Indianapolis Times, Volume 38, Number 55, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 July 1926 — Page 8

PAGE 8

Business kisses By BEATRICE BURTON Author of “Gloria, The Flapper Wife”

The names in this story are purely fictitious and are not to be taken as referring to any particular person. p<ce or arm.

READ THIS FIRST _ FLOSSIE and MARY ROSE MIDDLETON are two pretty sisters, the daughters of a widowed mother. They work for the Dexter Automobile ComP yfary Rose is secretary to the sales * manager, and is in love with him, although he's going to marry DUKis HINIG. an heiress. Because of her feeling toward him. Mary Rose repeatedly refuses to marry DR. TOM FITZROY. Flossie, a born vamp, helps keep the office files under MISS M AGI ARE. ANEi. She is engaged to SAM JESSUP, who is secretary to the president of the company. HILARY DEXTER, Mary Rose discovers that she is carrying on a flirtation with Dexter, a married man, ana that he has given her presents, among them a gold vanity case. One day Mary Rose, to her horror, finds her in Dexter’s arms. When she scolds her about it, Flossie says it’s not her fault that men fall in love with her. M Doris Himg becomes jealous of Mary Rose when she learns that Manners took her home with him to read aloud to his invalid mother. I maJly he tells Mai y Rose that he loves her. and how he and Doris drifted into long ago. that now means little to film. Mary Rose decides that she would rather go on working for Manners, however, than to marry Tom or any other man. One night Flossie comes home at dawn, much the worse for cocktails, and her mother MRS. MIDDLETON, decides to take her in hand. ul its too late, and Flossie goes her own wild way. Miss MacFarlane complains to Dexter about her laziness, and wdien he takes Flossie’s part. M:ss MacFarlane quits her job. Flossie also quarrels with i Mary Rose, and to get even with her tells Manners that Mary Roseis just stringing him along and really love* Tom Fitzroy and intends to marry him. One dav while Mary Rose is taking Dexter's dictation, while . Sam Jessup is upstairs helping Flossie with the fi es. MRS. DEXTER bursts into the office, and accuses her of breaking up her h °Marv Rose wonders what’s she’s talking about. and then Mrs. Dexter shows her Flossie's handkerchief and initialed vanity case, w-hich she has just found in her husband’s car NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY . chapter XXXVI “There! Miss Flossie Middleton!” Mrs. Dexter’s tone was full of triumph. “Deny that that’s your vanity case, you? Mary Rose nodded, “Yes, I’ll have to, because it isn’t mine,” she answered. ]Vir. Dexter got up and took the lit* tie case in his hands. He looked at it, and then down at his wife. “Margery 'how did you know that ‘F. M.’ stands for ‘Flossie Middleton.’?’’ he asked. 4 “Because I made it my business to find out,” Mrs. Dexter told him, with a nod. “I ’phoned Miss Mac Farlane, who used to work here, and asked her whese initials were ’F. M.’ And she told me. She said she thought I’d be wondering about that some’ day.” “She’s a fool,” Mr. Dexter remarked grimly. “And sore, besides, because I discharged her a while ago. Now, Margery, if you’ll just let me get a word in edgewise, I think I can explain all thisj— ’” Mrs. Dexter laughed scornfully. “This young lady,” he said, waving one hand in the direction of Mary Rose, “is not Flossie Middleton —” ‘•What!” Mrs. Dexter’s eyes opened in amazement. So did hei mouth, displaying very white even teeth. “Well, then, who under heavep, is she?” “This is John Manners’ secretary, Miss Mary Rose Middleton,” Dexter went on in his grand manner. He had the floor now, and he was sure he could hold it—for all the wind was suddenly taken out of his wife’s sails. “Is there a 'Flossie Middleton,’ too?” she asked Mary Rose. Mary Rose nodded, and began to answer, but Mr. Dexter cut her short. “There is such a person—a little girl who takes care of our files for us," he admitted. She’s Miss slary Rose’s sister anil she's engaged to Sam Jessup.” “Who’s Sam Jeskfip?” “Surely, you know who Sam Jessup is,” her husband answered. “He’s been my private secretary for more than a year—ever since you insisted that I get rid of little Miss P.iaser.” Mary Rose saw Mr. Dexter’s lips set. Evidently she and Mr. Dexter had had “words” about Miss Blaser, who had been the prettiest little gray-eyed redhead imaginable ( “Now, it so happens that very often young Sam Jessup goes on errands for me in my 6ar,” Mr. Dexter smoothly went on with his explanation. Mary Rose knew that this was not true. She knew that no one was ever permitted to touch the big blue Dexter Special except the owner, himself, and the men who washed it and kept it in order. She knew that whenever'Sam went on errands

