SO LONG AT THE FAIR

There's flavor of legend in the theme given new dress here- a theme made familiar to many thousands when refurbished by Alexander Woollcott in When Rome Burns. The time is 1889- the place is Paris- and this time the story is built around an architect brother, bored and cynical, and his young sister, whom he has condescended to take to Paris for three days at the Exposition, an route from Naples to England. Dinner at Montmartre -- back to the hotel, where she goes up to her room, and he stays around for a bit, loans an American 100 francs, and then seems to disappear. Next morning there is a blank wall where his room had been; his name is not on the register; everyone denies his existence to his frantic sister. And only the chance reappearance of the young American- the repayment of the debt -- gives her any witness of her sanity. How the story works out to a happy ending; with romance round the turn, makes rather charming reading for lighter moments.