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Paris that-evening tn ; December, 1939, when c 2S Melinda first met, at ‘ue @the Café Flore, ihe man ghe waa to marry. I sie had been in Paris more f icthan a year desullorily study- SP ing at ihe Sorbonne but mastiy guvouring the Left Hank. life Tae | that still wenton although war a Pad come. ‘ame («The tall, fafr young English- hie |-rnan was introduced to her by { an American friend, a writer ; named Bob MeAimas. i -; Im comes o. Donald J Sust ever oa year after y Melinds had arrived in. Paris. “wer had come egain te Eurape. keThe frst wild excitement had passed by Decemvber, the furry ! of mobilisation and the chace ‘of hastily onganised civil de- -fenre fad. died away, and i Fipgnee settled down to cynical Hously unchanged by events which only vary far-sighted it +) CONTINUING T?" DOCUMENTARY- The esca peaple then realised heralded the end of an epoch, had reverted to ite normal state of multilingual eballience The calés were ag crowded. as ever? the sirect, just as full To Melinda's: ragrat har. i-year-old sister Warriet nad been called hoo by ankiogs parents, but at the age of 23 she was mistress of herown destinies and was deter~ mined to stay on as long ag she could As Maciean atood Inside the dark-curtgined glass door, wiping snow. from his face and hair, Joaking round the packed, sinok 9: roam in search of familiar faces, he noticed Melinda sitting with ® froge of friends. eknew her well by sight, far the Latin Quarter ie a curiaysly small world, but he had somehow never mel her. He spake to the man who-was with hin and they began to push thelr way through the. erush, bandying greetings with nearly everyone there, for Maclean, too, ®&as a popular feure in the _ heterogeneous saciety af St. Germain dew Prés. They stead by the table o¢cu~ pled by Melinda and her entour- age and vaguely through the babble of talk going on af top speed all. grourid her, Melinda heard McAbvios introducing “my” friend, Donald. Maclean.” Within a-matter of days they became inceparable-— but. the initiative came from Donald. Be “saw ber first“ as it. wera; he sought the intreduclion : he sade the Hoaning. : That she idted him, enjoyed Als company, admired hig fateli- hone; A. x ~ BU eg ote Fae eS a arn ree a gence, hig knowledge, hiy eavoir- faire, lg undeniable. Por Mac~ Jean, alihough he spent hig nights in the catée and boltes of the Latin Querter, where art in any form: took precedence over world affairs, where promise. was ag - important aa saseomolishment, where talk was all, was in mary. respects ® Visitor from another aor, Already he was a hard-working and extremely competent diplo- iat—using Gist tather loose description to indicate a member at the Mritish Foreign Service— and, at 28, already clirnbing the ladder of which the tepmost rungs were ,labelled “His Sritannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary and Atnbassador Extraordinary to_ Paris *. . to Mascow ©... to Washington,” And so he proposes But had it net been for the war ii-ig Bighly anlikely that Melinda would bave. married hin. He wad part of her Paris life, for several months the major part of it; Out there are indleations that it. was & part of her life she weld in normal eheuristances have bean ready te leave behind her when she returned home. Hig abviows Hking for ter was reassuring to Melinda wie, for all her oopularity, was a tek owt af her depth, She yINOO wae no intelectual and her in- ¢ terest So art and. Hiereture was gmateurish; on the other. hand. polities and economics meant nothing to her, . But she was fascingtied by the aoope asd intensity of the hile around ber and longed. GO. be _ able te plunge in and ewir win the others. Maclean, who seemed to combine in ble tal. handsome person all the .quali- ties which she [elt fe be hick. ing in herself, gave her confidence and brought out thevfatent hig! qualities which always needed « ebierastees, There ix a wide gulf betweer liking .& man’s companionsny vend a desire to marry him. Ii Wasa zeit Melinds. did no: really contemplate erassing. Sav indigaied as much ta he: mother -— whe ,wab aiso hes clases? "Pend, da a Jebus written soon after she. bad ime irr, she said “but Tam na: really in te leash bit interests: in him.* That f# certainly mot con vincing evidence, but ag tim went on she gave ro Indicatiw. that she had changed ber w which, in view of her relation ship with her mother, she woul have dane had she really. falle: in love . oo, Ag itowas, Ht required Hider blitzkrieg to bring matters bo - head and forms. Melinda te tak ane oof the. ta mest vit: decisions of her hfe. AdSer st. and Maclean had known cic. ainer for nearly seven mesth: the German armies Qeaieecd