Mary was stretched out on the lounge by the pool reading Agatha Christie's new book, Dumb Witness, which a friend had sent her from England. I was reading Erich Maria Remarque's sadly beautiful, Three Comrades. MGM had purchased it and were making a film adaptation starring Margaret Sullavan, who I happened to adore. We'd be here all week so I'd also brought Erle Stanley Gardner's new Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Dangerous Dowager.