New Britain herald., 1926-07-20
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in her business course. Her fathe
 dies, and she gets the first job tha
 comes along. The job of assistan
 in LILLE DALE'S beauty shop
 Mons takes a roomer into tn,
 house to help make both ends meet
 About this time Merry has in,
 first real love affair of her life
 She falls deeply anG. sincerely il
 love with ANTHONY GAINES.
 sober-minded young lawyer wht
 wants 10 marry her. But Merry ii
 afraid of her feeling for him won
 last Her love affairs never hay, I lasted. so she says. And so sh,
 and Tony decide to wait six month.
 before they marry.
 Then one night, when Ton!
 breaks an engagement with her
 Merry hurt and angry, lets DER, ] RICK JONES, who lives next door make love to CT as he often hat before she met Tony. Then sht goes out with BILL ERSKINE, {
 friend of MORLEY KAUFMAN
 for whom her s'ster CASSIE NOIhS. " lItll bIlS HEdiS dlloul this he shuts mp his office and goes 10 Montana to practice, law with old Judge Zimmerman, friend of his dead father A letter. comes from him, but it is lost around the house before Merry has chance to read it. She puts Tony out of her mind, gradually.
 Her oldest sister, HELEN, mar ries. Then Cassie marries the wealthy Morley Kaufman. JINNY, 1 the youngest of the four sisters takes DERRICK JONES away from Merry. and Merry feels very much i deserted and lon the shelf" i When Bill Frslline comes back into her life, she welcomes him eagerly. He sends her presents, comes to see her whenever he comes to town, tells her he loves her. but never asks her to marry him. Still, Merry feels sure that she can marry him whenever she puts her mind to it.
 NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER XIV
 It became a habit with Bill Frs kline to send presents 10 Merry every week or two while he was on the road.
 "l am mailing you something that will set off those green eyes of yours. Little Sweetheart" he would write. And perhaps the next night when Merry came home from Lil- lies beauty shop she would find green chiffon scarf done up in a box from some distant and expensive shop. waiting for her on the table.
 Almost always the things that he sent her were perishable things. A kind of perfume that came in black glass bottle anC cost fifteen dollars an ounce: French powder that was just the 3early tint of her skin; five pound boxes of candied fruits that Merry always gave to Mons.
 Two weeks before Christmas he sent her a scarf of cobWebhy black lace.
 Real lace upon my word!" Mons said, examining if closely with her reading glass. "He didn't pick that up for ten cents!'
 Have it made into a hat" Bill wrote. "There's nothing that makes more of hit with me than a blond girl in a black lace hat"
 Mons grunted when she read that part Of his letter,
 'Humph!H said she, "T never put much stock in that sort Of q man. let me tell you," She set her lips and gave her head wig orous shake.
 What sort of a man?" Merry asked her.
 Why the kind that knows all about 8 woman's clothes!" her mother explained in her tart way. "The kind of q man who's made study of women and knows that what he likes is a blond in black hat! decent man never knows what q woman has on! Your father liked me just as well in calico apron. as he did in my best Sunday go-to-meeting dress! He never knew the difference. l guess"
 Now that Dad was dead and gone. nothing but praise of him fell from Moms' thin lips Like all widows, she forgot all her hus- bands shortcomings and remem- bered only the loyable and fine things about him.
 Merry thought it was a pity Dad had had to die before Mons could appreciate him.
 "Another thing about this Frs kine." Mons went on, frowning down at the black lace scarf, Che has no business sending you things like this. No man should buy a woman's clothes for her until he's married to her"
 But this is only a lace scarf" Merry broke in.
 Mons gave her head another quick shake. "It's hat" she said sharply, "and there's no getting around it You send it back to him. Do you hear?"
 Merry didn't answer her.
 But the next morning she took the lace to the milliner on Cover street and had if made into a wide brimmed hat lined with ,silyer gauge.
 That night she sat down in her own room and wrote 10 Bill 10 tell him about it. i
 "She is going to charge me s10 to make il for me" she wrote, "That's a bit staggering. but l must look nice for you when you come. no matter what if costs me"
 Bills next letter had q $lo bill 1 in it.
 "T hate like thu dickens to take | it from you," she wrote back to him, but what can do? You like me to look well when I'm with von. and I cant look so terribly stun. ming in the kind of clothes I can l