New Britain herald., 1926-07-16

 FAIR?
 HE IS A DAISY THE GIRLS ALL DECLARE! HES A HIGH ROLLING, "LOUD-DRESSING SWELL"
 Along about that time she would break off with sigh, and shake her head with its crown of hennaed hair.
 Men," she would say sometimes, "Men-they're all alike. Why should girl bother about them ?" In all the time that she worked for her, Merry never heard Lillie Dale finish the song.
 On the night of the twelfth of July, Merry went home late for supper. When she was halfway up the street, she saw her mother get up from the front porch and hurry into the house.
 By the time Merry had taken off her hat and smoothed down her hair before the hall mirror, Mons had a plate of food ready fer her. H'llt VI tio pun HIS SOlllC SlCdlll sauce over it when Merry walked into the kitchen.
 I'm going to eat out here, if you don't mind, Moms," she said. Its cooler here than in the dining room."
 Mons turned around from the stove and gave her a curious look.
 Didn't you find the letter for you that was on the hall table?" she asked.
 Merry shook her head. She was sure there had been no letter on the table when she passed through the hall. She had stopped to lay her handbag on it. If there had been a letter lying there, surely she would have seen it!
 But with her heart beating wildly. she went back to look for it.
 If there was a letter for her, it must be from Tony! CHAPTER XIX
 But the letter was not on the haR table.
 There was nothing on 1t but Merry's own little brown hand bag and the dog-eared telephone book.
 She looked under the handbag. and shook out the pages of the phone book. No letter.
 She got down on her hands and knees, and hunted for it on the carpet under the table.
 Then. at last, she pulled out the table itself from the wall to see if the letter could have fallen behind it. But it had not.
 "Moms!" Merry called at the top of her voice, "there isn't any letter here for me-"
 "Of course there is" Mons called back in an annoyed tone. Wasn't l just looking at it, not ten minutes ago? It was right there on that tablet" She came into the hall untying her gingham apron.
 "Tll find it for you," she said hriskly. You go out and eat your supper while it's nice and hot"
 Merry's supper was laid on clean white cloth at one end of the kitchen table. Baked beans in red stone jar. Vegetable salad, crisp and cool. Fresh biscuits and tall glass of iced tea.
 The kitchen was cool, and filled with the pale glow of the fading sunset. Beyond the screen door the backyard stretched green and smooth to the little vegetable gar den that Dad had always tended so lovingly.
 Jimmy was sprinkling it now.
 Every now and then she called over the back fence to Derrick Jones, who was cutting the grass in the next yard.
 That's nice warm job you've picked for yourself, Jonesy," Merry heard her say to him in her shrill young voice, "Ill cool you off" Her words ended in a giggle.
 The next minute she aimed the garden hose at Derrick, soaking him from head to foot with the liNlnS Sl1tdlil Ol Ndlti.
 Then, as he started for her. she dropped the hose with a wild shriek and dashed down the driveway. Der rick, dripping wet, jumped the back fence and etreaked after her.
 A minute or two later there were screams of laughter from the front porch where he had evidently caught her.
 Children" thought Merry, won dering what she had ever seen in Derrick Jones. He was two years older than she. But compared to Tony Gaines, he seemed to her the most callow he-flapper under the sun.
 Mons is right" she said to herself. "A girl is a grown woman at twenty, but a man the same age is nothing but child"
 While she was stacking her dishes in the sink Mons called to her.
 q cant imagine what's happened to that letter." she said, shaking her head in a puzzled sort of way. I've looked high and low For it. and it's just nowhere to be seen! l can't imagine what's become of it!"
 She looked around the shabby hall with its faded carpet and cherry-colored woodwork, as if it could tell her where the letter was.
 Then she looked back at Merry.
 "It was a long white envelope with the name of some law firm in the Shalimar building, printed up in one corner of it." she began.
 "The Shalimar, building!" Merry cried, breathlessly "The Shalimar buildingI Why, then it must have been from Tony! Oh, I've GOT 10 find it now!"
 Once more she frantically shook out the worn pages of the tele- phone book. Once more she hunted o1J o,-a,, fIonr 1if+inO