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for the company, he went in his decrepit “Wheezer” or on foot. But she let Dexter tell his lie. Anything lo save Flossie from being dragged through a divorce court as a corespondent! “And very often young Jessup takes Miss Flossie along with him. I’ve no doubt,” Mrs. Dexter’s spouse continued. “At any rate, she must have teen with him yesterday afternoon when I sent him up to the Rubberold factory. And she must have left her little hanky and vanity case or whatever you call it in my car. Darned embarrassing for me, too!" He laughed and whistled through his teeth briefly. His wife looked up at him. “Hilary Halliday Dexter! Are you telling me the truth?” she asked, and without any warning at all, she suddenly burst into <ears. Her Imposing head went down into-her ringed hands and she cried and cried. Mr. Dexter stood over her, patting her velvet clad shoulders and soothing her if she were a child. “Now, now, girl! Don’t be silly!”he said to her. ‘There! There! You know I wouldn’t let you leave me! Don’t - you? But why did you tell the children all this twaddle about me? That’s what makes me feel i blue—” He got down on his knees. “I’ll—tell them I made a mistake,” sobbed Mrs. Dexter, her head against her husband's coat. “Oh, Hilary— Hilary, I’m so ashamed of myself—for letting myself doubt you! But lately I’ve thought, were growing away from me. You seemed so cold. You’ve never been out with any girl, have you? Tell me the truth, Hilary!” “Why, certainly not, Margery!” Dexter told his lie unflinchingly. “You know I haven’t. Don’t talk such nonsense. Brace up!” Mrs. Dexter braced up. She wiped' her eyes, and went on talking to her husband as if the two of them were aione in the room. She seemed to have forgotten Mary Rose’s presence there, completely. “You know how silly I am about you, Hilary,” she said to him, between sobbing bypaths. “I’ve always been silly about you, haven’t I? Ever since we got married so many years ago. I never could see anybody but you. and it just about killed me to think you didn't care for me any more—and that you were running around with every rag tag and bob-tail —” She stopped and a puzzled frown darkened her face. “I just wonder, though, what Miss MacFarlane meant when she said she thought I’d be asking her about Flossie Middleton some day—” she said, one finger at the corner of her pursed lips. “Aa-aah! She didn't mean anything!” Dexter’s tone was contemptuous of Miss MacFarlane. “She’s just a mean, bitter old maid. And she thought she’d get even with Flossie—er, Miss Middleton, by skying that to you. She had a row with a girl a while ago, and quit her job. She was a terrible troublemaker. wasn't she, when she was here?” 1 He turned to Mary Rose to back him up. But Mary Rose was sick with dipgust foY Mr. Dexter and for his lies. “I’m suft I don’t know, Mr. Dexter,” she answered coldly and stood. “May I go now(?" He nodded. "Yes, and better take those things to your sister. She may need them.” Mary Rose picked up the handkerchief and the vanity case, and .turned to go. But Mrs. Dexter stopped her, with her hand laid on her arm. "I beg your pardon, Miss Middleton,” she said, her eyes swimming and her cheeks scarlet. “But—you know, we wives at home sometimes —sometimes wonder about you girls who work with our husbands all day long—” She laughed, as if she were embarrassed, and then spoke again. “You see, you’re so young and attractive —most of you. And we wonder whether you’re sirens or —” Mary Rose shook' her head. “I think that most of us are girls very like your own daughters, if you’ll pardon me for being so frank, Mrs. Dexter,” she said bluntly. YMost of us expect to marry some day—some

OUT OUR WAY—By WILLIAMS

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husband of our own, not one stolen from the boss’ wife!” Afterward, as she went back to her own desk, she marvelled at her courage in saying what she had said to the wife of the president of the Dexter Company, but it was the truth, at that. She thought of the woman’s tearstained face, and the, tremulousness of her mouth when Sne spoke to her husband. And then there came before her a vision of Flossie’s pert, gay features, her careless laughter, and her off-hand boast that “the Big Boss is bats about, me!” She was dreadfully sorry for Mrs. Hilary Dexter! • * • She went In John Manners’ office. He did not look up. even when she crossed the room, and stood beside his chair. , “I’ve finished with Mr. Dexter, now,” she said quietly. “I suppose you'd like me to open the morning’s' mail.” "Yes, please.” Still he did not look at her- and she put cut her hand for the letters stacked at the back of and Wen*: out of the room. She sat down at her own desk and went to work. 1 But she couldn’t work—- " Clack, clack, clack,” went the sound of her typewriter. “John, John, John,” she kept saying to herself. What was the rrtatter with him? Why hadn’t he looked* up at her? He hadn’t even said, “Good morning” to her! She turned her head to Miss Min-

