◆ SpookStack

FIFTH INSTALMENT yow" lay thick‘ in Parig that evening in December, 1939, when a Melinda first met, at ithe Café Flore, the man ahe was to marry. She had been in Paris more icthan a year desultorily ot "ing at the Sorbonne but mortly “gavouring the Left Bank life ert alin rent om although war bh a ati se tall, fafr young English- { be iL f [oman was introduced to her by an American friend, a writer named Bob McAimaon. In comes Donald Just over a year after Melinds had arrived in Paris. t-war bad come again to Europe, [The Arst wild excitement had P passed by December, the furry of mohilisation and the chacs of hastily organised civil de- } fer had died away, and i Fipnce settled down to ical : ents on the phoney v war. ~ fay this time the Latin Quarter, Lies ously unchanged by events b iy only very far-sighted ) CONTINUING Th DOCUMENTARY The honeymoo escape from Fi people then realised heralded the end of an epoch, hed reverted to Ra normal state of multilingual ebuilience The calés were ag crowded as ever{ the sirects just as full. To Melinda's regret her 19-year-old sister Narriet had been called home by anxious parents, but at ihe age of 23 she was mistress of her own destinies and was deter~ mined to stay on as long as she co} ‘As Maclean stood, inside the dark-curtained glass door, wiping snow from his face and hair, Toaking round the packed, smoky roam in search of familiar faces, he noticed Melinda sitting with & group of friends ie knew her well by sight, for the Latin Quarter is a curiously smali world, but he had somehow never met tier. He spoke to the man who was with him and they began to push theit way through the crush, bandying greetings with nearly everyone there, for Maclean, 100, was a popular figure in the heterogencous society af St Germain des Pres. ‘They stoad by the table orcu~ pled by Melinda and her entour- age end va quely through the babble of talk going on at top speed all around her, Melinda heard McAlmon introducing “ my friend, Donald Maclean.” oe ithia, a-matter of days they inseparable —~ but the tn ative came from Donald He saw ber first™ as it were; he gought the introduction Che made the. ruanin, That che liked him, enjoyed his company, admired his ‘fntelli- gence, his knowledge, his eavoir- faire, a undeniable. For Mac~ Jean, although he spent his nights in the cafés and doftes of the Latin Quarter, where art in any form took precedence aver world affairs, where promise was as important as sscomplishment, where talk was all, was in many respects a visitor. from another world. Already he was a hard-working and extremely competent diplo- mat—using that tather loose description to indicate a member ot the British Foreign Service— and, at 26, already climbing the ladder of’ whicp the topmost rungs were labelled “His Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary and Atmbassador Extraordinary: in Paris to Moscow .. : Washingt And so’ he proposes But had it not been for the war it is Gighly unlikely that Melinda would have married him. He was part of her Paris life, for several months the major part of it: but there are indications that it was a part of her life she would in normal cireumstances have been ready to leave behing her when she returned home. His obvious liking for her was teassuring to Melinda who, for all her popularity, was a Inte out of her depth, She was no intellectual and her in- terest fn art and Mierature was amateurish; on the other hand. politics and oconomics meact Sothing to her, Bat she was fnscinated by the acope and intensity of the life around her and longed. to be able te plunge in and swim wii the others. Maclean, = who seemed to combine in bis tal: handsome person all the quali ties which she felt to be lack- ing in herself, gave her confidence and brought out the-fatent hig! qualities which always needed “There ia a wide gulf betweer liking | man's companions and a desire to marry It was a gulf Melinds did ge Sav he: really contemplate. crassing. indizaied as mutch to mother mete Was _glso a ° in "a™ hs weitten soon after she had me him, she said “but 1 am no really in the least dit intereste: in him" That is certainly not con vincing evidence. “but as tin went on she gave no Indica that she had changed ber m which, in view of her rela! ship with her mother, she wou have done bad she really fall in love As it was, §t required Hitler buizkrieg to bring matters to head and force Melinda to Gk one of the two ine decisions of her life. and other for nearly seven mo: the German armies ee 8