Indianapolis Times, Volume 38, Number 62, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 July 1926 — Page 18

PAGE 18

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

The name* In this itory are purely fictitious and are not to be taken as referring to any particular person. p*ce o r arm.

FLOSSIB E and MIDDLETON are two pretty Waters, the daughters of a widowed mother. They work for the Dexter Automobile ComBose is secretary to JOHN MANNERS, the sales manager and is tn love with him. But he's engaged to X)RIS HINIG, an heiress. Because of her feeling for him. Mary Rose repeatell v refuses to marry DR 10M FITZFlosate. a bom vamp, does a very poor lob of keeping the office tiles. Mary Hose discovers that she is carrying on a flirtation With the president of the. oompany. HILARY DEXTER. although she 9 enguged to his secretary. SAM JESSUP, hen she's not out danc. tnjr with Sam. she's “joy riding until all hours with Dexter. John Manners begins to show his interest In Mary Rose. He takes her home to introduce her to his mother and the two become fast friends. Finally he teUs Mary Bose that he loves her and always will, whether he marries Dons or not \ The two sisters quarrel and to .get even, Floesle tells Manners that Mary Rote Is f jut stringing him along and really intends to marry Tom Fltzroy. Mary Roee wonders at nls sudden coldness toward her andthinks he has made UP ht mind to forget her. MRS. DEXTER finds Flossies gold vanity oaae In her husband's car and when she oomes to the office to tell him Shes going to divorce him. she finds tary Rose taking his dictation and accuses her. within hearing of the entire office force, of trying to steal Dexter ftom her. Flossie begs her sister not to let any one know that It wa9 she who left the caee in Dexter’s car on one of their frequent rides together, because she’s afraid that if Sam Jessup learns the truth, he won’t marry her. So Mary Roee takes the blame and stands all the snubs and slurs from the girls at the office, in the hope that Sam will marry herat once and get away from Dexter. The office force gives a Halloween masquerade and Dexter, whose wife is out of town, comes. He and Flossie, along about midnight, ‘ditch’’ the party and go for a drive. De.xter makes love to her and becomes unmanageable. (Now Go on With the Story) CHAPTER XLIII

Now, it is not to be supposed for a single second that Flossie Middleton had never been on an automobile “petting party” before in her short, reckless life. Far from it. She had been on dozens of them. Since she was 15 she had had many “crushes” on as many men, one after another. Like many of the girls of her day she spoke of “necking” as her grandmother might have spoken of "skating” or "taffy pulling,” in her youth. Sam Jessup had been the first boy to kiss her, long ago in the high school days, and Flossie was coming to the point where Sam’s lovemaking was the only lovemaking she wanted. She loved everything about him but his lack of money. And so she was not only afraid of Mr. Dexter now, as he rained hot, heavy kisses on her cold cheeks and lips, but she hated him, too. “Yeu —you leave me alone! You!” she cried sobbingly, as she beat a tattoo on his chest with her little fists. “Let me go—I hate you!” But it was too late in the day to try to tell Dexter that she hated him. For months she had been taking his presents, riding with him in his car, letting him hold her hands over the tables of cases while he told her that he adored her. She had even hinted to him that she would adore to marry him—if there were no present Mrs. Dexter. Dexter could hardly be blamed for not believing her when she cried out that she hated him and his kisses. He was sure that she loved him—but that she was frightened. He could feel her heart beating wildly like the fluttering of a bird, against his own heart, as he held her close. “Don’t be afraid, darling. It's all right,” he said to her, and smoothed her cheek with his. Flossie struggled away from him and cowered in her corner of the seat. "If —if you touch me again, I’ll iump out of this machine. I swear I will,” she told him and she meant it. JBut as she spoke, Dexter took her hands again, stroking their silky palms with his own. "Listen to me, little love, and be sensible,” he said to her in a voice that was low and thick with his consuming passion. “I love you and you love me.” “Like ice I deft" thought Flossie, but she didn’t say a word. “I can’t get along without you, any more," Dexter went on. "And I don’t, see any reason why we can’t belong to each other, do you, darling?” “There’s your wife—” Flossie began. “She need never know about us,” the man broke in quickly. “She need never suspect.” But still Flossie didn't follow the trend of his thoughts. "Why, sure, she'll need to know when you start divorcing her!” she •aid sharply. “Or will you let her divorce you?” Dexter gave an inner gasp of astonishment. Cquld this girl besid& him really be so innocent? "That’s/just it, Flossie,” he said smoothly. "I can't ever be divorced from Mcs. Dexter. She —she doesn't deserve such treatment, for she's been a good wife to me. And I need her to keep my house and bring up my children.” He looked at the girl to see how she was taking it, but her face was only a white blurr in the darkness. He went on: "But if you love me

