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diff --git a/36445-8.txt b/36445-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..496ed61 --- /dev/null +++ b/36445-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14345 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Linda Lee, Incorporated, by Louis Joseph Vance + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Linda Lee, Incorporated + A Novel + +Author: Louis Joseph Vance + +Release Date: June 17, 2011 [EBook #36445] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINDA LEE, INCORPORATED *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + LINDA LEE INCORPORATED + + _A Novel_ + + By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE + + + NEW YORK + E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY + 681 FIFTH AVENUE + + Copyright 1921-1922 + By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE + + THE COAST OF COCKAIGNE + Copyright 1922 + By THE MCCALL COMPANY + + _All rights reserved including those of translation + into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ + + + To + HARRY PAYNE BURTON + because he made me write it + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +There are no portraits of living persons in the following pages. + +The incidents related in illustration of present-day methods of +motion-picture production are, on the other hand, with one minor +exception, drawn from first-hand observation in the California studios. + +Under the title of THE COAST OF COCKAIGNE, an abridged version of this +story was published serially, during the Winter of 1921-22, in McCall's +Magazine. + +LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE + +Darien, 20 January, 1922. + + + + +LINDA LEE INC. + + + + +I + + +"Mrs. Bellamy Druce! Rather a mouthful, that." + +"Is that why you make a face over it?" + +"Didn't expect me to relish it, did you, Cinda?" + +"I'm afraid I wasn't thinking of you at all, Dobbin, when I took it." + +"Meaning, if you had been, you might have thought twice before taking?" + +"No fear: I was much too madly in love with Bel." + +"Was?" + +"Dobbin!" + +"Sorry--didn't mean to be impertinent." + +"I don't believe you. Still, I'm so fond of you, I'll forgive you--this +once." + +"Won't have to twice. I only--well, naturally, I wanted to know whether +or not it had taken." + +"Taken?" + +"Your matrimonial inoculation." + +"I think one may safely say it has. I've grown so old and wise in +marriage, it really seems funny to remember I was ever an innocent." + +"Four years----" + +"Going on five." + +"It's seemed a long time to me, too, Cinda--five years since these eyes +were last made glad by the sight of you." + +"At least, time hasn't impaired your knack at pretty speeches." + +"Nor your power to inspire them." + +"I'm not so sure. To myself I seem ever so much older." Lucinda Druce +turned full face to the man on her left, anxiety feigned or real +puckering the delicately pencilled brows. "Doesn't it show at all, +Dobbin, the ruthless march of advancing years?" + +The man narrowed critically his eyes and withheld his verdict as if in +doubt; but a corner of his mouth was twitching. + +"You are lovelier today than ever, lovelier even than the memories of +you that have quickened my dreams----" + +"All through these years? How sweet--and what utter tosh! You know +perfectly well your heart hasn't been true to Poll----" + +"Unfortunately, the damn' thing has. Oh, I'm not pretending I didn't do +my level best to forget, tried so hard I thought I had won out. But it +only needed this meeting tonight to prove that the others were merely +anodynes for a pain that rankled on, as mortal hurts do always, 'way +down beneath the influence of the opiate." + +"Truly, Dobbin, you've lost nothing of your ancient eloquence. That last +speech quite carried me back to the days when, more than once, you all +but talked me off my feet and into your arms." + +"Pity I ever stopped talking." + +"I wonder!" + +"You wonder----?" + +"Whether it's really a pity you never quite succeeded in talking me into +believing I loved you enough to marry you, whether we wouldn't all have +been happier, you, Bel, and I." + +"Then you aren't altogether----" + +"Hush! I haven't said so." + +"No; but you've had time to find out." + +"Perhaps...." + +"And you know your secrets are safe with me." + +"That's why I'm going to say--what I am going to say." + +"O Lord! now I shall catch it." + +"Don't be afraid, Dobbin, I'm not going to scold. But I know you so +well, how direct and persistent you are--yes, and how sincere--it's only +fair to tell you, the traditions of our kind to the contrary +notwithstanding, I'm still in love with my husband." + +For a moment Richard Daubeney was silent, staring at his plate. Then he +roused with a light-hearted shrug and smile. + +"And that's that!" + +Lucinda nodded with amiable emphasis: "That's that." + +The black arm of a waiter came between them, and the woman let an +abstracted gaze stray idly across the shimmering field of the table, +while the man at her side ceased not to remark with glowing appreciation +the perfection of her gesture, at once so gracious, spirited, and +reserved. + +Never one to wear her heart on her sleeve, Lucinda. Look at her now: Who +would ever guess she had lived to learn much, to unlearn more, in so +brief a term of married life? Surely the sweet lift of her head, the +shadowy smile that lurked ever about her lips, the exquisite poise of +that consummate body bespoke neither disillusionment nor discontent. And +who should say the dream was not a happy one that clouded the accustomed +clearness of her eyes? + +Unclouded and serene once more, these turned again his way. + +"It's like you, Dobbin, to start making love to me all over again, +precisely as if my being married meant nothing, in the first minutes of +our first meeting in five years, without offering to tell me a single +thing about yourself." + +"Nothing much to tell. Everybody knows, when you engaged yourself to +marry Druce, I rode off to the wars. Oh, for purely selfish motives! If +I'd stayed, I'd have made a stupid exhibition of myself one way or +another, taken to drink or something equally idiotic. So vanity prompted +me to blaze a trail across the waters for my beloved country to follow +when its hour struck." + +"And when the war was over, what did you then?" + +"Knocked about a bit with some pals I'd picked up." + +"We heard you'd taken up ranching in the Argentine, and made a tidy +fortune." + +"I didn't do badly, that's a fact. But what is a man profited if he +shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" + +"Please don't look at me as if I knew the answer." + +"It's a question we've all got to face, soon or late." + +"You forget the life one leads: a studied attempt to forget that such a +question ever was asked." + +"Find it succeeds?" + +"Only part of the time, at best. But is one to understand you lost your +soul in the Argentine? It sounds so amusingly immoral." + +"At least I realized down there my soul was in a fair way to prove a +total loss. We were rather out of the world, you know, away back from +anywhere; so I had lots of time to think, and learned I hadn't found +what I'd gone to France to seek; that there'd been nothing really +elevating or heroic about the war, only sound and fury; in other words +that, when all was said and done, you were all that had ever really +mattered. So I sold out and shipped for home." + +"Hoping to find me unhappy enough with Bel----?" + +"That's unworthy of you, Cinda. No: simply to be in the same world with +you." + +After a little Mrs. Bellamy Druce said severely: "Dobbin, if you keep on +that tack, you will make me cross with you; and that wouldn't be nice, +when I'm so glad to see you. Let's talk about anything else. How does +New York look to an exile of long standing? Much changed?" + +"Oh, I don't know. Skirts and morals both a bit higher, jazz a little +more so, Prohibition just what one expected, society even more loosely +constituted--a vast influx of new people. Time was when it would have +seemed odd to see a strange face at one of the Sedley's dinners. But +tonight--I don't know half these people. Astonishing lot of pretty girls +seem to have sprung up since my time. Who's the raving beauty on Bill +Sedley's right?" + +"Amelie Severn, Amelie Cleves that was before she married. Surely you +remember her." + +Daubeney stared in unaffected wonder. + +"Good heavens! she was in long dresses when I saw her last." + +"Pretty creature, don't you think?" + +"Rather. Can't blame the chap next her for his open infatuation." + +Laughter thrilled in Lucinda's reply: "Why, don't you recognize him? +That's Bel." + +As if the diminutive pronounced in the clear accents of his wife had +carried through the murmur of talk, Bellamy Druce looked up. Perceiving +Lucinda's smile at the end of an aisle of shaded lights, he smiled in +turn, but with the muscles of his face alone. And looking from him to +the flushed and charming countenance of the young woman on his left, +bending low over her plate to hide confusion engendered by Bel's latest +audacity, Lucinda thought, with a faint pang, more of