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Show A New W ord By MEREDITH SCROLL Associated Newspapers, WNU Features. A PROPOS of nothing, except the fact that two young friends of his had just patched up a minor lovers' lov-ers' quarrel, Al Cooper told me this story the other day about Alec Blake and Elinor Chase. They met (Al began) at a summer resort out in the Middle West. Alec had been out of college two years and was working for the telephone company. Doing pretty well at it, Elinor came from Peoria, and was staying at one of the resort hotels with her mother. She worked as a stenographer in a lawyer's office, and this was her annual vacation. She didn't have much of an ancestral ances-tral background, and she hadn't had the benefit of a college education. But even though Alec had known, it wouldn't have influenced him. For ancestral background and college education don't affect a girl's beauty or her sweet disposition. Alec met her one day when he came up to her hotel to talk with the manager about installing a new phone service. serv-ice. She was standing nea? the desk and the manager introduced them. Alec went back to the office that morning and told his boss that if he (the boss) didn't care, he'd like to take the first week of his annual fortnight vacation then. The boss said that was O. K., and Alec stepped into a phone booth, called Elinor Chase and asked her how she'd like to go swimming. They spent the rest of the day in the hotel pool, and that night Alec took Elinor and her mother to dinner. din-ner. Later on he invited the girl to accompany him to' a dance. Alec's friends were all college folks and congenial. They liked Elinor Eli-nor immediately and adopted her. During the remainder of the week she was with them nightly. Don was a member of Alec's crowd. He had displayed an unusual unusu-al amount of interest in Elinor after the first meeting. He did his best to promote himself in her eyes, anA didn't lose hope even when Elinor indicated plainly her preference for Alec. It would seem, on the face of it, that-Elinor's attitude in the matter should have convinced Alec that he was the shining star in the scope of the young lady's vision. But when a man is in love, and when he knows another man is interested in the girl of his choice, he is apt to exercise exer-cise his imagination. Logic informed him that Elinor didn't care two hoots in Purgatory for Donald Moore, yet Don was so persistent with his at-tentions'that at-tentions'that Alec's mind would have been set more at ease if Elinor told the rival that he was through. Alec schemed to bring this about. He waited until the last day of his vacation. The crowd with whom he and Elinor had been associating all week had planned a picnic at a nearby near-by lake, and Alec saw to it that Donald Don-ald Moore had an opportunity to be alone with Elinor oil several occasions. occa-sions. He wanted Don to ask her to go out with him that night, wanted to give Elinor a chance to refuse, even though he, Alec had expressed no desire to be with her. Later, assuming as-suming the attitude of one who took it for granted that they were to be together, he'd ask her himself. Surreptitiously watching the pair throughout the afternoon. Alec felt pretty sure that Donald had presented pre-sented a proposition to Elinor for the evening. He had planned to ask Elinor on that last night to drive with him alone in the country. And so when at last they were on their way back to the hotel Alec, who with Elinor and four others were occupying a sedan, turned to her and said, "Are you going to be available avail-able tonight, my dear?" For a moment Elinor hesitated, glancing toward the front seat where sat Donald Moore. Then she smiled and shook her head. "No, Alec," she said, "I'm not." , Alec knew instantly that those vague doubts which were provoked by Don Moore's interest in Elinor hadn't been real at all. Up until this very moment he hadn't suspected suspect-ed even remotely but what the girl loved him quite as much as he loved her, and that no one else mattered. Alec's lips set rather grimly and he turned away. Throughout the remainder of the drive, he tried to be gay and light hearted, but he couldn't. And Elinor seemed to sense how he felt. There was a strange look 4n her own eyes, a sort of pitying look. The drive ended. Alec walked up to the hotel door with Elinor, said good-by briefly and without looking at her, turned away. It seemed in that moment that he was leaving behind everything in life worth having hav-ing and living for. Al Cooper paused in the telling of his tale and chuckled heartily. I looked at him, frowning. "So that ended it, eh? Alec never did get over the fact." Al ceased his chuckling. "He didn't have to," he said. "For later on that night Elinor called Alec on the phone and asked him over. You see, after Elinor got back to her hotel, ho-tel, a very startling and enlightening enlighten-ing thought occurred to her. She leaped to her feet and rushed down to the desk clerk and asked for a dictionary. He gave it to her and she looked up the word "available!" |