New Britain herald., 1926-07-28

ii"u' put li1dily SoI your name
 from him - I was coming here to
 see his mother about some land
 she has up in the mountains. I've
 onlys been in town five hours, and
 I've spent most of that time caIl-
 ing you up" He laughed. as he
 made his confession.
 'I was afraid you might be mar
 ried before I got here" he said in
 his numerous way, Irony said he
 heard you were engaged when he
 was here at Christmas time"
 . At Christmas time! Tony
 had been here in this very town
 last Christmas, and hadn't cared
 enough about her to come to see
 her! .. Last Christmas, when she had spent most of the day thinking about him and wondering why he hadn't sent her a word! |. And he hadn't even let her know 1 he was in towni
 "How he must hate mel" Merry thought miserably. Or, worse than hating her, how indifferent he must be toward her! ... Her pride flared up.s all at once, under her misery. and she smiled brilliantly at Benson. That ready made glittering smile of hers that was getting to be as hard as 1t was glittering. How news travels, doesn't it?" she laughed, T hardly knew, my self. that I was engaged, last Christmas. . I haven't announc- ed it myself. yet, but I am en- gagged, all the same. I'm going to be married this Christmas. think Tony knows Bill-Bill Frs kine. He's the man Pm going to marry. He's down in Florida just now" ..
 The news that Bill was, in Flor ida seemed to cheer Mir. Bensoneup a great deal.
 well. in a case like that" he said in his nice voice. Wont you have dinner with me tomorrow night?"
 Merry said that she would. Her voice was cheerful and her smile still glittered. It dazzled Mir. Ben- son.
 When he had gone, Lillie called downstairs and asked her to come up and tell her "all the news from Montana" and Merry called back to say that there wasn't any news from Montana. None at all.
 She just could not talk over Tony Gaines with LilIie Dale = or with anyone else, that night. She sat downstairs In Dads old chair, and sat waiting for the sound of Lilies bedroom door closing. Then she went up to her own room and to bed.
 CHAPTER XL
 For the first time in her life Merry had a friendship with man "a friendship with not one bit of love making mixed up in it.
 John Benson was in town for week. and he saw Merry every day. But not once did he hold her hand in moving picture show, or kiss her in a speeding taxi, or even the fact that he had fallen in love with her picture, long before.
 He did none of the things that Merry, who knew. too much about men, expected a man to do when he was with her.
 From the minute she told him that she was engaged to marry Bill Erskine, he began to keep his dis tance. He behaved toward her eX- actly as he might have behaved to- ward the little sister who went 10 school in Virginia.
 "I surely like him." Merry said to Lillie Dale one night when she was waiting for him 10 call for her at the beauty shop. "He knows all sorts of things that nobody else knows"
 "A regular Benny Brains, eh, wot?" Lillie broke in, mockingly, as she dusted off the top of the tele- phone table.
 Merry tossed her head. "No, he's not a regular Benny Brains she snapped. But he knows something. He's not one of these betting boys like Les Purcell! You should have seen the books he bought yes- terday afternoon. Not silly novels. but George Washington's diaries and a book about Mark Twain. He says it's hard to get books like those out on his ranch unless he orders them. I'm sure he must have spent hun- dred dollars on just books. Think of it!" ..
 Lillie laughed her comfortable, fat laugh. You and he ought to get along together like tea and toast, then, Merry" she leased the girl. You read the weather re- port in the paper every day your- self. don't you?"
 Merry closed her lips, and stared out of the window. There were times when Lillie was unbearable with her teasing.
 But the next minute, when Lillie spoke again, she was perfectly serious. .-..
 i've been reading a book lately called The Passionate Friends she said. 'grhe man who wrote II seems to think that married people ought to be friends as well as lovers .or they won't be happy. You nev- CT heard of him. of course, Merry. His name is H. c. Wells
 She picked up the book - red one with gold lettering on it - and tucked it into her bag. Lillie fairly lived on books from the library in Colfax street. .
 q never have time to read,' Merry answered loftily. And books are full of so much silly twaddle 
 But she thought over what Lillie had said about married people be- ing passionate friends.
 T wonder if I want Bill Erskine for either friend or a lover?" she asked herself, time after time. Some how she just couldn't look ahead 1 and picture herself married to Bill Erskine!
 And yet she passionately wanted