not heard of her last scheme. She goes to the park, not with hope now but to keep a spiritual tryst with one she will never see again. The old friend who has stood by her throughout the year goes with her. And while they sit watching the loiterers in the park she questions him and drives him to confess that he too worked for the Gestapo. His family is held as hostages in Germany, and he has been compelled to become a spy. Her last scheme, too, was hollow, for he knew of it. Then he goes, leaving her on the bench, an old and broken woman. A cleaner of the park, a fellow with a stick who picks up papers, sits beside her, and though she does not see him she sees a tear fall on his hand. She reaches into her purse blindly to find a coin for him, which he takes. Then she rises to go, but he starts to tell his story--of how once he promised to meet a woman here, and hoped she might be there today. It is Raoul, and their one bitter year apart has so changed them that they did not know each other. Each remembered the other as youthful and gay. But now they see through the disguise. The last scheme had worked. The last man she trusted had been a Gestapo man, as she feared, but for once a heart had been touched. He had done as he promised. Raoul, though free, dared not go near her rooms. And now it seems to them that they have won--that all that has been done to them was impotent and of no account, because somehow they did hang on and come through.
This is only a story outline, leaving out background and character --and minor figures which would fill in the picture. Even the motivation is sketchy as I tell it here. But I think it would make a moving story.
Sincerely
Maxwell Anderson
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