New Britain herald., 1926-07-27


 peace. Love from
 MERRY"
 She sat there biting the eRd of her pen thoughtfulIy, and looking at the word she had just written The word love"
 She knew that she did not love Bill Erskine. But she enjoyed be- ing with him, she missed him when he was away from her. and she admired his man-of-the-world ways. He was q good catch" too. from a common sense viewpoint. l Besides, hadn't someone said that mo woman ever really fell in love Iuntil after she was married?
 The next morning before break fast Mons and Mrs. Jones buried the hatchet.
 Mrs. Jones rang the doorbell of the Locke's house for the first time in nearly a year. Behind her. on Ithe front porch. stood small timid Mir Jones. holding dusty wine bottle in his arms. as if it were Q baby.
 eve thought we'd come over and drink the health of our young new ilyweds," he announced heartily.
 He came into the dining room. carrying his bottle carefully, and uncorked it. It was elderberry wine.
 Made by loving hands at home, so it's perfectly safe to drink" as i Mr. Jones said. with a glance at his wife who still looked weepy and jumpy.
 The wine she had made was not very good wsoe. It was quite sour, to tell the truth, and it left nasty taste in the mouth.
 Mons made a wry face when she tasted it.
 However it had "lick like a white mule" to quote Mr. Jones who thought himself second George Ade.
 After a glass of it. Merry and Lil- i lie laughed and talked cheerfully all the way to the beauty shop. It was fully II o'clock before Merry's thead was clear again. i Early in the afternoon Les Pur- cell dropped in, better-lool5ing than usual in some new gray clothes. 1 Even Cassie, who was having facial" in one of the booths, got lout Of her chair 10 peek at him from beneath the white curtains.
 q say, Lille" he called, giving Merry his engaging grin while he did it, Twill you lend Merry to me 1 for the afternoon? I've got 10 drive over to Olmsted Falls, and I want her to go along" He seemed to take it for granted that Merry did not need to be invited. ] Well, I don't know" Lilies voice came, doubtfully, "Tm pretty busy this afternoon. Come here q minute, Merry I want to talk to you"
 q don't think you ought to go with him until you find out wheth- CT he's married or not" she whis- pored when Merry joined her in the little room at the back of the shop. "We don't want to stir up q scandal, do we?'
 Merry laughed. How about you and the man you call Hot Heels?' 1 He's married, isn't he?" she asked l impudently.
 Lillie shook her mop of dyed hair.
 "Indeed not" she declared. ! ..vr-,.-. -;1 ..z,, ,r.o,. o,o+ tl,o+ iJao And anyway. I never see him any more. I'll tell you why, some day when we both have more time. ] Now. run along, like a good girl, and tell Purcell to go on his way, rejoicing"
 But Merry had no intention of doing any such thing. She wasn't going to let Lillie Dale arrange her i life for her! She guessed just not!
 She took her little black felt hat and her coat from the hooks beside her and put them on.
 In three minutes she was with Lester Purcell in his car on the way to Olmsted Falls,
 "OnIy that isn't where we're go | ing" Les said to her cheerfullyi as they turned out of Cover street. We're not going anywhere. We're ] just going to drive - any old place. We're playing hockey"
 He smiled at her and she smiled back at him. She knew just how she looked when she did it. She had practised that slow enchanting smile a hundred times before the mirror of her dressing table.
 It was no longer the natural, hap py thing it had once been-that smile of hers. It was like the smile of chorus girl. who knows that she must show so many teeth or lose her job.
 "I never could stand these long faced babies!" Bill Erstine had told her once upon a time. and neither can any other man. It's the girl with the smile who wins!"
 And ever since then Merry had been "the girl with the smile" for him. It had become a habit with her to be the girl with the smile" the good-fellow girl, on the surface. But she never was happy deep down inside, as she had been at the time she first met Bill Frs Kline.
 Merry never had very much to say. but she was a good listener. She sat back in the corner of her seat today and It Les Purcell ramble on in his good natured boast ful way. He told her that he was a "crack" salesman, whatever that was - and how many sales he had made last mouth.
 Merry thought little of him and his salesmanship, but she enjoyed the long drive through the autumn Icountryside. She loved the smell of burBing leaves, of dusty golden rod along the side of the road, of ragged baby chrysanthemums that