impatience than of +jealousy: _He's in love again._ + + + + +II + + +With a small sigh of animal delight in the caress of fur and the chill, +sweet draught from the open window upon her face, as well as in the +sense of effortless power animating that luxurious fabric which the gods +had so thoughtfully provided for her ease, Lucinda Druce settled back in +the town-car, aware yet unmindful of the fluid nocturne of Fifth avenue, +a still, black river streaming beneath the car, its banks of soft fire +strung with linked globes of milky light, its burnished surface scoured +by the fleet gondolas of landsmen, in number beyond counting, skimming, +swooping, stopping, shoaling. + +Bel had asked to be dropped at the Brook, alleging a rendezvous of one +sort or another, safely masculine of course. Beyond reflecting that Bel +was in all likelihood lying, Lucinda had paid slight heed to his +excuses. It didn't matter whether they were fair or false, so long as he +wanted to do whatever it was he wanted to do with the rest of his +evening. She had little faith in that theory with which too many are +infatuate, on which too many marriages are wrecked, that affection is to +be persuaded, that loyalty comes of being made to toe the mark. + +Then, too, she was not ill-pleased with having herself all to herself, +in this thoughtful mood which had become hers since leaving the +Sedleys', not an unhappy mood, but one curiously mused. Besides, Bel had +been making too free with the Sedley cellar. Not that she was disposed +to hold this a grievance, thoroughgoing mondaine that she was, saturate +with the spirit of a day that was learning to look tolerantly upon +intemperateness as a fashionable form of protest against Prohibition. +No: it wasn't that, it was the fact, established by long observation, +that Bel seldom drank more than he could manage gracefully unless on the +verge of some new gallantry. A little wearily, Lucinda wondered why. Bel +assuredly didn't need anything to stimulate his enterprise. She fancied +it must be that alcohol served as a sort of anæsthetic for his +conscience. + +She had a smile transiently bitter. Bel's conscience! The most +feather-headed, irresponsible of philanderers, the most incorrigible; +between whiles the most contrite.... + +That, she supposed, was why she had always found it in her heart to +forgive him, why she had never experienced any real pain because of his +perennial peccadilloes. He couldn't help himself, it was his nature so +to do. And somehow or other she always found him out, the poor boy was +singularly unfortunate in his efforts to keep her in the dark, +singularly clumsy and sanguine at one and the same time. Or else +cynical. Sometimes she was tempted to think Bel didn't care, or thought +she oughtn't to. Often his attitude seemed to be posed upon the +assumption that everybody was doing it; so why affect a virtuous +eccentricity? + +On the other hand, his fits of penitence were terribly real, when she +caught him misbehaving. Or was that, too, merely part of the game with +Bel? Was it just a conventional gambit to make-believe repentance and +promise faithfully never, never to be naughty again? + +A disquieting question was raised by the circumstance that she seemed to +be taking tonight's discovery less to heart than ever before. Somehow it +didn't seem to matter so much. Was she growing hardened, then, beginning +to care less for Bel than she had always cared? Or was it.... + +Between her dreaming eyes and the silhouetted backs of the footman and +chauffeur imagination made a memory momentarily real; she saw, as it +were limned darkly upon the plate-glass partition, the face of Dobbin, +Richard Daubeney as that night had reintroduced him: the bold, brown +face, lighted by clear eyes and an occasional gleam of teeth, of the +adventurer into whom exile had metamorphosed Dobbin. Understanding, +self-reliant, dependable: qualities that might have made Dobbin a rival +for Bellamy to reckon with had he been able to boast them of old. But in +those days he had been no more than ardent and eloquent and dear. He had +needed to go away to war to find what he had lacked to make him--well, +yes, dangerous. Dangerous, that is, to any but a woman well in love with +her husband.... + +She discovered that the car was already at a standstill. Immersed in +reverie, she hadn't noticed the turn off from the Avenue. + +As always, her home enfolded her in its comfortable atmosphere of +security from every assault of adversity by virtue of the solid wealth +upon which it was founded, that formidable whole into which two great +fortunes had been fused by her marriage with Bellamy. Neither she nor +Bel had ever known one qualm of financial uneasiness, neither by chance +conceivable ever would. That irking insecurity which so largely poisons +the common lot was something wholly foreign to the ken of the Druces, +they must brew their own poisons to take its tonic place. None the less +the feeling of her home's stability was precious, Lucinda basked in it +like a cat on an accustomed hearth, wanting it she must have felt +hopelessly lost and forlorn. + +She went slowly up to her rooms. And here, where so large a part of her +life was lived, the sense of completely satisfying personal environment +was more than ever strong. + +Pensively giving herself into the hands of her maid, she stood opposite +a long mirror. A shade of concern tinged the regard she bent upon that +charming counterfeit, her interest grew meticulous as she observed that +slender and subtly fashioned body emerge from its silken sheaths. Where +were the signs of age, of fading charm? What was it Bel saw in other +women and failed to see in her? What could they give him that she had +not to give? Was her real rival only man's insatiable appetite for some +new thing? + +She was as vain as any woman, if no more so than the next; and if she +failed to perceive flaws, she failed with more excuse than most could +claim. + +Supple and young and fair, and slighted.... + +Her heart, too, she searched. But there was nothing wanting there that +the most exacting husband and lover could require. She had told Dobbin +the simple truth: she still loved Bel. + +But love and beauty, it seemed, were not enough. + +For a long time she lay awake in bed, the book unopened in her hands, +again a creature of unthinking gratification in the consciousness of +Home. + +Dark and still but warm with the life she had breathed into it, +monolithic in the mass and firmness of its institution yet a web of her +own weaving, it endured about and around her, cradled her, dug its roots +deep into earth that it might sustain her, held its head up to the skies +that it might shield her from the elements, opposed the thickness of its +walls between her and the world of ungenerous passions: her Home, the +one thing in her life she could assert she had created. + +Twenty-six, mistress of riches she had never needed to compute, safe at +anchor in an enviable station, idle but for an ordered round of duties +and diversions so stale it was hardly of more mental moment to her than +the running of her blood, not yet a mother.... + +At length she opened the book. But its lines of print ran and blended, +hypnogogic images, fugitive and fragmentary, formed and faded on the +type-dark pages: Dobbin's face again, so changed yet the same, with that +look at once disturbing and agreeable of curbed hunger in the eyes; the +face of Amelie Severn, with a stagey effect of shadows cast by +table-lights, piquant with mirthful mischief as she looked round, at +once challenging and apprehensive of Bel's next essay in amorous +impudence; and Bel's face with glimmering eyes and that tensity in the +set of the jaw which, in the sight of his wife, had but one meaning.... + +An echoless clap of sound penetrated the walls, the slam of a cab door. +Lucinda dropped her book. The front doors crashed resoundingly. She +turned out her light and lay listening, watchful. + +Beneath the door that communicated with Bel's room a rim of gold shone +out. She heard him stumble against a chair and swear at it, turned +quietly on her side, away from the door, and composed herself to sleep. + +Some minutes after, a yellow light splashed athwart her bed. + +"Linda?" Bel's tongue, as thick as she had expected it to be, called +again, insistently: "Linda? 