First Mates Meeting

WESTWARD PASSAGE--Margaret Ayer Barnes--Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

It all happened in a week. First day out from Cherbourg, Olivia was bored at the prospect of another comfortable winter in Chicago with her middle-aged husband Harry. She was nearly 40 herself. Suddenly Olivia discovered that Nick, her first husband, was a fellow-passenger. They had not met for ten years, since the divorce. Now Nick was a famous author. Olivia had two more children. They were glad to see each other, got dangerously excited talking over old times.

Nick, unlike Harry, was a thrilling person to be with--Olivia had forgotten how thrilling. She forgot the embarrassment of the situation, began to believe she was in love again. By the time the boat reached Manhattan Nick had almost convinced her; and she had allowed herself to kiss him. When she further allowed herself, the first night ashore, to meet him at their old trysting place in Gramercy Park, Nick persuaded her to leave Harry and run away with him. But by the time they reached his Vermont farm Olivia had had time and occasion to remember what life with Nick was like. They parted with no harm done; Olivia telephoned faithful Harry, tried not to mind being almost 40.

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