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Show -265- (SpaceJ The house of the Professor's neighbor, where the New Year's Eve party was being held, was about a quarter of a mile beyond the Professor's house, almost at the top of the hill. To get there one turned off the regular road onto a fire-road of slippery clay that the neighbor had topped with gravel. In this weather? it was still too slick to walk on, there were no lights on it? and the weather was drizzly and cold, so the Professor and his wife had to take their car. When they arrived? the long driveway that sloped down to the neighbor's garage and house was filled, so the Professor let his wife out at the top of the drive and backed his car up toward a metal gate that was the entrance to a horse ranch on the top of the hill and set the brake? It would be better to park here anyway", he thought. If they wanted to leave the party early? they could get out without asking one of the other guests to move his car. Neither he nor his wife had wanted really to attend this party? not for any dislike of the company? but because each was preoccupied with other matters, his wife with her sister's illness? he with thought of the strike that was scheduled to begin In two days? They bad attended other parties in this expensive new house? so they would know most of the guests, but none well? Some would be colleagues of the host from the local community college? others would be personal friends of the host and his wife? a few would be other neighbors from the hill. |
