New Britain herald., 1926-08-23
FIT FIT. N E.N of Love X \ A4S ~ A 4 A Am& VI
 Broadway
illustrated and Copyrighted by Johnson Features Is

good time and plenty of beaux. At 20 she fails in her business course because she won't study. To the dis appointment of Mons. her ambitious mother, she takes job in Lillie Dale's beauty shop at tiny wage. At that time she is having the first real love affair of her life. The man is Tony Gaines, young law yer, who wants to marry her. Their engagement ends when Merry con- fesses to Tony that she lets other men make love to her. Later a let ter comes from him but it Is lost around the house before Merry has | a chance to read 1t. Then she hears that Tony has gone to Montana to live.
 Her sister, Cassie, marries her rich employer, Morley Kaufman, but is not happy with him despite her soft, easy life. Through Cassie, Merry meets Bill Erskine. She becomes en- gagged to him. But when Merry gets herself tangled up in the divorce case of Les Purcell and his wife. Bill drops her and marries another girl.
 Mons marries one of her board CTS, a MT. Hefflinger. Then Jimmy, the youngest sister, elopes with Der rick Jones-and home no longer seems like home to Merry. She hears that Tony Gaines iJ going to marry girl in Montana, and tries not to care. After a long succession of suit ors she drifts into an understanding with George Leet.
 One spring, while she and Mons are house-cleaning she unearths Tony's long-lost love letter. Cassie carelessly admits that she hid it, to break up the affair between Merry land Tony, because she wanted Mer- ry to marry Bill Erskine. That night Merry tells George Leet she'll never marry anybody. When Merry tells her she ruined her life by hiding the letter, Cassie says, Nonsense"
 Tony steps into the limelight of fame as a criminal lawyer, during a celebrated murder trial. Realizing that while he has made name for himself she has been at stand-still, Merry leaves the beauty shop and decides to go on with her business course. Les Purcell offers her a job as model in clothing factory but she refuses it. The day Tony wins his case, his mother dies, | and Merry makes up her mind to go to the funeral in the hope of lseeing him again.
 NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER LXIII The day was as hot and sultry as the far-away day when Merry had brought Tony's engagement ring back to his mother.
 The gardens around the house were just as peaceful and beautiful as they had been that day. The same kind of emerald grass and brilliant flowers. The same hot, sum- shiny, dusty smell.
 Within the house itself, seemed unchanged in spite of the flowers and the crowd of people and the hushed silence.
 Merry and Mons found two chairs against the wall of the wide hall. They had barely seated themselves when the girl saw the person she had come to see--longed to see-and was afraid to see.
 A man was coming down the broad stairs, and with a feeling of dizzy shock, Merry saw that it was Tony Gaines himself! Tony Tony Tony.
 As if her longing for him drew his eyes, they fell on her face. She could feel his gaze on her for a long moment. She tried to look away but could not. Then he turned and went up the stairs. again.
 The whole thing happened so quickly that 1t was like a dream that we almost remember for an instant, and then forget completely. But it left her shaking and tremu- lous.
 She laid her hand on Mons arm and got up. I'm faint" she whis- pered, and started toward the door that led to the porch. Mons rose to follow her, but she waved her back. 1 She was still shaky and faint when she got out into the open air. A solid lump was in her throat, and she could feel her heart humping in her breast.
 What a fool l am to be so up- set" she said to herself, walking along under the dusty trees of mid summer. What a fool l was to go to the house at all. I didn't know that seeing him ,would-hurt like this"
 But she knew that nothing could have kept her away from that house that day Nothing!
 She walked all the way home, but afterward she could not remember one step of the journey. Her mind was busy with her thoughts of Tony Gaines.
 She thought of his face-of the surprised, almost angry look that plotted the lines of pain from 1t when his eyes met hers there in the hallway.
 He had been haggard with his look of suffering. But that was nat ural, of course, Merry told herself. at such time as this.
 "Did you see his wife? ?" she asked Mons when she came home late in the afternoon.
 q may have, but I didn't know 1t was she, if I did. There were so many women there" Mons answer ed. And I saw Jennie Luetkemyer and Daisy Middleton. didn't know they were friends of the Gaines fam lily" She launched into a flood of gossip about these old cronies of hers.
 "Jinny says that Tony Gaines will sell the house." she said presently, and Merry pricked up her ears. Hell never live here in this town again." ... ..
 Her voice went on and on and on,