'Wake, Linda?" + +She made no stir at all, and presently he closed the door and she heard +him grumbling, then a click as he switched off his bedside lamp. + +Later he began to snore, something he never did unless he had been +drinking heavily. + +Her drowsy time had passed, not to return. She lay for hours, looking +wide-eyed into darkness, thinking. + +How had Dobbin known--or guessed--she was unhappy? + +She wasn't, she was neither happy nor unhappy, she was just a little +lonely ... wasted.... + + + + +III + + +Bellamy Druce began the day frugally with grapefruit, the headlines of +the _Herald_, and coffee. It is no more than fair to state that he +seemed to hold all three in one degree of disfavour. The interest he +showed in the other dishes set forth for his sustenance and delectation +on the small table in the bow-window of his sitting-room, was limited to +a single jaundiced glance at the ensemble. + +From the news of the day, too, he turned affronted eyes. Strong daylight +on white paper was trying to optic nerves this morning. Over his coffee +he lighted a cigarette, but after a few puffs took it from his lips and +examined it with louring distrust which suggested the birth of a +suspicion that his tobacconist was not a true friend. Hastily putting +the thing from him, he shuffled listlessly the dozen or so envelopes on +the breakfast table, put these aside in turn, and for a time sat +morosely contemplating his joined fingers, trying to recollect something +confoundedly elusive. The mental effort contributed nothing toward +assuaging a minor but distinct headache, just back of his eyes. + +At thirty-five or something less, Bellamy was beginning to notice that +even a few drinks tended to play the deuce with one's memory. He liked +to boast and believe he never drank to excess, but it was none the less +true that, of late, his alcoholic evenings were frequently much of a +blur in retrospect. + +After a while he unlaced his hands, held them out to the light with +fingers spread, and frowned to observe their slight but unmistakable +tremor. + +In a petulant voice he asked the time of his valet and, learning it, +ruefully digested the reflection that he had eight hours more of life to +live, if it could fairly be called living, before the hour of the first +cocktail. + +As a man of strong principles, he made it a rule never to drink before +six in the evening. + +After another minute of wasted endeavour to put salt on the tail of that +tricky memory, he made a disconsolate noise, told his valet to order the +car round, and bestirred himself to finish dressing. + +Bellamy Druce buttoned himself into his coat before a mirror. Like many +men who make no pretensions to deserve the term handsome, he was +inordinately finical about his person. His relations with his tailors, +boot and shirt-makers, were intimate and marked by conferences as solemn +and consequential as those which keep European premiers out of mischief, +but no more so. No valet had yet succeeded in earning his confidence in +such questions as that of the right shirt for the lounge suit of the +day. + +But the inspection he gave his attire this morning was perfunctory, his +graver concern was with the tone of his complexion and the look of his +eyes. + +To his relief the one proved to be clear and of good colour, the other +betrayed ravages of dissipation only in a hint of heaviness. More than +this, the tremor of his hands had in the last few minutes become barely +perceptible. Already a strong constitution, hardened by an athletic +history and inured to abuse, was beginning to react to restorative +measures taken immediately after waking, deep breathing, a steaming hot +bath, an icy needle-shower, a rub-down. + +Drawing one more long breath, he straightened his shoulders, lifted his +chin a trifle, and went to pay his matutinal addresses to Lucinda, +hoping she wouldn't notice anything, or, if she did, would be enough of +a sportswoman to let it pass without comment. + +He found Lucinda seated on a chaise-longue in her boudoir, running +through her morning's mail by way of preparation for the daily half-hour +with her secretary which it demanded. Posed with unfailing grace in a +négligé scarcely more than a sketch in lace and ribbon, with the light +from the windows seemingly drawn to a focus by hair abundant, always +rebellious, and the hue of ripe corn-silk, she seemed as pretty, as fair +and fragile as a porcelain figurine. Bellamy needed only to see her thus +to know a stab of shame and self-reproach. + +Why must he be such a fool as ever to let himself be flattered into +forgetting sheer perfection was to be found nowhere if not within the +walls of his own home? + +Bending to kiss his wife, he put that thought behind him. He couldn't +afford to dwell upon it. Already he was too far committed in this new +affaire to withdraw without losing face. But he would find some way soon +to make an end of it (thank God! they all had an end sometime) and this +would be the last--"and after this, never again!" + +He really meant it this time, he vowed he did.... + +"Rest well, dear? Don't need to ask that, though, only need to look at +you. Besides, you know you went to sleep as soon as you got home; you +were dead to the world when I came in." + +"You didn't stay late at the Brook?" + +"As a matter of fact, made excuses to get away early. But you were too +quick for me, my dear." + +Bellamy sat down on the foot of the chaise-longue and helped himself to +one of Lucinda's cigarettes. To his relief, it tasted remarkably like +tobacco. + +"Never looked sweeter in your life than last night, Linda. I was quite +jealous of old Daubeney, monopolizing you...." + +"You needn't have been, Bel." + +"Don't know about that. Dick took it pretty hard when you accepted me, +and if I'm any judge now, he's come back only to be hit twice as hard, +in the same place, too. If not, he's got no right to look at you the +way he does." + +"I don't think you were in a good condition to judge." Bel winced, +because he had laid himself open to this, and it could be taken two +ways, neither comforting. It was actually a relief to hear Lucinda add: +"You seemed to be fairly preoccupied yourself, at the table." + +"Oh, bored to tears, assure you. Amelie's a pretty little thing, amiable +enough, but nobody to talk to--no conversation whatever." + +Lucinda limited comment to a mildly quizzical look. Her maid, having +answered the door, was announcing that the car was waiting for Mr. +Druce. Bellamy nodded, but seemed in no hurry. What was on his mind? + +"Doing anything special today?" + +Lucinda shook her head slowly, watching him with a half-smile lambent +with lazy intelligence. He felt vaguely uneasy, as who should of a +sudden find himself hard by the brink of some abysmal indiscretion. + +"Thought we might meet somewhere for luncheon, if you're lunching out." + +"I'd love to." Lucinda put out an arm deliciously rounded beneath skin +of a texture fairer and finer than any other Bellamy had ever seen, and +took a morocco-bound engagement book from her escritoire. "Let me +see...." She riffled the leaves. "I know I've got some shopping to +do----" + +"Have you, now!" + +"And Mrs. Rossiter Wade's bridge-tea for some charity or other this +afternoon, but.... Oh, yes! I'm having Fanny Lontaine to lunch at the +Ritz, with Nelly Guest and Jean Sedley. What a pity. Though nothing can +prevent your coming, too, if you like." + +A dark suspicion knitted Bellamy's eyebrows. "Some actress? Sounds like +it." + +"Fanny Lontaine?" Needless to ask which he meant, the other women were +fixtures of their immediate circle. Lucinda laughed. "Nothing of the +sort. Fanny was at school with me--Frances Worth----" + +"Chicago people?" Bellamy put in with symptoms of approval. "Not a bad +lot. Old man Worth--'Terror of the Wheat Pit', they called him--died not +long ago in the odour of iniquity, leaving eighty millions or so. Your +little schoolmate ought to be fairly well-fixed." + +"I don't know, I'm sure. I believe it's something to do with the will +that brought them over. Fanny's father disliked Harry Lontaine, so Fanny +had to run away to marry him and was duly excommunicated by the family. +She's lived in England ever since; her husband's an Englishman." + +"I see: another of your charity cases." + +"Hardly. They're stopping at the Ritz, that's where I met Fanny the +other day." + +"Anybody can stop there, but not everybody can get away." + +"Does it matter?" + +"It's only I don't like seeing you made use of, Linda. Your name makes +you fair game for every climber and fortune-hunter who can claim or +scrape acquaintance with you." + +"But my friends----" + +"Oh, you're forever being too friendly with stray cats. Why did you ask +Nelly and Jean to meet this woman if it wasn't in the hope they'd take +her up, too?" + +Lucinda shrugged. "Come to my luncheon and see for yourself. Not that I +think you'd care for Fanny, though she is pretty to death." + +"Why not, if you like her so much?" + +"She's not at all the type you seem to find most attractive. Why is it, +I've often wondered, the women you lose your head about are almost +always a bit--well----!" + +Bellamy flushed sullenly. It was one of his crosses that he seemed never +to have the right answer ready for Lucinda when she took that line. +After all, there is only one salvation for a man married to a woman +cleverer than himself: to do no wrong. + +"Oh, if you're going to rake up ancient history----!" + +But Lucinda pursued pensively, as if she hadn't heard: "I presume you've +got to run after that sort, Bel, because they don't know you as well as +I do--can't." + +Even a slow man may have wit enough not to try to answer the +unanswerable. Bellamy got stiffly to his feet. + +"I'll drop in at the Ritz if I can make it." + +"Do, dear ... And Bel!" Lucinda rose impulsively and ran to him. "I'm +sorry, Bel, I was so catty just now. Only, you know, there are some +things one can't help feeling keenly. Dear!" + +She clung