMAN. They do not get along
 well, and Cassie tells Merry that
 Morley's in love with another wom- an. JINNY, the youngest sister.
 elopes with DERRICK JONES. who lives next door. She and her young husband live with his parents, for Jimmy refuses to stay in the same
 house with Moms' boarder, MIR. HEFFLINGER. Mons is in love
 with Mir Hefflinger, and "acts too
 silly for words" over him, so Jimmy says.
 Through Cassie. Merry meets ! 1 BILL ERSKINE. a wary bachelor. { He sends her expensive presents. | 1 lends her the money to buy share 1 i in the beauty shop, proposes to ! her, but keeps putting off the we'd | ding day. While he is in Florida, ! visiting his sick father, Merry strikes f up Irritation with an old beau Of hers, LES PURCELL. Les is sales
 man for a famous cold-cream, and comes to the shop taking Lilies or
 der. Lillie, who lives at Mons house. i, says she thinks he's married. One night he comes to see Merry. and tells her that his wife is divorcing him. While he is trying to kiss her goodnight, there comes loud knocking at the window. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY II
 CHAPTER XLI Ic
 Merry smothered sharp little scream as she wheeled around to- r ward the window. if
 For there, in the light that out of the room, she c could make out the white blur of Il a face. A mans face! k
 Merrys hands went to her fright ened face. "O-o-oh!" she said, some { where between a groan and a sigh. |
 For the face outside the window r was the fat. heavy-jowled face of c Bill Erskine! How long he had been g standing there on the porch she n couldn't guess. But without a shad- ow of doubt, he had seen her in n Les Purcelrs arms! He couldn't e have helped seeing hert e
 'Ies!" she said in a sick little k whisper. "now look what you've e lone! That's the man I'm engaged sl o!' Her face was almost comic with b despair.
 Look what I've done?" she heard Les echo her, with laugh, as she e lev into the hall. q didn't do any di hing, did I? There's no nineteenth dt amendment against kissing a pret- m y girl, is there?"
 She flung open. the door and Bill 10 anne into the house. h;
 Pm afraid I'm in the way, Mer- Y. Twos company, eh?" he greet tn d her. He was smiling, with his at ips, but his eyes held that cruel he .lint that she had noticed in them tij efore. fiji
 She took his coat from him and flu le followed her into the sitting nc oom. no
 Her voice sounded faint and far in way to her own ears as she in- reduced the two men-"Mr. Frs Bi inc, MT. Purcell" NJ
 Bill shook hands with Les, and tn aid he was very glad to meet him m, s if he meant it. He even offered m; i'm one of his fat black cigars, and .es took it. m; They all sat down in front of the frt ire. str Blll began 10 talk about the he 'rench debt, about Florida real es- Tn lte, about Gene Sarazen's game of bl; off, about - anything. But every frf ow and then he would give Merry br ne of those keen quick glances of SD Is - and there was something in is face that she had never seen in ice
 until now dis Finally she got up and murmur- lg something about powder for her wa ose, she made her escape from the ma pom. ho She closed the door of her bed La rom behind her and faced herself we
 the glass. Her face was white and gal ,lcmn. 'eye Well, Merry" she said aloud q ' less you've done for yourself this ice me, old grill" he She was sure she had! She was the re that she had lost Bill Ersl5inei . Q would never marry her now that an, , had seen her in Les PurceI's fro ms. He would probably go away. "bt st as Tony Gaines had! tho Anyway I haven't any ring to YOU nd back this time" she told her ' If. lop She looked down at the watch can acelet, a-glitter on her wrist. She am lde up her mind that she'd never T nd that back to Bill, anyway! ihou ere was no earthly reason why en. Q should give it back to Bill any \ 're than she should return to him But the rest of the presents he had eve -en her. the She looked around the room at of