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as I think you do, you’ll not mind my having a wife. You see, ours is purely a business arrangement, hers and mine.” Flossie was too surprised to speak when he ceased. She couldn't believe what she had just heard with her own ears. So Mary Rose was right! And all this time Dexter had been leading up to a proposition like this! He had never once thought of marrying her! Or of divorcing that old high-hat of a wife of his! Dexter took her silence for consent. He tried to laugh and Flossie heard him murmur something she had heard before, about “without benefit of clergy.” He slid over in' the seat and took her in his arms once more, his face buried in hep hair, his lips on the nape of her warm soft neck. Flossie put one hand behind her and quietly opened the door of the car. Then slowly she managed to get one foot in its golden slipper out on the step. One moment she was in Dexter’s arms and the next one she was out on the road running as fast as she could away from the darkened automobile. She heard him coming after her — Then suddenly he caught hold of her. “Don’t be a fool, Flossie!” he panted, grasping her by both arms and shaking her. “What's the matter? Are you crazy?” Flossie waa crying again. “Yes —I think I am,” she sobbed. me go, or I’ll kill you—” and she hit him full in the face. The blow brought Dexter to his senses quicker than anything else in the world could have done it. He dropped her suddenly and stood looking at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. ”1 thought you honestly cared for me. Flossie,” he said, with his hand to his smarting cheek. “You were just playing me for a boob, all this time, weren’t you?” “What were you playing me for?” -Flossie cried, with a flash of her urual spirit. "That’s what I'd like to know!” Dexter laughed harshly. ”1 supposed you knew it would come to a show-down like this, sooner or later, he said. “It always does, doesn’t it. when a girl goes around with a married man?” Flossie was too ahgry to go on l.stening to him. She turned on her high heels and started away down the road toward the brick pavement. She was sure that presently he would come driving after her. to beg her to get into the car and to ask her pardon for the insult he'd offered her. And then she'd have him under her thumb again! But he didn’t come. And only when she saw the lights of his car flash as he turned it. and then vanish in the opposite direction, did she realize that he had left her. Left her flat in the Mack country road at one o’clock in the morning! % She stood there for a minute or two, shivering in. the thin satin cape that did not begin to cover her short chiffon ballet dress as is should have. Then she started to walk home along ttte bricks. After the second mile her feet began to hurt terribly. Hr slippers rubbed her heels until one of them made a blister. She bent and took them off and limped along in her thin stockings. On either side of the lonely road, the trees loomed black and weird. Every now and then Flossie passed a house, but she was afraid to go in and ask her shelter. She was afraid to ask any of the few automobiles that passed for a lift. too. Heaven alone knew what kind of queer “birds” were out in the country at that hour of the night. She crept into the' bushes until they went by and then trudged painfully on, But through ' all her pain and misery, the bitter truth forced itself into her brain at last. She had no one hut herself to blame for this night's business! She had hrought it all on herself! * • • \ At half-past one that morning, Sam .Tessun knocked on the front door of Middletons’ brown house. Mary Rose, fully dressed, came down the stairs and opened It. Her face was flushed and her eyes were full of sleep. “I wasn’t sure Flossie had her key with hep—” she began, and then saw that he was alone. “Why, where is she?” Sam's face was haggard and graywhite in the'llght from the hall lamp. “She didn’t come home, then?” he asked and came inside, shutting the door behind him. Mary Rose shook her head, and laid a finger on her lips. She was wide awake now. “Hush!” she wlfispered. “Don’t let Mother hear. I think she’s awake—” She led the way to the kitchen and Sam followed her. “Now she can’t possibly hear us. Tell me what happened?" she asked

