The Wilmington morning star., 1940-01-17
CHAPTER EIGHT

THE RIHOHEDl cllHlC wa
open only on Fridays.
That meant that Fabienne had {
whole week, with a long weekend
in between, to wait to see DR.. Ma
Tory again.
1t was a week that she could have
lifted out of her life and put in q
frame. For the first time in hel
life she experienced anticipation. II
was something that stole over he1
sweetly at unexpected moments and
possessed her utterly. In those mo
ments all her senses were qulcKened-
It was a physical thing that made
her aware Of the breath in her
body, the ac~celeration of her pulse.
the beating of her heart. 1t was
something that laid a touch on her
making her cheeks glow and hel
eyes soften. 1t was something that
made her look long and critically
into her mirror in an effort to see
herself as he might have seen her.
Arrogant! !! Completely impossi-
Lie she said distastefully to the
mirIcred reflection.
IT had never happened to her be-
fore. This wanting just to look al
a man again, to hear his voice, to
have him touch her.
In her tWenty-four years she had
met many men whom she had found
attractive. but none like this man
w1c could make her heart beat
faster just by thinking of him.
She had met handsome men,
heroes, princes, earls and million
aires, and claimed them for her
own. She was admittedly the most
popular girl in whatever crowd she
moved. She had only to lift the
telephone OF her eyes - to the
man who attracted her and the con-
quest was hers. And once they were
conquests, she was done with them.
She was bored.
But this mar would be no easy
with easy"
This man, she thought, would not
tole her because he would not let
her be his world. He had a world
w.!nt it was - that vast world OF
medicine - and look into it with
h IA.
She didn't say that to herself al
the beginning of that week Of
waiting. No, she told herself thai
she was piqued because he was the
only man she had ever met who
had treated her as he did.
But the week went on.
She went to the movies one night
with Ken Hemingway. They saw a
picture in which the hero was a
physician. Sitting there in the
darkened theater with Ken, Fa-
bienne saw, not the cinema actor,
but DR.. Mallory. Her finger tips
tingled and when they came out OF
the theater she called herself an
idiot for going romantic on herself.
If she "a going romantic, she
was going it headlong, for she soon
gave herself up to thinking about
him when she was with others and
wanting to be alone to thing Of him.
On the borderland of sleep she
tried to recall his face and found that
it was buried. She had only a
SENSE of it.
Once she caught herself on the
verge of asking Miss Huxley about
him. Where did he practice? Was
he successful? With what hospital
was he affiliated? But she dared
not give herself away.
She had no interest that whole
week outside of Willoughby house
She would cheerfully have stayed
there for sixteen hours a day. He
might come In at n moment anc
she not be there to see him!
1t was sheer idiocy. It was mad.
ness. 1t was terrible. It was wonder
full.
She frowned upon her expensive
drawing room in the hotel, envis.
loning him there in one of hel
chairs. She filled the room will
flowers daily and debated getting
some of Gertrude's things from tn,
apartment rented to the Derwents
She bought a hostess gown the blu
of the sky, with a flash of silve
like the swoop of the CULTS win,
elsshing the length of its flcatin;
skirt. She put it on and ~inspccte,
1T as if it were a wedding gown
Then she put it away to wait.
And she had conversations will
herself, imagining herself talkin;
to MIN, asking him about his work
telling him the truth about herself
For with all this she was learnin.
something about herself and VIII,
she had gone to Willoughby house
"All right, Miss Seymour" sh
said to herself, Granted that You.
motive was almost a spite motiv
going there to work. Deeper thai
that there might have been some
thing more gold than brass. 1t wa,
selfish. yes, but who am I to ques
ton M, sub-conscious self"
At that point in her monologue
Sue .Achi1closs rang up to ask he
to play bridge. Fabienne was gla,
to accept.
It was only Wednesday and sh
had two more days to wait. Sh
had never waited for anything II
her life before. She'd always beel
able to fill in the rare lulls. cHello
Ned? This is Fabienne Sey
mour :. . How sweet of you I
remember me! I rang up to see
you'd come and have a cocktail
with me and some other people tt