CAST A LONG SHADOW

Dreary, dreary, as actress Ivory Meade recovers from a breakdown caused by the desertion of her husband Kit--who married her only because she was a look-alike for his true love. Ivory loses her memory for lines and her good voice and thus can no longer grace the stage, so she goes to visit her estranged grandmum, lady Charlotte Arbour, a great actress in her day but a recluse for aeons. Charlotte's stroke, shortly before Ivory's arrival--and hard upon the death of her housekeeper from a fall downstairs--leaves Ivory with little to do but read ancient diaries and moon about the grounds admiring the garden created by the mysteriously well-bred major-domo, Richard Kenton. The diaries are full of horrid revelations of little interest to anyone not in the family; and soon Ivory must decide whether she will remarry Kit or latch onto gardener Richard. In the nick of time, Richard's dog Nelly dies of flu and the tragedy brings the two together: ""Nobody would love him as she had done, for a dog's love has a special quality. I doubt that a human love can match it. But one day there would be another dear dog, who would belong to us both. . . ."" Only Albert Payson Terhune could do justice to this one.