New Britain herald., 1926-07-07
CHAPTER I.

llC lhNhNl lJidLSu 4'dHN DO4l on the dresser shrieked Stri- dently that it was ' o'clock and high time to be getting up.
 But Mary Ann only raised herself on one elbow and star ed sleepily across the room where her sister Jinny'S bed stood, empty and tumbled, against the sunlit wall. Then she yawned and lay down again, stretching herself like a baby panther.
 "No use getting up yet. Jin- ny has the bathtub anyway" she said to herself lazily.
 And then, q wonder if I'll see the Man in the Gray Suit again today. 1 hope 1 do."
 She smiled up at the ceiling with her clear greer eyes, and gave a long soft sigh.
 She was still smiling 10 minutes later when the door opened and Jimmy came in, fresh from her bath.
 Jimmy was slim and wiry and red-headed. With her wet short hair and unpowdered skin, Jimmy looked like fresh-faced boy. There was nothing girly-girly about her, at the sensible age of 15. She was as hard and bright and sharp as new nails.
 Hello, Merry! Happy birthday" she greeted her older sister, what are you snickering to yourself about? Got a new man on your brain, I'll bet a hat"'
 Merry laughed as she got out of bed and stuck her bare feet into a pair of old knitted slippers.
 She was so happy this morning that she didn't even see the blighting look that Jimmy gave her.
 You should just see him, Jin," she bubbled. Hes the best looking thing in shoe leather. He passes me on the street every day when l go out for my lunch, and he just looks a hole through me! Jim iny, but 1 hope l see him this noon"
 Jimmy sat down on the floor and began to pull on her black cotton stockings. Thank heaven l haven't reached the man-crazy age, that's all" she said fervently, as if she were talking to herself.
 Merry didn't bother to an- swer her.
 She was standing before the toilet table now, turning her head first to the left and then to the right.
 I think my hair needs washing" she murmured in an undertone and disappeared into the bath room with a bottle of shampoo in one hand and a dried-up half of a lemon in the other. "I want to look nice, today"
 \ This was not the first time that Merry Locke had had a man Ion the brain," as Jimmy called it.
 She was not quite IT years old the first time she fell in love. It was only puppy love that first time, of course. Only a silly boy-and-girl af- fair.
 The boy was not much old CT than Merry, herself, was at the time.
 His name was Lester Pur- cell, and that year he was the high school hero. For he was not only captain of the foot ball team, but he actually owned a Ford roadster, be- sides. Merry considered her self very lucky to be his best girl. She honestly wondered what he could see in her.
 At lIlaL tune Slle ulQn know how pretty she was. She worried about her looks as much as most young things of IT do worry about them.
 She worried because her little nose turned up at the end, and because there were freckles on it.
 The uptmned nose was part of her gay charm, if she had only known it. Its saucy tilt matched, somehow, the merr- ment of her mouth and the laughter in her green, gold- flecked eyes.
 Even the hated freckles were an ornament. For they were gold-colored and they