CHAPTER 19THE BUTTERMILK
“Until Ruth De Lisle told me that Denise Morrissey took poison for her lost love in Pomona in 1916, I wasn’t quite sure,” he told the three young faces before him. “Then I knew. The difference between what she did then, and what she did when she lost Falkoner, lies in the difference between a girl of eighteen, and a woman of forty. The girl’s anguish was directed against herself. The woman’s against the man. The reason? Ten years of marriage to a rich, ugly little producer named Joel Morrissey. Denise Hooper and Denise Morrissey were a couple of different fellows, you see.”
Laurel sat down abruptly on the suitcase at her feet. “But I don’t see,” she said.
“Neither do I,” said Jeff.
“Nor I,” said Woody Cornell.
Tuck sat down in a red chair, and leaned back. Ent
