The Rival — Marcia Miller

Lovely Gail Carter worked in an E-ray lab in San Francisco with Drs. Scott and Newman -- a position she had obtained through her surgeon father, a friend of Dr. Newman's. She had left the television station in Philadelphia and her exciting job there after her breakup with Philip Wade, because Phil also worked at the station. Now Gail was through both with television and men.

Dr. Richard Hunt, taking a course in radiology under Dr. Newman, did not interest Gail -- that is, until she began to take pity on the young doctor when he incurred Dr. Scott's wrath. Her first date with Rich led to others -- and before she realized it, Gail was falling in love again. It wasn't until Rich's Dresden-doll like mother returned from Europe that Gail realized she had a more formidable rival for Rich's affections than the other girls at the lab. Rich's mother was a rival that not even the beauteous Gail knew how to fight. She would have to get away from the lab, she decided, to think things out. Back in TV work, Gail realized how very much she had missed this exciting world -- meeting glamorous personalities, men like Sherd North, the newscaster whose chameleon-like attitude baffled her.

But although she was away from day-to-day contact with Rich Hunt, she couldn't forget him.

The Rival does not present a new problem, but Gail's handling of a it is refreshingly original . When Gail decides to fight fire with fire, the sparks begin to flay. Gail's victory, however, is a Pyrrhic one, and the ending Mrs. Miller's delightful story is as surprising as it is satisfactory.