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Village Squire, 1977-02, Page 13talk him out of tnat. 1 couldn't let her walk out of my life now that I'd found her - could I? I told her about Mericole and asked when she could start. "To -morrow morning will be fine. About nine o'clock?" she smiled at me and I took off, soaring high above the clouds. She turned to leave. "1 didn't get your name Miss - Miss?" "It's Mrs." she said. "Mrs. Laura Clarke." I was shot down. She was Laura alright but someone elses Laura. The twin engines of my plane died and died and I was losing altitude rapidly. "Does your husband approve of your doing ad work?" I asked halfheartedly. "I'm divorced Mr. Benson. I'll see you at nine then?" Saved just in time. The following morning we went to the television station to start shooting. Dave Lansing, Mericole's discoverer was there. I didn't have to say a word about Laura - she sold herself. 1 had though about having Laura emerge from a giant tube of Mericole - but she's too elegant for that - besides it's been done before. , "How's about having her coming out of the bath and applying Mericole all over suggested Dave. Laura grimaced. "No, no that's no good. It's got to be something unique. I want a pool, a giant pool with lily pads, green grass, night blooming jasmin - the works." I knew that would take the stage crew some time to set up. In the meantime I took Laura out to lunch. I haven't been a bachelor all these years for nothing. The films turned out great. I simply had Laura walk around the pool, sniffing the Jasmin, bending to let the blue-green water trickle through her slender fingers. She wore a filmy, white thing that swirled wonderfully in the artificial wind from a giant fan. She was puce elegance in motion. Her success was instantaneous. Two weeks late as I drove to work Laura smiled down at me from a billboard. Her picture was in every cosmetic shop, surrounded by tubes and cases of Mericole. At night after the late -late show she drifed around that pool and later she stole into my dreams, smiling sadly. In the past two weeks I had dinner with Laura eight times. I would sit there watching her chew her food with those little white teeth, listening to her talk and would forget to eat my steak until it was cold. But she always made me take her home at eight. She has two girls, Jennifer who's eight and Vicky who's five. She likes to put them to bed herself. Her ex-husband sounded like a real heel, but I guess anyone who had been married to her would seem that way to me. He had married her when she was 20 - but the love or whatever it was had wore off shortly after the first baby was born. He just didn't like kids. "If 1 ever marry again," Laura had said witli conviction one night, "He'd have to be a man who adores children as much as I do. My daughters are more important to me than anything else." I could see an inspection coming up. Dave was in my office one morning, elated by the fact that Mericole sales had tripled in one week. His small beady eyes glistened with dollar signs. "Get the Mericole girl on the phone," he said. "She's going to be interviewed on a Montreal show today." 1 phoned Laura. She'd love to go but her babysitter was away for the weekend and she couln't find a replacement. Well, here's your chance, Joe old boy, I told mysejf - if you want to play the game get in there pitching. "Laura, bring the kids over here for the day. rI'm good with kids. We'll have a swell time. You'll see.' I must have sounded convincing for in three quarters of an hour the girls were there demanding a tour of the T.V. station. "We want to see the pool where Mommy works," said the little one. She looks like Laura - the same dark eyes - that low bubbling voice. "Yes" siad Jennifer, "Mommy said you'd be nice to us." She's quite hefty for a girl of eight - but she has Laura's honey blonde hair - I'd get to like her too. We took a cab to the studio. "There it is," I said to the girls. "That's your Mommie's pool." "Why is the water so blue?" asked the little one. (//12/11,6(.0 aale,'1 //") .. elk &// P y vi/ (/////m////) Pirouette By Orange Blossom A solitaire set in a delicate band of eighteen karat gold Because this is the beginning. sidm *444 OteerG LARRYLACROIX Jeweller PH. 271-0521 9ti WELLINGTON S1. STRA I FORG 00)6.-4g(f-*Clh),;%.0).4 'flZ0)43T v ;Ik 4 .k + 0 - SEW UP SAVINGS Crimplene. Trevira. Double - Knits. Seersuckers. Plain and Printed Polyester Crepe. `' Cottons. Broadcloth and denims -We handle only first quality materials. - JUST ARRIVED Complete Line of Spring fabrics & Sewing Accessories arone's Main Street, WHERE SHOPPING Seaforth IS A PLEASURE :13 o, 4as 40 .€Q ©4 '4. a£34p' ` 1£'r, VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1977. 11