Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-11-24
CHAPTER SIX

FABIENNE SEYMOUR counted
her friends by the score. There were
the girls who'd gone to Brearly
with her, and the girls who came
out the same time she did. And
there was the hunting crowd from
Maryland and all the people she'd
met at the various places where
she'd been holidaying during the
last five years-Paris and St. Nor
itz, San Francisco, Banff, Palm
Beach and, of course, the tremen-
dous number who made up that
small world of young New York
society. And yet, she thought as
she waited for traffic light to
change on Fifth avenue at one
o'clock in the morning, she never
had been able to talk to one of
them for more than the time it
took to eat luncheon.
And here she was coming home
from Ellen Chapman's after talking
for five hours and thinking that the
evening was still young.
Well, Ellen was interesting. Talk
ing to her was like looking into a
book and reading about characters
she had never met. Goodness
knows, Ellen would never fit into
Fabienne's set, or sets.
To begin with, she didn't look
like anything. She had ordinary
dark hair, ordinary dark eyes, good
enough features and a rather sweet,
grave expression, but she threw
them away, in Fabienne's opinion.
If she had a good hair dresser and
used little more makeup
The traffic light changed and Fa-
bienne put her car in gear. It start
ed with jerk and had the effect
of temporarily switching it's driv-
er's thoughts
But later, after she had given the
keys to the doorman at her hotel
and told him to have the car take
away and returned at eight, her
thoughts returned to the girl she
had left.
It had been difficult to get Ellen
to tell her her story, and her an
swers had been simply given; but
Fabienne had formed a picture.
Graduated from college at twenty
two, Ellen had gone into Henderson
house, as Willoughby house had
been known. She had been there for
five years-yet she looked no older
than Fabienne-and during that
time she had become director with
the death Of Mrs. Jennings, its
original organizer. Apparently since
then, there had been nothing else
in her life
Suddenly Fabienne remembered
the way the girls face had looked,
flushed and pretty and alive, when
she came back from the telephone.
"Bill!" Fabienne said to herself.
Il must find out about Bill. Cali
the girls she knew talked about
their beauX. She'd get Ellen to.
Ellen was not an easy person to
get to know. She was friendly and
charming. She sincerely liked Fa-
bienne and told her that she
thought she had built up a hard
protective shell against the real
person she was. Fabienne laughed
that off. She was surprised to find
that Ellen was such an idealist.
Fabienne had no illusions about
herself. She knew that she was do
ing good work at the settlement
house as the first month slipped
into the second. and the second into
the third. But she knew twas good
only because she would not do any
thing badly. Not because she liked
the work. It was just as tiresome
to her as she progressed from one
job to another as it had been that
first week.
The one pleasure she did get out
of it was her friendship with Ellen.
Ellen intrigued her the way that a
man who did not fall at her feet
would intrigue her. Ellen apparent