New Britain herald., 1926-08-21
THE PETER s. s,.,:; s:::;;: % :i:; . s:.s: ::..' ~ ." ~A ~ HER MAN
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 won't study To the disappointment of Mons, her mother, she takes & job in Lillie Dale's beauty shop at a tiny wage. 1 At that time she is having the first real love affair of her life-with Tony Gaines, young lawyer, who wants to marry her. Their engage ment ends when Tony finds out that Merry lets other men take her out | adn make love to her. Later let l ter comes from him, but 1t is lost in the house before Merry has a 1 chance to read it. Then she hears that he has gone to Montana to live. l ! Her sister Cassie, marries her | rich employer. Morley Kaufman, but is not happy with him despite | her soft, easy life. Through Cassie, l Merrw meets Bill Erskine, bache- Tor. They become engaged. But when | Merry gets tangled up in the divorce | case of Lester Purcell and his wife, | Bill marries another girl. i Lillie Dale and a Mir. Hefflinger | come to board with Mons. A year Iafterward Mons and Mr. Hefflinger | marry. Jimmy, the youngest sister, elopes with Derrick Jones, and home | no longer seems like home to Mer- ry
 She hears that Tony Gaines is go- | ing to marry girl in Montana, and | tries not 10 care. After a long sue cession of suitors who do not at tract her, Merry drifts into an en- gagement with George Leet.
 | One spring, 'Yhile she is helping with the housecleaning. she unearths Tony's lost love letter to her. Cassie l lightly confesses that she hid it long ago because she wanted Merry to marry Bill Erskine instead of Tony, and Merry tells her she has ruined her life for her. That night she 1 breaks her engagement. Then she gives up her job at the beauty shop, and decides to go back to business school and make something of her self Tony is becoming famous as a criminal lawyer. The cay he wins his biggest case, his mother dies and Merry knows that he will come home for the funeral. She decides Ito go in order to catch a glimpse of him and the girl he has married. That night Lester Purcell comes to see her, and tells her she ought to { become a model for the clothing < company he works for. You know just how to jolly the men along. i and show 'em good time" he says, and for the first time Merry sees f herself as men see her-a good pal I on a party. but not the kind of girl they want to marry! 6 (NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY) {
 CHAPTER LXII (
 Merry felt exactly as if she had s had a bath in sticky, muddy water | and never would be clean again.
 What Les had said to her had Y left smirch on her, somehow. The | 'smirch that is on all women who f are not wholly good-half-way girls. ' Girl that are not exactly bad, and certainly not good. |
 "A good sport" he had called her. $ The kind of girl who goes out with man and shows him a good time. U The kind of girl whose kisses are c easy and cheap.
 And yet the worst thing I've ever ' done in my life is to take a few y drinks and let few men make love a to me-" she said to herself, slowly undressing before the bedroom mir ! ror [
 It had not seemed wrong to her V at the time. It had seemed harm S less enough and thrilling, perhaps. T to smoke a cigaret, to empty glass c Of n-gingerale, to let Bill Esgine or Cabby Marsh or Derrick or d George Leet kiss her. c
 And now, as she looked back on it, she could see how much those V things had all sullied her-dirtied e her, cheapened her and made her | common. (
 And yet, didn't all girls "pet" these days? That was what the c woman's pages of the papers said. So | did the women's magazines. So did ' the moving pictures.
 Still. something was wrong some where, Merry knew. Had she been | too easy? Too good natured? Too | ready to "Let?" |
 For only two men ever had want V ed to marry her, pretty as she was. George Leet-poor old George, who f was lucky to get anybody to marry T Tony Gaines.
 Tony Gaines! Merry's breath t caught at the thought of him. The . thought that she would see him again, on Wednesday,, after all these o years! d
 Thinking about him, Merry put e out the light, got into bed, and f dropped off to sleep. r
 The next morning Lillie came b with Ford truck to take away her Il trunks and her few bits of furni- ture. She was going to share a flat t with Trudie Aiken, the girl who S had taken Merry's old job. t
 q hate to see her go, in a way" a Mons said regretfully, as she watch cd Lillie walk down the street, when c the truck had departed. She had lik- s ed Lillie, with her slang, her cheer fitness and her startling clothes. tl Lillie was always good company E
 T suppose I may as well rent her room right away" Mons added with n a sigh. T need the money. But I s do hate the thought of having an- t other stranger in the house." W
 But, after all. she did not have to K rent Lilies old room. Il
 1T
 Merry went down to the drug tt store late in the afternoon for some a glove cleaner. When she came back e there were four trunks standing in W the front hall. a.
 The second she laid eyes on them she knew that they belonged to Cassie. u
 They were elegant and expensive trunks with Cassie's in- 2, itials painted on them in Harding J fayorite color. fc