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briskly as they looked at each other. There was fear written in the eyes of both of them. ‘Did Fiossle start home with somebody else?” , “I don't know where she went. I don’t even know when she went," Sam twirling his hat with nervous fingers. "All of a sudden she just wasn't In sight. Everybody was dancing and I waited until the end of the dance, and then I started to look for her. I got Miss Minnick to look in the washroom to see if hei coat was there.” "And was it?” Mary Rose asked. She was white to the lipe. Sam shook his head. * "And was anybody else gone from the crowd?” "Nobody but Mr. * Dexter,” Sam answered. “And h only came for a little while, anyway, he said. No, she couldn’t have gone with him, because he said good night to me a good five minutes before I missed Flossie.” Mary Rose pursed up her lips. The mystery of Flossie's disappearance from the party was no longer a mystery to her. She knew shat she vanished with Hilary Dexter, and that wherever she was, she was with Hilary Dexter. But was she safe with him? Ah, that was another question. A question that Mary Rose hardly dared to ask herself. She remembered suddenly the hungry look that had come Into Dexter’s eyes that day when she had come Into his office looking like a dryad, and hailing him as "Dex, old

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

OIJT OUR WAY—By WILLIAMS

kid!” And, as she remembered it, she knew thkt no girl was safe with a man who looked at her in just that way. But wherever Flossie was, or with whom, there was no point In letting Sam Jessup know about It. That much was certain, at any rate. "She's probably < gone to stay all night with one of the girls from the office. You must have missed her, Sam, In the crowd,” she said, trying not to let her anxiety show in her face. "If I were you, I’d just go home and go to bed. She'll probably call up after a while, when it occurs to her that we might be worrying about her.” Sam hesitated. “But, good lord, J couldn’t sleep If I didn't know she was safe and sound,” he said, with something very like a sob in his voice. "I'm gblng to dash to the office and take one more look around. Maybe she got sick and went to lie down In one of the rooms. She had quite s lot of the punch—” He was half way through the hall as he spoke. "I’ll call you updf I find her,” he said. “And if you don't, you’d better go home and have a few hours’ sleep,” Mary Rose told him. "Good night, Sam, and don’t worry. She's all right.” The minute the front door had closed upon him, ohe darted to the telephone and gave the number of Hilary Dexter’s house. "I suppose I’ll lose my job for this,” she thought as she waited for an answer. “But I’ve just got

SALESMAN SAM—By SWAN

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES —By MARTIN

FRECKI.es AND HIS FRIENDS—By BLOSSER

to know if he’s with Floss!” “Mr. Dexter's residence,” a deep voice greeted her. "I'd like to speak to Mr.' Dexter, please!” she rapped ou the words. "Mr. Dexter’s not at home,” the voice, evidently that of a butler, replied. "He’s gone out to a party at the works.’ Mary Rose sagged against the wall, as she hung up the receiver. So they were together! Hilary Dexter and the little sister, in her siily costume of a ballet dancer—the scant pink dress in which Flossie had looked like a rose—a rose that is so frail a thing that it can be crushed to pieces by a ruthless hand. (To Be Continued) Will the rose be crushed? See tomorrow’s installment. WILL COUNT BALLOTS National Party Board to Determine Who Are Nominees. Referendum ballots for nominations for United States Senators and a State ticket will be counted by the State advisory board of the National Party Saturday afternoon at the party’s headquarters, 336 American Central Life Bldg. Members of the board are Mrs. M. E. Mantle, Kathryn Elrod, John Bahnd, Wiley J. Rominger, Louis J. Denzer, Edgar Pettit, Dr. D. L. Prall and Dr. E. C. King.

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