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gone seven months _ came, Melinda began definitely iid not return. the first him, and then the iree him and try te remake lite Around this Hme 1 my wife and J saw inda several times, to- ser and separately, and we ‘a left in no doubt at all ; she had decided to end «chapter of her life. I can’t tell you how glad I this facade of a marriage. wer,” she said... 5. -+ jut what was she to do? ther she nor anyone else +y what had happened. to dean or where he was. Life was grim As a start, Melinda decided « would take. steps ta regain - American nationality. Then ‘e would return to New York, least for a time, where she tit would be easiér to. ob- ‘da divorcee, . ” But for thawmaemant all this aa. merely - theoretical, Bie. 2 *Oe PART OF A LETTER WHICH MACLEAN WROTE TO MELINDA WHILE UNDERGOING PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT IN LONDON THE WHOLE PASSAGE READS: I amso , hating me. I am still rather lost, grateful to you my sweet for taking aii you have had to put up with without | be cured and come back. Melinda was in no sha physical or mental, to make any decisive move in an direction. ; Life at Beaconshaw was prim and definitely a house that needed aman, and she becafne more depressed, more unhappy, more worried as the days passed. . ; She was like a patient after a long and .wasting. Hlness who simply could not gather girength again. Her mother dificult, for Hh was. tried to persuade her to go to Paris for a holiday, leaving the children’ with her at Beacon~ shaw, but Melinda would not go. ‘Her baby daughier Melinda, likened by little Fergus to a pink rose and henceforth called “Pinkers,” was growing into a beautiful child and, with Fergus and Donald, wae her; joy and helped her to retain her. sanity and. a ppetarious gmp on life, ¢ling to the idea that you do wa fo nt me fo \- 2 et