The Wilmington morning star., 1940-02-22
CHAPTER T~HIRTY-NINE

lee the building heard CnflsLiiie
Parsons passionate statement that
she was going to kill herself.
Fabienne said, "Get in my car,
Christine. Wen go somewhere and
talk"
The distracted girl, who was near
collapse, as Fabienne u see'
got in.
Fabienne pressed her foot on the
starter. The engine wouldn't turn
over. She tried again and again.
Finally, Lewis, the doorman' came
over. Anything wrong?" he asked,
putting his head In the car. giving
Christine a long look.
Fabienne was furious. She said,
mo, thanks Lewis. It often does
this. I'm taking this lady home"
she added, so that Lewis would have
no suspicious, as Fabienne had, that
Christine was not mentally balanced.
"She's the mother of n Of u lit
tie patients who is leaving shortly"
Fortunately, at that moment, the
engine did turn over and she moved
the car away quickly. Also, fortu-
nately, though she did not realize
it then, it was a good thing she had
made that little speech. Lewis was
on duty later that night.
She opened the window to let the
refreshing air blow in for her pas
senger. Don't try to talk now,
Chris. I'm going to take you down
to my apartment. We can talk
there alone. There won't be anyone
at home until much later
Christine's teeth were chatter
ing, but it was not with cold for all
that the day was sharp and windy
and the breeze from the river as
they sped south on tie East River
drive, cut like needles and whipped
the refuse that Uttered the streets
across the windshield.
A fine cat nap she'd get now, Fa-
bienne thought ruefully. The girl
beside her needed advice and a
bromide and, more than that, Fa-
bienne doubted she could do with
out aid. Chris had talked like a
mad woman She knew some of the
girls story, having heard it from
one friend or another in the crowd
in which she and Chris once moved.
She wondered what had brought her
to this state.
These things she was thinking as
she piloted the car west on Fifty
Seventh street and turned it's nose
south on Park avenue.
Chris herself, was the daughter
of divorced parents. Sweet, pretty
to the point of beauty the way that
fragile blondes with baby faces some
times are, there was always a look
Of being buffeted around during those
oirlhood days when Fabienne had
known her. Small wonder, Fabienne
thought, the way that Chris was put
in one school after another, only to
be yanked out by whichever parent
had a rare impulse to be parental
and enjoy the company of his or her
oewildered child.
"Am l driving too fast?" she
asked Chris.
Chris shook her head without
breaking the fixed stare in her eyes.
Fabienne was remembering IN.
other automobile ride she had
cared with Chris on an October
night more than five years ago. The
rolling hills Of Maryland na1 been
bathed in gold by the Harvest
noon and Chris young face she
was only a little more than eighteen
fhGn-1iffaJ 10 TIM ~ooD Lol L11~
touched with wistful beauty, as if
only the heavens above her could
know the treasure in her heart.
That was the night that Fabienne
and Roger Montgomery drove Chris
and Larry Parsons to Elkton and
stood with them before the justice
who married them.
1t was the night Of the Harvest
ball at the Hartford County Hunt
club, and Larry'd cut in on Fa-
bienne, saying Come out to the
garden. Chris wants to talk to you.
We've decided to get married to.
night"
Fabienne had gone with him. The
orchestra, she remembered, was
playing "Lullabye of Broadway"
Are you sure about this, Chris?'
F%'abienne had said to the excited
girl.
Sure, for the first time in my
life" Chris answered. "Someday
you'll fall in love and you'll KNOW
It's forever. Larry and 1 have
known it since the first day we
met"
Then why don't you wait and
have a real wedding?"
"A wedding with tulle and an
organ wouldn't make it any more
real, Fab. Besides, Larry's parents
will want him to wait. He's only
twenty. Then-they don't approve
Of my parents. They think they're
too gay and that I'll turn out that
way. But if we get married, they
can't annul it. We simply won't let
them. Well prove to them thai
they're wrong"
Fabienne turned west again a
Thirty-Eighth street. The girl be.
side her was lost in a frozen
numbed silence as F%abienne's stream
of memory flowed on.
The senior Parsons had raised .
terrific rumpus over the marriage
But Larry's twenty-first birt hdas
was only a few months off and he
had sworn he'd remarry Chris i
they were separated. Fabjenne re.
membered wondering if he would. III,
was very much in love with Chris
but he was a weak sort of boy. II
any event. the threatened annulmen'
had not come off and Larry ant