to him, lifting to his lips a face tempting beyond all +telling. Insensibly his temper yielded, and catching her to him, he +kissed her with a warmth that had long been missing in his caresses. + +"Linda: you're a witch!" + +"I wish I were ... enough of a witch, at least, to make you realize +nobody cares for you as I do, nor ever will. Bel: don't go yet. There's +something I want to ask you...." + +"Yes?" He held her close, smiling down magnanimously at that pretty, +intent face. As long as she loved him so, couldn't do without him, all +was well, he could do pretty much as he liked--within reasonable limits, +of course, bounds dictated by ordinary discretion. "What's on the busy +mind?" + +"I've been wondering if we couldn't go away together somewhere this +Winter." Lucinda divined hostility in the tensing of the arm round her +waist. "We're not really happy here, dearest----" + +"But you were in Europe all Summer." + +"Not with you, except for a few weeks. You took me over but left me to +come back to business affairs that could have got along perfectly +without you. And while you were with me, what was different from our +life here? Nothing but the geography of our environment. Meeting the +same people, doing the same things, living in the self-same groove +abroad as at home--that sort of thing's no good for us, Bel." + +"What's wrong with the way we live?" + +"Its desperate sameness wears on us till we turn for distraction to +foolish things, things we wouldn't dream of doing if we weren't bored. +Look through my calendar there; you'll find I'm booked up for weeks +ahead, and week in and week out the same old round. And so with you. +Consciously or unconsciously you resent it, dear, you're driven to look +for something different, some excitement to lift you out of the deadly +rut. As for me ... Would you like it if I took a lover simply because I +was bored silly, too?" + +"Linda!" + +"But don't you see that's what we're coming to, that is how it's bound +to end with us if we go on this way, all the time drifting a little +farther apart? Why can't we run away from it all for a while, you and I, +forget it, and find ourselves again? Take me to Egypt, India, any place +where we won't see the same people all the time and do the same things +every day. I feel as if I'd lost you already----" + +"What nonsense!" + +"Oh, perhaps not altogether yet. But slowly and surely I am losing you. +Bel: I want my husband and--he needs me. Give me a chance to find him +again and prove to him I'm something better than--than a boutonnière to +a man of fashion." + +"Boutonnière?" + +"A neglected wife, the finishing touch." + +Bellamy laughed outright, and Lucinda's earnestness melted into an +answering smile. "What a notion! How did you get it, Linda?" + +"Thought it up all out of my own head, strange as it may appear. You +see--this is the danger of it all--you make me think, dear. And if you +keep that up, first thing you know I'll be all mental--and that would be +too awful!" + +Bel laughed again, more briefly, and slackened his embrace; and she +understood from this that, if she had not actually lost, she had gained +nothing. + +"Perhaps you're right. At all events, it's worth thinking about." + +"You will think it over, Bel--promise?" + +"Word of honour. But now--late for an appointment--must run." + +Against the better counsel of her instinct, Lucinda put all she had left +unsaid into her parting kiss--and felt that his response was forced. + +In chagrin she wandered to a window and stood gazing blankly out till +recalled by a new voice: "Good morning, Mrs. Druce." + +Lucinda wadded the handkerchief into her palm and turned to her +secretary, an unruffled countenance. + +"Good morning, Elena." + +Elena Fiske was conscientiously unalluring in the livery affected by +intellect in reduced circumstances. Thanks to a cultivated contempt for +powder, her good features wore an honest polish. She walked with a +stride and looked you in the eye. Erroneously she conceived her opinion +of Lucinda to be privately entertained. + +"If you're ready for me," she suggested with perfect poise. + +"Yes, quite ready." + +Elena consulted a sensible note-book. "I was to remind you to telephone +Mrs. Rossiter Wade." + +"Oh, yes." + +Lucinda took up the telephone but only to find the wire already in use; +that is to say, somebody in another part of the house was talking +without having thought to disconnect the boudoir extension. Recognizing +Bel's voice, she would have hung up at once had she not overheard a +name. + +"Lucky to catch you in, Amelie," Bellamy was saying in the blandishing +accents she knew too well. "About our luncheon, you know----" + +"See here, Bel: you're not going to put me off at the last minute!" + +"Rather not! But for reasons which I confidently leave to your +imagination, it might be better to make it any place but the Ritz. What +do you say to the Clique? It's at least discreet----" + +"But Bel!" the mocking voice of Amelie Severn put in----"we settled on +the Clique instead of the Ritz last night, just before you went home. +What's happened to the old memory?" + +Bellamy was still stammering sheepishly when Lucinda cutoff. + + + + +IV + + +Frost in the air of that early Winter day lent its sunlight the cold +brilliance of diamond-dust. The sky was turquoise glaze, more green than +blue, incredibly hard, shining, high and resonant. Though the new year +was well launched, snow had not yet fallen, no dismal sierras of mud, +slush and rubbish disfigured the city streets and hindered their swift +business. But on Fifth avenue, by that mid-morning hour, the crush of +motor-cars had grown so dense that one could hardly hope to drive from +the Plaza to Thirty-fourth street in less than thirty minutes. + +Bellamy, nursing a mood blackly malcontent, fumed over every halt +dictated by the winking semaphore lights of the traffic towers. He could +have made far better time afoot, and would infinitely have preferred the +exercise--indeed, felt need of it. But in his understanding it was +essential that the car should set him down in front of the sedate +pressed-brick structure on East Thirtieth street whose entrance was +flanked by an ever-stainless plate of brass advertising in dignified +black letters OFFICES OF THE DRUCE ESTATE--necessary for the planting of +what he was pleased to term his "alibi." It made his mind easier to know +he could prove by the chauffeur that he had "gone to business." What he +did with himself after passing through those austere portals the +chauffeur couldn't know, couldn't be expected to know, consequently +couldn't tell. + +It was true, Lucinda had never deigned to question a servant about his +comings and goings, he had no reason to believe she would ever be so far +forgetful of her dignity. Still, if one will flirt with fire, the first +rule is to take out insurance. + +Notwithstanding the numerous occasions when his own laches and errors of +judgment had betrayed Bellamy, his life of a licensed philanderer (so he +rated himself) remained one endless intrigue of evasion, a matted tangle +of lies, equivocations, shifts and stratagems, to keep account of which +was not only a matter of life and death with him but a task to tax the +wits of any man. The wonder was less that feet which trod such +treacherous ground were known to slip, than that they slipped so seldom. + +Merely to admit the need for all this involution of ambiguity and +double-dealing grievously affronted self-esteem. Deceit was strangely +distasteful to this man who was forever floundering in a muck of it, a +quagmire from whose grim suck his feet were never wholly free. In saner +interludes, times of disillusion and clear inner vision such as this, he +loathed it all, himself most of all. Naturally fastidious, he felt +himself defiled, much as if he were constrained continually to dabble +those well-manicured hands in a kennel. He would have given half of all +he possessed to be free of this feeling of personal dishonor which was +the fruit of self-indulgence. A quaint contradiction was to be read in +the fact that he knew no way to satisfy his vanity but at the cost of +giving his vanity offence. + +Today found Bellamy more out of humour with himself than ever before, +more disposed to consider turning over a new leaf, a project often +mooted by his conscience (always when he was falling out of love) often +approved but never seriously tackled. + +Now, however, he had every incentive: self-esteem sick to death in +sequence to last night's dissipation, anxiety to reanimate it with a +noble gesture; mortification due to that lapse of memory which had laid +him open to Amelie's derision, accompanied by reluctance to see the lady +soon again; most of all, Lucinda's unmistakable appeal to his senses and +sensibilities both, in their interview just ended. + +There was no one like Linda, not a woman in New York who could hold a +candle to her for looks, wit and intelligence, none other whom he could +trust, no one who loved him so well. And it would be such a simple +matter to do as she suggested, humour her, make her happy--clear out of +New York and not return till time had wiped the slate clean