The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-11-13

4
Nom Miller baked a special lit.
tie private pie" for Scooter
alone at lunchtime.
While the family and the four
guests ate their luncheon, Blythe
noted that Nancy seemed ut
terly without regret or worry
She marveled that the other
! girl could be SO wholly brazen
about her plotting.
II would be jumpy as heck,
BLY, told herself, watching Nancy
closely. Norman was watching
Nancy, too, she noted. Well
that much was all right. I'm
deniably Nancy was pretty. And
usually Norman Dana made a
pest of himself paying attention
to Blythe. Big Duane just
smiled all the while and said
little.
Maybe-yes!-Blythe sudden
ly felt that she understood. To-
morrow night, Wednesday
Nancy would have to have both
Norman and Duane as dinner
guests in her own cute upstairs
apartment. This was essential
to her scheme. And so, Nancy
was playing up" to Norman
now! Laughing and talking
with him in pretended friend
illness, just to be sure he was
flattered sufficiently to come.
She would already feel sure OF
Duane. ;. Blythe was appalled,
more than ever at the widows
calculating, cons C n C e S
nerve.
'It's just like some of the
early troubles the Japs and Ger
mans handed us" Pop was say
ing between forkfuls. I'VE have
TO expect the unexpected, the
setbacks. We have to weave with
'em, and come back scrappier
than ever before, lads. It's the
only way to triumph in the end.
The only way"
Blythe understood that. Good
old Pop, softening the psyche
logical blow of losing Heavy
Underwood from the lineup
Thursday. Putting new conf
dence and assurance in the two
stars minds. Norman especial
ly was given to quick flareups,
emotional streaks and such, IN
addition to what people thought
was conceit in him. She, Blythe
Miller, knew now that Norman
wasn't as conceited as he some
times appeared. On one MEM
orable occasion he had proved
it. She would always respect
him for that.
Anybody tell you how cute
you look in a red dress, Nancy?"
Norman himself said that, BEAM
ing.
"Why-no! How nice!'
Sure do. People say blends
shouldn't wear red. You correct
ed that. Mind if ! stare?"
Nom Miller put in genially
I'm sure Nancy is sweet in any
color, boys. have never seen
q prettier girl"
"Umph," Pop grunted, mouth
full, nodding.
Blythe said nothing. She
might have said that the red
dress was once her own. Given
to Nancy after the car wreck,
when Nancy was pennileSS in
the hospital. Oh, to be sure,
Nancy had since remembered 10
pay the asked-for $40, for all
that big suitcase of clothes, but
that was only a token to save
pride; the dress was still a
hand-me-down.
SUDDENLY ashamed of her
thoughts again, then, Blythe
forced a cordial smile. ''You
take all the mems eyes, Nancy.
Makes me horribly jealous!"
They all laughed at that
and only Blythe herself knew
that it stung q little. Her sally
hadn't been wholly untrue!
"Imagine!" said big Duane.
you, being jealous! Or any
thing else not. well, not per-
fect!"
Blyt he was astonished.
Duane Hogan didn't say such
things; it amounted to an epic
from him! Never, never In
their two years of rather close
friendship, had he said so much
of her and to her. He had call
ed her, Blythe, perfect! True,
he had gone right on eating, just
as il it were casual and there
fore inconsequential and soon
to be forgotten. But he had said
il, even so. He had!
GU~.. l.-~,,,v Norvaon nyao