New Britain herald., 1926-07-02
READ THIS FIRST:

READ THIS FIRST:
 Sylvia Starr has been engaged to Randall Phelps for q year, when he asks her to free him. because he's fallen in love with her chum. Fay Shirley. Heartbroken, Sylvia gives him up much 10 the satisfaction of her guar dian, Aunt Agony, who would have liked her to marry Peter Wilk, a wealthy bachelor. Aunt Agony says Fanny will never be faithful to any woman for very long.
 Her opinion of him seems 10 be correct, too, for suddenly Ranny drops Fay and marries Sylvia after all. But tehir married life is -ot happy, even from the start, for Ran ny hates 10 be tied down and he has one love affair after another-usu- ally with Sylvia's girl friends. And he gambles and drinks so much that to make both ends meet in their little flat, the Nest.
 After the Geath of her first baby, Ranny. ir., Sylvia has nervous breakdown and refuses to come back to the Nest. She returns to live with Fanny in a new little house only after he persuades her that he really loves her and promises never 10 look al another woman so long as he lives. He keeps his prOm,se until the time when the second baly a lit- tie girl. named Sylvia the Second, is about two months old. Then an old school friend of his wife's, Babs Dclano, comes to town, and he falls head. neck and heels in love with her and asks Sylvia to divorce him so that he can marry Babs. At first Sylvia refuses 10, but after Ran nv leaves tEe Lite White House, and leaves a letter telling her that he never will live with her again, she makes up her mino 10 give him his ra,dom. She goes to his fath- CTS office to tell Tim that she wil' divorce him. and finds that n" hasn't hnen there for two days.
 NOW GO ON WITH THU STORY
 CHAPTER LNT
 Sylvia was utterly at sea. r Ran ny hadn't spent the night at his fathers home or at the Little White House, where on earth had he spent if? Where had he Deen all ni6At' Where was he now?
 She tried 10 think Of places where he might have gone, but she couldn't think clearly at all. Her head felt as if it were stuffed with 'ton wool that doadcned all her thoughts.
 But she gave no sign Of the paric hat had taken hold Of her. Her blue eyes wer. as cool as the sea, when she got up from Father Phelps desk
 i've just got 10 get hold Of Ran ny" she said quietly, and moved to- ward the door,
 As she nodded goodbye al him, he said: Wait q minute"
 She saw his thin, haf-paralyz'd hand go out to the top drawer of his desk and open it. She knew that he was going to give her some money probably the money that Fanny had spoken of in his cruel little note and she shook her head,
 "Oh. mo-" she said. She didn't want any of their money She had taken care of herself before, and she could take care of herself again. The thought of touching the Phelps money was dreadful to her.
 But i. was Mother Phelps that she tolephoned a minute later from the private phone boot hin the busy cutter office.
 As she waited for her answer. Sylvia looked out at the girls in the office. Most of them were pretty and graceful as they bent over their desks like dropping flowers. One g fluffy blond young thing-was really beautiful.
 If Fanny had to fall in love, why couldn't it have been with one of those pretty girls instead of Babs?" she found herself thinking.
 But she knew the answer to the had taken form in her brain. He had fallen in love with Babs because she gave him the flattery that no one else gave him.
 There had been q long time when Sylvia had had words Of praise for one of them with all her heart But she knew him now. She knew that he would never be anything hut q hal(-succcssful salesman. He didn't know the meaning Of real work.
 His mother adored him, but even she had to admit that her only son was unstable. Her affection for Syl- via was founded on her sympathy for the girl
 His father knew that he had no business ability, and had finally made Thomes Baye his right hand man in the firm.
 Lollg, who read him like a book, called him Lazy Susan.' His shift lossness had become a by-word in the Phelps family. No one took Ran ny seriously any more.
 It remained for Babs Dclno to ''Ilt hlptiS anu NHll Illl lIId- It NtiS a misunderstood genius. Her flat tcriy soothcd his wounded vanity. He felt that she alone, of all the world, appreciated him.
 sylvia saw all this suddenly, as sine sat in the stuffy little booth. waiting for Central to put Mother Phelps on thc wire.
 As long as Babs flatters him she'll hold him." she said 10 herself. And perhaps she will hold him. Per haps she'll keep him where I've Jailed to-"
 Her mother-in-law's voice broke in upon her thought,
 "I cant find Ranny," Sylvia told her. He left our house yesterday afternoon and took his clothes with him. He isn't coming back 10 me, he says. So I'm going 10 tell him |. {