The witching hour - By Anne Rice Page 0,289

a time gossip and rumor speak of her as “unhappy.” But this did not last. Her characteristic calm seems to have returned to her well before the children came home from abroad.

We know that she had a brief and bitter fight with Carlotta before Carlotta entered the law firm of Byrnes, Brown and Blake, in which she works to this very day. But Mary Beth finally accepted Carlotta’s decision to work “outside the family,” and Carlotta’s small apartment over the stables was completely renovated for her, and she lived there for many years, coming and going without having to enter the house.

We also know that Carlotta took her meals every day with her mother—breakfast in the morning on the back terrace when the weather allowed it, and supper in the dining room at seven o’clock.

When asked why she did not go into the firm of Mayfair and Mayfair with Julien’s sons, her reply was usually stiff and brief and to the effect that she wanted to be on her own.

From the beginning of her career, she was known as a brilliant lawyer, but she had no desire ever to enter a courtroom, and to this day, she works in the shadow of the men of the firm.

Her detractors have described her as no more than a glorified legal clerk. But kinder evidence seems to indicate she became “the backbone” of Byrnes, Brown and Blake; she is the one who knows everything; and that with her demise, the firm will be hard put to find anyone to take her place.

Many lawyers in New Orleans have credited Carlotta with teaching them more than they ever learned in law school. In sum one might say that she started out and has continued to be an efficient and brilliant civil lawyer, with a tremendous and completely reliable knowledge of business law.

Other than the skirmish with Carlotta, Mary Beth’s life continued upon a predictable course almost to the very end. Even Daniel McIntyre’s drinking does not seem to have weighed heavily on her.

Family legend avers that Mary Beth was extremely kind to Daniel in the last years of their lives.

From this point on the story of the Mayfair Witches is really Stella’s story, and we will deal with Mary Beth’s final illness and death at the proper time.

THE CONTINUING STORY OF STELLA AND MARY BETH

Mary Beth continued to enjoy her three main pursuits in life, and also to derive a great deal of pleasure from the antics of her daughter Stella, who at sixteen became something of a scandal in New Orleans society, driving her automobiles at breakneck speed, drinking in speakeasies, and dancing till dawn.

For eight years Stella lived the life of a flapper, or a young reckless southern belle, utterly unperturbed by business concerns or thoughts of marriage or any future. And whereas Mary Beth was the most quiet and mysterious witch ever produced by the family, Stella seems the most carefree, the most flamboyant, the most daring, and the only Mayfair Witch ever bent entirely upon “having fun.”

Family legend holds that Stella was arrested all the time for speeding, or for disturbing the peace with her singing and dancing in the streets, and that “Miss Carlotta always took care of it,” going to get Stella and bring her home. There is some gossip to the effect that Cortland sometimes became impatient with his “niece,” demanding that she straighten up and pay more attention to her “responsibilities,” but Stella had not the slightest interest in money or business.

A secretary for Mayfair and Mayfair describes in vivid detail one of Stella’s visits to the office, when she appeared in a dashing fur coat and very high heels, with a bottle of bootleg whiskey in a brown paper bag from which she drank all during the meeting, erupting into wild laughter at all the funny legal phrases read out to her regarding the transaction involved.

Cortland seemed to have been charmed, but also a little weary. Finally, in a good-natured way, he told Stella to go on to her luncheon, and he would take care of the whole thing.

If there, was ever anyone who did not find Stella “bewitching” and “attractive” during this period, other than Carlotta Mayfair, we have not heard of such a person.

In 1921 Stella apparently “got pregnant,” but by whom no one was ever to know. It might have been Lionel, and certainly family legend indicates that everyone suspected it at the time.

Whatever the case, Stella announced that she didn’t need a