New Britain herald., 1926-08-04

IS breezily. I'm ready"
 n Muriel was here a while ago,
 Cassie began, clearing her throat | She was perfectly furious = and
 terribly rude, as she always is when g she's angry. The Kaufmans are mo- E bodies, in spite of their money. and :, they show it every now and them T It was perfectly clear that Cassie
 was angry. Whatever Muriel had l said to her had rubbed her the { wrong way, and Merry knew that
 she had no great love for Muriel 3 anyway - or for any of the rest of ? Morley's purse-proud family. , "She raved around for half an
 hour because she caught you and Cabby Marsh together today. She said you were having lunch down
 at the Towers Hotel. Is that so?" We were having coffee, but it's all the same thing, I suppose" Mer- ry answered. "Cabby had fit and
 high blood pressure when she walk
 ed into the dining room" She gig : gled at the remembrance.
 Cassie threw her own cigaret into
 the fireplace. Well, it seems that
 when he left you he hunted up
 Muriel" she went on, land he told
 her that you had button-holed him
 to tell him some wild story or other
 A story about some woman trying
 to kill herself because you'd been
 running around with her husband"
 Merry felt herself growing cold all over. She chewed at her lips
 nervously and stared into the fire.
 "1s it true?" Cassie asked slowly,
 and Merry could feel her hard, pale
 eyes on her face. Have you been
 running around with a married
 man?"
 T didn't know he was married"
 Merry faltered, not looking up from
 the leaping flames. Not when started to go out with him." There was a long silence. | Then Cassie spoke again, in her cold, high voice. You'd better put | on your things and go!" she cried. | 'l try to hold up my head in the l world and do all I can for my | family - byt you just try to drag me down"
 "You!" Merry laughed. You. Do things for your family What have you ever done for any of us? Why, you don't even have your own mother in your house, because the Kaufmans don't think she's rich enough to have on their visiting list! You-'
 She picked up her wraps and flung herself out of the flat. She did not stop to put them on until R she was on the stairs that led to the vestibule below.
 The following week Mons went . away for three days. And when she came back she was Mrs. Ed Hefflinger. Her new husband did not { come with her He went on to /, Denver ahead of his show.
 Mons wore a platinum ring on the finger where she had always , worn the plain gold band that Dad had given her. But aside from that she was unchanged as far as any one could see. :,
 TWO months passed by. C
 Lillie reported that Nonie Purcell T was out of the hospital and had de- f cided not to divorce Les Purcell n again, so Lillie said.
 Thank fortune for that" Merry breathed devoutly, and said a si- a lent prayer of thankfulness. f
 She came into the house one night just before Christmas and found $ Cassie with her mother She was . wrapped in a long mink coat and c Ter feet were propped up against a he oven door. .
 Hello, Merry Ann Locke!" she h greeted her, as If they never had ], luarreled. I'm just asking Mons n 0 come to the house-warming that f, liter Christmas. I want you to come, oo." I,
 Getting into the new house so f, oon?" asked Merry, indifferently. She still remembered the scolding hat Cassie had given her. even If Cassie had forgotten it.
 "Bill Erskine's coming up," Cas- Tod. --
 Mons made Merry a new dress lie informed her with smiling or the house-warming - cunning hing of she'll pink taffeta that made ferry look about as old as Jimmy vhen she put it on the night of the wenty-sixth of December.
 She had had her old white satin lippers dyed to match it, and Mons ad given htr some pink imitation earls to wear, too. T
 "I wish you wouldn't daub your elf all up with paint and powder" CT mother said irritably, as she and .illie sat on the bed watching Mer- !; y dress. T know what I'm doing" re- bonded Merry. She was dressing, not for the ad- liration of Mons and Lillie, but { ,r Bill Erskine's eyes that night. <. i'll had often said that he never 'oked at a woman unless she had style" And Merry had noticed that this as so. The women he stared at ,staurants and on the streets were le "flashy" women who were dress and waved and powdered and ainted and perfumed within an pa oh of their lives
 But when she found him, an ,ur later, in the crowd that throng- the huge living room in Cassie's ew house on Overlook Heights, he as sitting beside girl who was lything but flashy- looking. A little i'm girl with enormous gray eyes lder demure bands of ash-gold lir.
 He was bending over her and niling broadly as he talked. But hen he looked up and saw Merry ming toward him in her shiny nk dress, he seemed to forget all 'out the little gray-and-gold girl.