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A LATE-SUMMER EVENING

In a town house at a fashionable address on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, every la on--the last of the su Manhattan’s incandescent skyline, the orchestra takes a much-needed break It’s ten thirty The party has been on since eight o’clock, and already the guests are bored Fashionable debutantes in pastel chiffon party dresses wilt into leather club chairs like frosted petits foursunder the July sun A cocky Princeton sophoe with him, to a speakeasy he heard about from a friend of a friend

The hostess, a pretty and spoiled young thing, notes her guests’ restlessness with a sense of alarhteenth birthday, and if she doesn’t do so to raise this party froathering was as dull as a church social

Raising froo antiquing upstate with her mother--an absolutely hideous chore, until they cae; psychics have clai Mr Fuld’s "talking board" The antiques dealer fed her mother a line about how it had come to him under mysterious circumstances

"They say it’s still haunted by restless spirits But perhaps you and your sister could tame it?" he’d said with over-the-top flattery; naturally, hertooWell, she’d make her mother’s mistake pay off for her now

The hostess races for the hall closet and signals to the et that down for me"

The htn’t to bewith this board, Miss"

"Don’t be silly That’s primitive"

With a zippy torthy of Clara Bow, the hostess bursts into the for the Ouija board "Who wants to coles to show that she doesn’t take it seriously in the least After all, she’s a thoroughly irls spring up froee board?" one of theht it for hs "Well, I don’t believe that, naturally" The hostess places the heart-shaped planchette in the middle of the board "Let’s conjure up soles himself into the spot beside her He’s a Yale hts, she’s lain awake in her bedroo her future with hiers close to his

"I will," a boy in a ridiculous fez announces She can’t reirls into his ru party He closes his eyes and places his fingers on the scryer "A question for the ages: Is the lady to irls squeal and the boys laugh as the planchette slowly spells out Y-E-S

"Liar!" the lady in question scolds the heart-shaped scrying piece with its clear glass oracle

"Don’t fight it, darling I could be yours on the cheap," the boy says

Now spirits are high; the questions grow bolder They’re drunk on gin and good ti Every ot fun?

"Say, let’s sues

A knot of exciteut The antiques dealer had cautioned against doing just this He warned that spirits called forththe connection, saying good-bye But he was out to make a buck with a story, and besides, it’s 1926--who believes in haunts and hobgoblins when there are motorcars and aeroplanes and the Cotton Club and h industry?

"Don’t tell e smirks He has a cruel mouth It makes him all the in!" the boy in the fez jokes, and everyone laughs

George whispers low in her ear, "I’ll keep you safe" His hand is on her back

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