of his +score, then settle down to behave, and incidentally to respect, himself. + +Where was the sense in holding on this tack, ignoring Linda, making her +miserable, storing up sure retribution, and meantime playing the silly +goat, all for the sake of a few hours of facile excitement? It wasn't as +if he couldn't help himself, as if his fatal beauty rendered it +impossible for women to resist him. No: the women he flirted with were +as ready to flirt with any other man who has as much to offer them.... + +Why, then go on? + +Bellamy assured himself he was damn' sorry that he hadn't, while calling +Amelie up from the library, obeyed his first impulse and broken off the +appointment altogether. Chances were her resentment would have resulted +in a permanent breach. In which event all hands would have been happier. +While if he went on now to meet her at this shady Clique Club, the end +might easily be, what the outcome of persistence in his present courses +must surely be, heart-break, unhappiness, the slime of the divorce +courts. + +Thrice in the course of the scant hour he spent at his desk Bellamy put +out a hand to the telephone, meaning to call up Amelie and call it off; +and thrice withheld his hand, partly because he hated the thought of a +wrangle over the wire, partly because he was afraid the girl at the +switchboard might listen in. + +In the end he left his office half an hour earlier than he need have, +and telephoned the Severn apartment from the Waldorf, only to learn from +her maid that Mrs. Severn was not at home. + +Divided between relief and annoyance, he took a taxi to the Clique, +arriving twenty minutes before the time appointed, and Heaven alone knew +how long before he might expect Amelie. For Amelie was one of those who, +having no personality of their own worth mentioning, build themselves +one of appropriated tricks and traits, as a rule those which are least +considerate of the comfort of others. Amelie believed a certain +distinction inhered in being always late for an appointment. + +Now Bellamy detested waiting, especially in a public place, and never +more than in the little foyer of the Clique, with its suggestively +discreet lighting; the last place where one cared to be hung up on +exhibition. + +The Clique Club was a post-Prohibition institution of New York, run in +direct, more or less open, and famously successful defiance of the +Eighteenth Amendment. One had to become a member in order to obtain +admission, or else be introduced as the guest of a member; and the +initiation fee was something wholly dependent on one's rating in the +esteem of the Membership Committee, whose powers had been delegated en +bloc to an urbane brigand, the club steward, Theodore by name: in more +humid days the more than ordinarily supercilious, courted and successful +maître-d'hotel of a fashionable restaurant. Once a member and within +those unhallowed precincts, "everything went," in the parlance of its +frequenters, "you could get away with murder." There was a floor for +dancing, with the inevitable jazz band, rather a good one. Rooms were +provided for private dinner parties of every size, however small. In the +restaurant proper an improper degree of privacy was obtainable at will +simply by drawing the curtains of the booths in which the tables were +individually set apart. The cooking was atrocious, the wines and liquors +only tolerable, the tariffs cynical. + +Amelie Severn kept Bellamy kicking his heels a bad quarter of an hour +longer than she need have; and those fifteen minutes, added to the +twenty which he had inflicted upon himself, served to draw his temper +fine. Nothing of this, however, was apparent in his reception of her, in +fact much of it was obscured for the first few minutes by the admiration +which her undeniable good looks could hardly have failed to excite. +There was, after all, a measure of compensation in the knowledge that +one had made a conquest of so rare a creature. + +It didn't count that there had been more truth than good faith in +Bellamy's statement to his wife that Amelie was "amiable enough, but +nobody to talk to." Good humour, easy, spirits, grace of manner and +charm of person will carry even a dull woman far. Amelie was neither +stupid nor witty; she was shrewd. Mainly through instinct but in part +through education she was shrewd, she knew what she wanted, which was +every luxury, and how to go about obtaining it, which was simple; all +one needed to do was to fix on some tedious man to flatter with one's +attentions. For the more dull the man, the better the dividends returned +by such inexpensive investments; the more keen-witted, the more disposed +to count the cost. + +If there was nothing subtle in the philosophy of Amelie, it boasted this +rare virtue, it was practical and practicable in the extreme; just as it +is practised to an extent few men dream of. + +To women of this type love is the poppy of hallucination, calling for +ruthless extermination if found in one's own garden, but sure to produce +goodly crops if cultivated by fair, skilled hands in the fields of the +neighbouring sex. + +Amelie had married Ross Severn because he was well-to-do, uninteresting, +middle-aged, of good family; and had quickly repented because he spoiled +her and showed no intention of ceasing to be a good insurance risk. So +she craved much exciting indiscretions as this assignation with +another's husband at the Clique Club of questionable repute. + +She frankly owned as much while Bellamy was helping her with her wrap in +the semi-seclusion of their as yet uncurtained booth. + +"--Thrilled to a jellybean!" she declared, employing an absurdity which +she had promptly pirated upon hearing the laugh that rewarded its use by +another woman. "Thanks, old dear." She shrugged out of her furs, planted +elbows upon the table, cradled her chin upon the backs of engaged +fingers, and peered about the room with quick, inquisitive, bird-like +glances. "Ross would be furious." + +"Hope so. If he weren't, he ought to be spoken to about it. Or don't you +think he has any right to object to your doing as you please?" + +"Oh, why worry about Ross's rights? He's just a husband." + +"And husbands haven't any rights worth considering. Quite so! All the +same, sometimes they assert 'em." + +"I'd like to see Ross...." A laugh of lazy insolence rounded off +Amelie's thought. "Besides, I'm not doing anything wrong...." + +"Not yet," Bellamy admitted equably. He nodded to their hovering waiter. +"What kind of cocktail, Amelie? Everything else is ordered." + +"Thank goodness: I'm famished. A T-N-T, please." + +The waiter noted down this frightful prescription with entire +equanimity, but lingered. "And monsieur----?" + +"Nothing, thank you." + +"Nothing, monsieur?" Professional poise was sadly shattered for an +instant. Why should one punish oneself with the cuisine of the Clique +and reject the solitary compensation the establishment had to offer? +Ejaculating "Nothing!" once more, in a tone of profound perturbation, +the waiter retired. + +Bellamy tried to cover his annoyance with a laugh, but surprised a look +of dark resentment in Amelie's eyes and opened his own. "Hello?" + +"Why did you do that? Simply to mortify me?" + +"Afraid I don't follow----" + +"Do you want the waiters to think you bring me here solely to satisfy +_my_ appetite for liquor? It isn't as if you were a plaster saint in +that line yourself--not exactly." + +"Sorry, Amy. Make it a rule never to drink before evening." + +"Then why come here at all?" + +"Thought we'd agreed a little everyday discretion wouldn't do us any +harm." + +"What are you afraid of? Your wife?" + +Bellamy answered only with a fatigued look. The cocktail was being +served. + +"And the melon, monsieur--shall I bring it at once?" + +"Please." + +The tone was crisp if the word was civil. Amelie sipped her mixed +poisons, mysterious malice informing the eyes that watched Bellamy over +the rim of the glass. + +"Why take it out on the waiter if you're in a temper with me?" + +"I'm not, Amy, I--" Bellamy caught himself, and permitted impatience to +find an outlet in a sound of polite expostulation: "Really!" + +Amelie put aside an empty glass. Refreshed and fortified, she brooded +with sultry eyes while wedges of under-ripe casaba bedded in cracked ice +were set before them. + +"You know, Bel," she observed in the dispassionate accents of the friend +who wouldn't for worlds mention it, only it's for your own good--"you +really ought to be more careful about your drinking. You barely escaped +being pretty awful at times, last night." + +An indictment the more unkind because a cloudy memory refused to affirm +or deny its justice. Bellamy began to repent his fidelity to the six +o'clock rule. + +"Fancy your forgetting we'd agreed to meet here instead of at the Ritz. +That ought to show you how lit you were." + +"Sorry----" + +"That's all very well: but suppose you hadn't had sense enough to call +up this morning, suppose I had come here to meet you, just as we'd +arranged, and had to go home after waiting around for hours like some +shop-girl forgotten on a street corner----" + +"Poetic justice, if you ask