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nick. “What’s Mr. Manners’ peeved about, do you suppose, -Min?” she asked. “Didn’t it strike you that he's awfully upset about something this morning? He hardly spoke to me just now.” Miss Minnick gave her a cold stare with her pale eyes between their pale yellow lashes, “He seemed just the same as usual to me,” she said, and bent her head to her work. Mary Rose remembered then that Miss Minnick had been one of the people who had wandered past the doorv of Mr. Dexter’s office, when Mrs. Dekter had been accusing her of stealing her husband’s love. 4 “I suppose the whole office thinks I’ve been running around with him,” She thought. “Heavens, what a mess —but I won’t let myself care. They can all go straight to the dickens!” But she did care! She had always been proud of her position in that office which was the center of the universe to her. The girls had all seemed to loolc up to her, to ask her advice about things. She had not had an enemy in the'place. “I suppose that’s what made John so queer, too,” sh© thought suddenly, and the thought stabbed like a pain. “Some one’s told him that Mrs. Dexter was down here bawling me out for running around with her husband—” Ah, if ho thought that, let him think It! If he was so ready to believe a story like that, from the office gossip, let him believe it. But the more she thought about it. the less likely it seemed to her that Man-

SALESMAN SAM—By SWAN

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES—By MARTIN

FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—By BLOSSER

ners would ’.et people tell him anything about her. “No, it mist be something else. Maybe he’s just upset about some thing,” she thought. As she sat there,, turning the things over and over in her mind, Adolph, the office boy, came along with the noon mail in his grimy hands. He laid a single letter down on Mary Rose's desk. Without a word, he passed on, whistling “Yearning” as he went. “Adolph, too, thinks I’m too bad to be spoken to!” Mary Rose thought half with amusement and tialf with bitterness for Adolph had always been her special ifriend at the office. He had brought her sandwiches and coffee from the lunchroom across the street, when it was too rainy or cold for her to venture out at noon. He had kept her pencils sharp and had'taught her to whistle. Presently he came back, carrying a pile of stationery. He looked at hor and she smiled at him. To her surprise he grinned back. “Scandal, huh?” said Adolph in a hoarse whisper. “Been va .-npin’ the boss and his wife caught you at it. Huh?” Mary Rose gave him a look he never forgot. Then she picked up her letter. It was a thick one, in an envelope of Jieavy white paper, with her; name written across it in a fine old-fashioned hand. “Well, I wonder what this is now,” she thought. “I never saw that writing before, anyway."

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She tore open tne envelope. (To Be Continued) What will Mary Rose say to Flossie? Will she lose Manners' respect to protect her sister? Read tomorrow's installment. PLAN DEDICATION OF STATE PARK Ohio, Michigan Governors to Participate. Arrangements were completed today for the formal dedication Saturday of Lake James State Park, Indiana's latest acquisition to her park system, with announcement -that Governors Donahey of Ohio and Groesbeck of Michigan, will attend. Governor Jackson will speak. The program Includes a noon-day reception and luncheon for the distinguished guests. Dedicatory exercises will begin at 1:30 at the site of the future park The reservation will be formally presented to Governor Jackson by the Steuben County board of commissioners. Jackson then will turn the park over to Director Richard Lleber of the conservation department. A dinner and reception will be held In the evening at the Angola Masonic teSiple. >' '

OUR BOARDING HOUSE—By AHERN

WATCHMAN STRICKEN Suffers Stroke While Making Rounds —ls Recovering. Carey Chrisman, 1025 Concord Si.., is at his home today recovering from a stroke of paralysis suffered late Wednesday while lie was making his rounds at the Indianapolis Warehouse Company, where he is a night watchman. His right arm and right leg wore affected by the stroke. LOCATKD AT NEWCABTLK Byron of 684 Arch Bt., reported missing from his homo, has been* located In Newcastle, Ind.. It was said at police headquarters today. According to reports Heflin was -arrested there on an intoxication charge shortly after his disappearance from home. FOR ITCHING TORTURE Use Antiseptic Liquid Zemo There Is one remedy that seldom fails to atop ltehtnsr torture and relieve akin Irritation, and that tnakea the akin, soft, dear and healthy. Any druggist can supply you with Zemo, which generally overcomes skin diseases. EcaemH. Itch, Pimples. Rash es. Blackheads. In most cases quickly give way to Zemo. Frequently, minor blemishes disappear overnight. Itching usually stops instantly. Zemo ta a safe, antiseptic liquid hat may be ap plied at any time, for It does not show. Ask your druggist foe small slae HOc or large bottle st.oo. -Advertisement.

JULY j 1926

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