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Show f- -- :: Ellen Was Her Dad's Escort By DOROTHY DOUGLA3 :: (Cooyrlsht.J TUP. very first time David saw her I iv realized that the fellows who wrote about love at lirst sight knew exactly what they were yarning about. "It not only can happen," muttered David a.-s he watched her assisting her father onto tlie S train, "hut it has happened. If I don't find some way of meeting and marrying that girl with the gray eyes and red hair then it'll he me for lone bachelorhood, for the rest of my days." lie was frightfully disappointed that tdie did not board the train also. It was apparent that her father was recovering from some Illness and that .she was escorting him to hi3 train to see that no harm befell him. David supposed she also would meet him in the evening. Good luck was with David that morning for he was able by a little judicious shoving to obtain tlie seat beside her father. "So far, so good," he Inwardly commented com-mented as he settled himself beside tlie man who he hoped would some day be his father-in-law. Meantime he was casting ahout In his mind for a speedy and likely opening toward lasting conversation. It came in a very pleasant way. The village bore, Fred Norwood, was making his way through tlie train and all eyes became glued to papers as he passed by lest perchance he might stop and talk.- Scarcely a soul spoke to him so fearful were they that a passing word might lead to a full hour of his tion which consisted entirely of Fred's troubles. The girl's father was unfortunate enough to have let Fred catch his eye and would have been lost had not David turned a broad shoulder and thus effectively barred the boring one's speech from reaching the older man's cwirs. When the danger was past the two turned to each other with a grin. "Close shave, that," said tlie girl's father, "you saved me from an hour's tedium." "Yes frightful bore, Isn't he? I've heard about his attack of indigestion after eating cucumbers and salmon so many times that I pretty nearly have It myself when he's, done." The elder man seemed ready to chat rather than read the paper. "There's nothing in these papers any more but suicides, daylight robberies and murders one gets fed up." "You're right," said David, "and columns col-umns of road accidents." The father laughed, "Yes, the road accidents worry my daughter. She frets until I get home at night. She sees me on the train every morning and" David laughed and drew, a trifle nearer the old man. "Speaking of your daughter I'm most frightfully in love with her did you know that?" His companion looked his astonishment, astonish-ment, but a half grin swept over his face. "But why haven't I met you seen you about the house?" "That's just what I ant to know," said David. "It's been a little trick of fate. You see I have only been in love with your daughter since 8:33 this morning when I watched her helping you on the train. Now my Idea is for you to cast an approving eye over me and well the rest will be my work." "I say, young fellow, is this some modern way of courting that I haven't heard about ?" "No, it's a way all my own," confessed con-fessed David, "and to proceed ; my name's David Wendell, thirty-one, quite decent, and have a splendid position in the advertising business." The father grinned unexpectedly. "Then your future wife's name is Ellen and her father's Is John Goodman. Shake." The two men shooks hands solemnly, solemn-ly, then laughed. "And to proceed," continued Goodman, Good-man, "there Is not a liner girl in the world. She is giving up the chance of a fine position simply because she won't let me come to the train by myself. 1 will be O. K. in another week or two but that will be too late for Ellen to secure this work. She says I've been a mother and father to her all her life and now she's going to be a mother to me won't hear of anything else. The train she would have to take is a full hour earlier than mine so she couldn't see me safely aboard." "Tlie very thing for a start," said David enthusiastically. "I will stop by every morning and call for you that is if F.ilen approves of me as escort es-cort and she can take up her work if she wants to." "By Jove, that would give her a chance. I know Ellen's frightfully keen on this position aud it really Is a flattering offer she has. I feel she wouldn't mind trusting me to you I these mornings." "There's only one thing I'm going to ask," said David, "and that is that this Is a secret, for the time Vir.g, between be-tween you aud me Ellen mustn't suspect sus-pect it's a plot hut of course. Mr. Goodman, I won't mind in the least if you drop a kind word from time to lime about me just to plant a seed la iier heart." "That won't be so difficult, either. Dave, my boy you're the kind of young fellow a father often thinks about, when It comes to his pet daughter's daugh-ter's choice." Aud, of course, daughter's choice sgreed with her father's. |