me--something to offset some of the hours +you've kept me fidgeting, wondering if you meant to show up at all." + +Injudiciously, Bellamy added a smile to the retort, by way of offsetting +its justice. + +"So it amuses you to think of making an exhibition of me in a place like +this!" + +"Oh, I don't know." Bellamy surveyed the restaurant without bias. "Not a +bad little hole for people in our position." + +The melon, inedible and uneaten, was removed, soup in cups was +substituted. + +"'People in our position'! I'm to understand, then, any 'little hole' is +good enough for me, so long as I don't interfere with Lucinda's parties +at the Ritz." + +Bellamy straightened his spine and put down his spoon. An understanding +captain of waiters read his troubled eye and made casual occasion to +draw the curtains across the front of the booth. + +"It is because Lucinda's lunching at the Ritz today, isn't it?" + +"My dear Amy," said Bellamy coolly: "I'm unaware of having done anything +to provoke this, and if I've sinned unwittingly, I beg your pardon very +truly. Won't you believe that, please, and let me off for today? I'm +feeling rather rusty myself, my dear, and this is beginning to get on my +nerves." + +At his first words the woman drew back, flushing, eyes stormy above a +mouth whose gentle allure lost itself in a hardening line. Then swiftly +reconsideration followed, visibly the selfish second thought took shape +in the angry eyes and melted their ice to a mist of unshed tears +beneath lids newly languorous. The petulant lips, too, refound their +tremulous tenderness. Amelie's hand fell upon Bellamy's in a warm, +convulsive clasp. She leaned across the corner of the table. + +"Kiss me, Bel--I'm so wretched!" + +He kissed her adequately but without any sort of emotion, thinking it +strange, all the while her mouth clung to his, that he should so clearly +know this to be good acting, no more than that, no less. Bellamy was not +accustomed to see through women at so young a stage of intimacy; that +came later, came surely; but never before had it come so soon. And in a +little quake of dread he wondered if it were because he had grown old +beyond his years, too aged in sentimental tippling to have retained the +capacity for generous credulity of his younger years. Or was it that the +woman's insincerity had so eaten out her heart, no technical perfection +could lend persuasion to her playing, her caresses potency? Or that he +had, since morning, fallen in love with his wife all over again and so +truly that no rival passion could seem real? + +It was true, at least, that his thoughts were quick and warm with +memories of Linda even while he was most engaged with the effort to do +justice to Amelie's lips. And perceiving this to be so, self-contempt +took hold of him like a sickness. + +They resumed their poses of nonchalant and sophisticated creatures +amiably discussing an informal meal. But first the woman made effective +use of a handkerchief. + +"Forgive me, dear," she murmured. "I know it was perfectly rotten of me, +but I couldn't help it. I'm a bit overwrought, Bel, not too happy; being +in love with you has made the way things are at home doubly hard to +endure, you must know that; and then--of course"--she smiled +nervously--"I'm jealous." + +He was silent, fiddling with a fork, avoiding her eye. + +"Of Lucinda--you understand." + +He said heavily: "Yes...." + +She waited an instant, and when he failed to say more began to see that +she had overplayed her hand. + +"You do love me, don't you, Bel?" + +"Of course." + +"Then you must know how hard it is for me, you can't blame me for +growing impatient." + +This time he looked up and met her gaze. "Impatient for what?" + +"Why, for what every woman expects when she's in love and the man whom +she loves loves her; something definite to look forward to, I mean. We +can't go on like this, of course." + +"No, not like this." + +"I'm not the kind of a woman for a hole-and-corner affair, Bel. If I +were, you wouldn't be in love with me." + +He nodded intently: "What do you propose?" + +"I've been waiting for that to come from you, dear; but you never seem +to live for anything but the moment." + +"I've got to know what's in your mind, Amy. Tell me frankly." + +"Well, then!"--she saw the mistake of it instantly, but for the life of +her couldn't muffle the ring of challenge--"I fancy it means Reno for +both of us." + +"Meaning I'm to divorce Linda and marry you?" + +She gave a deprecating flutter of hands. "What else can we do?" + +Bellamy said with a stubborn shake of his head: "Never without good +cause; and as far as I know, Linda's blameless. I'm a pretty hopeless +proposition, I know, but not quite so bad as all that." + +Amelie sat back, her colour rising. She could not misinterpret the +determination in his temper; yet vanity would not permit her to forego +one last attempt. "But if she should divorce you?" + +"Deal with that when it comes up. Frankly, don't believe it ever will. +Don't mean to give Linda any reason I can avoid." + +"What you mean is, you really love----!" + +"I mean," he cut in sharply, "whatever my shortcomings, I respect Linda, +I won't hurt her if I can help it." + +"How charming of you!" + +For all acknowledgment she received a silent inclination of his head; +and she began to laugh dangerously, eyes abrim with hatred, the heat in +her cheeks shaming their rouge. + +"Well, thank God I've come to understand you before we went any +farther!" + +"Amen to that." + +"And so all your love-making has been simply----" + +"The same as yours, Amy." + +"Then why did you ever make love to me at all, please?" + +"Because you let me see you wanted me to." + +The brutal truth of that lifted the woman to her feet. "I don't think I +care for any more luncheon," she said in a shaking voice. "If you don't +mind...." + +Bellamy rose, bowing from his place: "Not at all." + +He offered to help her with her fur, but she wouldn't have that, threw +the garment over her arm and flung round the table, then checked and +looked back. "You understand--this ends it--for all time?" + +"I couldn't do you the injustice of thinking anything else." + +She made a tempestuous exit through the curtains. Bellamy grunted in +self-disgust, lighted a cigarette, and looked up to see the suavely +concerned countenance of Theodore. + +"Something is wrong, Mr. Druce? The lady----?" + +"Was suddenly taken ill. Be good enough to cancel the rest of the order, +Theodore, and let me have my bill. And--yes, think I will--you may send +me a Scotch and soda." + +Bellamy consulted his watch. Just on two: Linda's luncheon party would +be in full swing. He had nothing better to do, might as well look in at +the Ritz. Linda would like it.... + + + + +V + + +"Three o'clock, Thomas, say a quarter to." + +"Yes, madam." + +The footman performed a faultless salute and doubled round to hop into +place beside the chauffeur, while the door-porter shut the door with a +bang whose nicely calculated volume told all the world within ear-shot +that the door-porter of the fashionable hotel of the day was banging the +door to Mrs. Bellamy Druce's brougham. + +The technique of every calling is similarly susceptible of refinement +into an art. + +Two Lucinda Druces crossed the sidewalk and passed through the turnstile +of bright metal and plate-glass which served as a door at the +Forty-sixth street entrance to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel--the one +perceptible to mortal vision a slender and fair young person costumed in +impeccable taste and going her way with that unstudied grace which is +the last expression of man's will to make woman a creature whose love +shall adorn him. + +To the luncheon-hour mob that milled in the meagre foyer of this hotel, +which holds its public by studiously subjecting it to every Continental +inconvenience, she presented the poise of a pretty woman who has never +known care more galling than uncertainty as to her most becoming +adornment. Not even the shadow of that other Lucinda who walked with +her, who was no more separate from her than her own shadow, who ceased +not to beat her bosom and cry to Heaven for help, was to be detected in +the composed, steady eyes that searched swiftly, but without seeming to +see, the faces of that congested congregation of fashionables and +half-fashionables and would-be fashionables, their apes and sycophants +and audience. + +Seeing nowhere those whom she was seeking, Lucinda made her way to the +lounge; or it would be more true to say a way was made for her by the +simple prestige of her presence, by the magic whisper of her name from +mouth to mouth commanding a deference neither beauty nor breeding alone +could have earned her. + +The lounge was at that hour three-quarters invested by an overflow of +tables from the dining-room proper, only at its eastern end a few easy +chairs and settees had been left for the accommodation of those lucky +enough to win past the functionary who guarded the portals, charged with +winnowing the sheep from the goats, admitting the elect to this +antechamber to the one true Olympus, shunting off the reject to the +limbo of the downstairs grill. + +Sighting Lucinda from afar, with a bow of ineffable esteem this one +glided forward. "Mrs. Sedley and Mrs. Guest are waiting for you, Mrs. +Druce." At the same time Lucinda herself discovered her friends +occupying a settee, with Fanny Lontaine between them. "Your table is +quite ready. Do you wish luncheon to be served at once?" + +Lucinda assented pleasantly and passed on. Immediately the headwaiter +caught the eye of a subaltern in the middle of the room, and in intimate +silence conversed with him without moving a muscle more than the +superciliary. The confederate acknowledged this confidence by +significantly dropping his lashes, then in even more cryptic fashion +flashed on the inspiring intelligence to that statuesque figure which, +from the head of the stairs, between lounge and oval dining-room, +brooded with basilisk eyes over the business of both. Thus a minor +miracle was worked, bringing that one at once to life and down to earth; +in another moment the maître-d'hôtel himself was attentive at Lucinda's +elbow. + +"But I never dreamed you three knew one another!" she was exclaiming in +the surprise of finding Fanny Lontaine on terms with those whom she had +bidden to meet her. "Fanny, why didn't you tell me----?" + +"But I didn't know--how should I?