Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-04-08
CHAPTER ONE
WRITTEN FOR AND RELEA ED BY
CENTRAL PRESS ASSOCIATION

THE LINE OF cars moving Slow
ly up the gravel drive was impress
sive. Eleanor Parrish glanced in the
mirror above her chauffeur's head
and identified them. tabulating
their owners like cast of charac-
tiers in a movie.
She smiled and nodded to some
one she knew and drew back hast
lily into the corner of her car,
avoiding the necessity for further
greeting. She wondered why she
ever went to parties; why today,
particularly, when there were so
many things to be done, she had
driven to Greenwich because Grace
Mordecal had said, "You know,
darling, couldn't give party
without you'll"
Of course she hadn't believed her.
She was past fattery. Why, then,
had she come? She knew she had
come because she was still paying
an old debt to Grace. She had been
the first to take Eleanor up after
The car moved up few feet and
stopped by poisoning magnolia
bush. It was spring, and suddenly
Eleanor was impatient with things
that were old. thinking how long
it had been since anything had
been new and quickened her senses.
For her. at Sc, the pattern of
her life was set. a pattern peo-
pied with Phil, Jessica and Sonny,
a pattern Of unceasing work.
She looked at her reflection in
the glass back of Morton's ma
roon-colored back and approved of
what she saw. Her road-brimmed
hat and the collar of her short sa-
BILE wrap framed the delicacy of
her sensitive face, her soft dark
blond hair. She looked thirty.
The car moved again and nosed
in suddenly as a low-slung two
scatter speeded around the curve,
past the waiting line and disap-
peared back Of the house.
She was aware of the hatless
head of the driver as it flashed past
her window. "Liontine." she MUIR
INJURED, Labelling it from force Of
habit.
She saw the same head instantly
when she entered Grace's drawing
room-perhaps because she sought
it. who is he ?" she asked her
hostess.
Someone you must know, darl-
ing Dennis!"
He heard and made his wav to
them.
Grace said: ''This is Dennis
Pryor, Eleanor. Dennis, this
is Eleanor Parrish, THE Eleanor
Parrish. our famous novelist"
He said: Delighted" Eleanor
bowed.
Grace said: Dennis, get Eleanor
something to drink. I've got to find
Penelope Ridgely."
May II" he asked Eleanor.
you can take me to one" she
said. Something long and cold and
non-alcoholic, please"
She followed the path his broad
shoulders opened for her through
the drawing room and the wide hall
to the bar beyond.
She sat waiting for him on a
bench before the hearth in the hal.
her eyes. seemingly detached,
marked the details of his appear
ance as he waited his turn at the
par. He was, she thought, about
forty. A man schooled to vigorous
ACTIVITY. to controlled action. His
body was big, powerful, gracefully
proportloned of bone and muscle
and skin Drowned by the sun. The
mark OF the sun was in his hair
streaked with silver, in his ewes set
deeply above the planes in his face
Ills eyes had the look of a man ac-
customed. to measuring distance
and depth.
7 He came back to her saving 100
you're novelist ?"
Eleanor smiled briefly. She was
plqued for an instant, and then
amused and slightly dismayed She
naont thought she was ever likely
70 mo anyone who hadn't known
sne was novelist. She ran ovar
ner record mentally: Fortv novels
eisnt plays, her motion picture
adaptations, the. translations IN
Twelve languages, at least one se-
RAJ month in one or more of. the
leading magazines.
her. 0.uuylhs
: WELL" she said. lis there anv. !