--your Nelly Guest was Ellen Field +married." + +"That's so; I'd completely forgotten you both come from Chicago." + +"Hush!" Nelly Guest gave a stage hiss. "Someone might hear. You never +forget anything, do you? And all these years I've tried so hard to live +it down! It's no fair...." + +Impressively convoyed, the quartet proceeded to "Mrs. Druce's table" in +the oval room. Rumour of gossip and turning of heads attended their +progress, flattery to which Lucinda, Nelly and Jean were inured, of +which they were aware only as they were of sensuous strains of stringed +music, the orderly stir of waiters, the satisfying sheen of silver and +napery, the brilliance and brouhaha of that gathering of amiable +worldlings, and the heady breath of it, a subtly blended, oddly +inoffensive mélange of scents of flowers and scented flesh, smells of +cooked food and cigarette smoke. + +But in the understanding of Fanny Lontaine, accustomed to admiration as +she was, and no stranger to the public life of European capitals, the +flutter caused by the passage of her companions through a phase of +existence so polite and skeptical conferred upon them an unmistakable +cachet. She had been long abroad and out of touch, she had never been on +intimate terms with New York ways, but the busy mind at work behind her +round eyes of a child was like a sponge for the absorption of delicate +nuances and significant signs of all sorts. Life had made it like that. + +Six years married, and two years older than Lucinda Druce, Fanny +retained, and would till the end, whatever life might hold in store for +her, a look of wondering and eager youthfulness. Romance trembled +veritably upon her lashes. She had a way of holding her lips slightly +apart and looking steadily at one when spoken to, as if nothing more +interesting had ever been heard by the ears ambushed in her bobbed, +ashen hair. Her eyes of a deep violet shade held an innocence of +expression little less than disconcerting. Her body seemed never to have +outgrown its adolescence, yet its slightness was quite without any +angularity or awkwardness, it achieved roundness without plumpness, a +stroke of physical genius. In the question of dress she showed a +tendency to begin where the extreme of the mode left off, a fault held +venial in view of her apparent immaturity. And then, of course, she had +lived so long in England, where people are more broad-minded.... + +Apparently not talkative but a good listener, she had a knack of making +what she did say stick in memory, not so much for its content as for its +manner, a sort of shy audacity that pointed observations often racy and +a candour sometimes devastating. But unless one happened to be looking +at Fanny when she spoke, her remarks were apt to seem less memorable, +her humour less pungent. + +"It's heavenly," she now declared, coolly staring at their neighbours +through the smoke of her cigarette--"simply divine to be home. I'm sure +I'd never want to see Europe again if it weren't for Prohibition." + +"You're not going to suffer on that account today," Jean Sedley +promised, producing from her handbag a little flash of jewelled gold. + +"But I shall!" Fanny protested with tragic expression. "It's the +frightful hypocrisy that's curdling my soul and ruining my insides. It +makes one homesick for England, where people drink too much because they +like it, and not to punish themselves for electing a government which +conscientiously interprets the will of the people--and leaves them to +interpret their wont." + +"No dear, thanks." Smilingly Nelly Guest refused to let Jean fill her +glass. + +"The figure?" Jean enquired in deep sympathy. + +"I've positively got to," Nelly sighed. She cast a rueful glance down +over her plump, pretty person. "Compassionate Columbia simply must not +waddle when she pokes her horn of plenty at famine-stricken China." + +"Oh, that wretched pageant!" Lucinda roused from a lapse into communion +with the Lucinda who made an unseen fifth. "When is it? I'd forgotten +all about it." Nelly Guest named a day two weeks in the future. "And I +haven't even thought about my costume! Oh, why do we punish ourselves so +for Charity's sweet sake?" + +"Because deep down in our hearts we all like to parade our virtues." + +"Much virtue in that plural," Nelly Guest commented. + +"Well, I don't like parading mine in pageants, I assure you." + +"Don't you, honestly, Cindy?" Fanny asked. "I should think you'd love +that sort of thing. You used to be perfectly mad about acting." + +"So is every woman--isn't she?--at one stage or another of her life +convinced she's truly a great actress cheated out of her birthright." + +"I know. All the same you know you've got talent. Don't you remember our +open-air performance of _Much Ado About Nothing_? You were a simply +ravishing Rosalind." + +"Heavens! What do amateur theatricals prove?" + +"For one thing," Jean Sedley commented, "how long-suffering one's +friends can be." + +"And one's enemies. Consider what they sit through just to see us make +public guys of ourselves." + +"Well!" Nelly Guest lamented: "my pet enemies are going to have a real +treat at the pageant unless I can find some way to reduce, inside a +fortnight." + +"There was a man in London had a marvelous system," Fanny volunteered. +"Everybody was going to him last Season. There ought to be somebody like +him over here." + +Duly encouraged, she launched into a startlingly detailed account of +London's latest fad in "treatment"; and Lucinda's thoughts turned back +to her other self, insensibly her identity receded into and merged with +its identity again and became lost in its preoccupations. + +How to go on, how to play out this farce of a life with Bel when faith +in him was dead? + +Strange that faith should have been shattered finally by such a minor +accident as her overhearing that morning's treachery. As if it had been +the first time she had known Bel to be guilty of disloyalty to her! But +today she could not forget that neither love nor any kindly feeling for +his wife, nor even scruples of self-respect, but only dread of a +contretemps had decided Bel against lunching Amelie in that very room, +making open show o£ his infatuation before all those people who knew +them both and who, being human, must have gloated, nudged, and tittered; +who, for all Lucinda knew to the contrary, were even now jeering behind +their hands, because they knew things about Bel and his gallivantings +which all the world knew but his wife. Even the servants----! + +Her cheeks kindled with indignation--and blazed still more ardently when +she discovered that she had, in her abstraction, been staring squarely +at Richard Daubeney, who was lunching with friends at a nearby table. + +But Dobbin bowed and smiled in such a way that Lucinda's confusion and +her sense of grievance were drowned under by a wave of gratitude. She +nodded brightly and gave him a half-laughing glance. + +Good old Dobbin! She had never appreciated how much she was missing him +till he had turned up again last night and offered to take his old place +in her life, on the old terms as nearly as might be, the old terms as +necessarily modified by her own change of status. + +_What a pity!_ + +Those three words were so clearly sighed in her mental hearing that +Lucinda, fearing lest she had uttered them aloud, hastily consulted the +faces of her companions. But they had exhausted the subject of reducing +régimes and passed on naturally--seeing that Nelly and Jean were +approaching that stage when such matters become momentous--to that of +"facials." + +"... Parr's fuller's earth and witch hazel. Make a thick paste of it and +add a few drops of tincture of benzoin, then simply plaster it all over +your face, but be careful not to get it near your eyes, and let it dry. +It only takes a few minutes to harden, and then you crack and peel it +off, and it leaves your skin like a baby's." + +"Elizabeth Baird charges twenty-five dollars a treatment." + +"But my dear, you can see for yourself how stupid it is to pay such +prices to a beauty specialist when the materials cost only a few cents +at any drug-store, and anybody can apply it, your maid if you don't want +to take the trouble yourself...." + +_What a pity!_ + +But was it? Would she have been happier married to Dobbin? Was it +reasonable to assume that Dobbin would not have developed in the forcing +atmosphere of matrimony traits quite as difficult as Bel's to deal with? +In this wrong-headed world nobody was beyond criticism, and anybody's +faults, condonable though they might seem at a distance, could hardly +fail of exaggeration into vices through daily observation at close +range. Impossible to imagine any two human creatures living together, +after the first raptures had begun to wane, without getting on each +other's nerves now and then. + +Wasn't the fault, then, more with the institution than with the +individuals? + +Lucinda remembered having once heard a physician of psycho-analytic bent +commit himself to the statement that in ten years of active professional +life he had never entered one ménage where two people lived in wedded +happiness. And sifting a list of married acquaintances, Lucinda found +it not safe to say of one that he or she was happy; of most it was true +that they had the best of reasons for being unhappy. It was true of +Nelly Guest and Jean Sedley, it was true of herself, doubtless it was +true of Fanny. Lucinda had yet to meet Lontaine, and if Fanny's looks +were fair criterion, she was the most carefree of women; and yet... + +Fanny caught Lucinda eyeing her and smiled. + +"What under the sun are you thinking about so solemnly, Cindy?" + +"You, dear. You haven't told me anything about yourself yet." + +"No chance. Give me half a show"--Fanny glanced askance at Jean and +Nelly, now amiably engaged in bickering about the merits of various +modistes--"and you shall know All." + +"I'd dearly love to. You must lunch with me at home some day soon; and +then I want you and your husband to dine with us--say next Thursday?" + +"I don't know. That's one of the exciting things about being married to +Harry Lontaine, one never knows what tomorrow will bring forth. We've +got to go to Chicago soon, because--daresay you know--father relented +enough to leave me a little legacy, nothing to brag about, but nothing +people in our position can afford to despise, either." + +Lucinda made a sympathetic face and said something vague about everybody +in England still feeling the pinch of the War. But Fanny elected to +scorn generalizations. + +"Oh, the only effect the War could have had on our fortunes would have +been to kill off the half a dozen relatives that stand between Harry and +the title. But he was out of luck--served three years in France and +Flanders and got all shot up and decorated with the dearest little tin +medals on the prettiest ribbons, while his precious kinsmen held down +cushy berths in the Munitions and kept in training for the longevity +record." + +"But how proud you must have been----!" + +"Of Harry? On account of his decorations? My dear: heroes are +three-a-penny in England today. You see, everybody, more or less, +barring Harry's family, had a shot at active service, just as almost +everybody has a shot at marriage sooner or later; only, of course, the +percentage of unscarred survivors of the War was higher." + +(Fanny, too! What a world!) + +"For all that, I do want to meet your husband." + +"You will, soon enough. He's lunching some men down in the grill, a +business luncheon, American cinema people; and I told him when he got +rid of them to wait for me in the lounge. Very likely we'll find him +there on our way out." + +"How nice. He's interested in the motion-picture business then?" + +"In a way. That is, he was, in England, for a while, after the War. And +when we decided to come over about my legacy, he secured options on the +American rights to some Swedish productions. Somebody told him you were +having a run on foreign films over here, so Harry said he might as well +try to turn an honest penny. I told him it wouldn't do him any harm, +he'd enjoy the adventure." + +"I see," said Lucinda a bit blankly. "I don't know much about it, of +course, almost never go to see a motion picture; that is, unless it's +Elsie Ferguson, I've always been mad about her." + +She looked round to the waiter who was substituting a finger-bowl for +her neglected sweet. "We'll all want coffee, Ernest, and you may bring +it to us in the Palm Room." + +"Four demi-tasses: yes, Mrs. Druce." + +"Nelly! Jean!" These Lucinda haled forth from the noisome morass of the +newest divorce scandal. "Fanny's first husband is waiting for her in +the lounge, and she's getting nervous." + +"Good-looking, I suppose?" Jean Sedley enquired, and got a merry nod +from Fanny. "She ought to be nervous. A New York Winter is the open +season for other women's good-looking husbands, it doesn't do to leave +them standing round loose--here of all places!" + + + + +VI + + +Fanny's husband came in shortly after Lucinda and her guests had settled +down to coffee and cigarettes in a Palm Room now rapidly regaining its +legitimate atmosphere of a lounge, as the extemporized tables were +vacated, dismantled, and spirited away. + +He fitted so neatly into the mental sketch of Lucinda's unconscious +preconception, that she was naturally prejudiced in his favour. She +liked Englishmen of that stamp, even if the stamp was open to criticism +as something stereotyped, liked their manner and their manners and the +way they dressed, with an effect of finish carelessly attained, as +contrasted with the tight ornateness to which American men of the same +caste are so largely prone. + +Tall and well made, Lontaine had the good colour of men who care enough +for their bodies to keep them keen and clean of the rust that comes of +indoor stodging. The plump and closely razored face seemed perhaps a +shade oversize for features delicately formed, and the blue eyes had +that introspective cast which sometimes means imagination and frequently +means nothing at all more than self-complacence. He affected a niggardly +moustache, and when he spoke full lips framed his words noticeably. His +habit was that of a man at ease in any company, even his own, who sets a +good value on himself and confidently looks for its general acceptance. + +He talked well, with assurance, some humour, and a fair amount of +information. He had lived several years in the States, off and on, and +on the whole approved of them. In fact, he might say there were only two +sections of the country with which he was unacquainted, the South and +the Pacific Coast; defects in a cosmopolitan education which he hoped to +remedy this trip, as to the Coast at least. He had pottered a bit with +the cinema at home, and it was just possible he might think it worth his +while to jog out to Los Angeles and see what was to be seen in that +capital of the world's motion-picture industry. England, he didn't mind +admitting, had a goodish bit to learn from America in the cinema line. +They were far too conservative, the cinema lot at home, behind the times +and on the cheap to a degree that fairly did them in the eye when it +came to foreign competition. On the Continent, too, the cinema was +making tremendous strides, while in England it was merely marking time. +If you asked Lontaine, it was his considered belief that the really +top-hole productions of the future would come of combining American +brilliance of photography and investure with European thoroughness in +acting and direction. + +This by no means unintelligent forecast was uttered with an authority +that impressed even Lucinda, elaborately uninterested as she was. +Conscious of a rather pleasing deference in Lontaine, who was addressing +himself to her more directly than to any of the others, she maintained a +half-smile of amiable attention which would have deceived a sharper man, +and let her thoughts drift on dreary tides of discontent. + +Hour by hour the conviction was striking its roots more deeply into her +comprehension that life with Bel on the present terms was unthinkable. +And yet--what to do about it? She hadn't the remotest notion. Obviously +she would have to arrive somehow at some sort of an understanding with +Bel. But how? The one way she knew had failed her. And she knew no one +to confide in or consult. + +Her father had died several years before her marriage, her mother soon +after. Of her immediate family there remained only an elder sister, +married and living in Italy. + +She saw herself a puny figure, with only her bare wits and naked need +for allies, struggling to save her soul alive from a social system like +a Molock of the moderns, a beast-god man has builded out of all that he +holds hateful, all his fears and lusts and malice, envy, cruelty and +injustice, and to which, having made it, he bows down in awe and +worship, sacrificing to it all that he loves best, all that makes life +sweet and fair.... + +A losing fight. One were mad to hope to win. Already Bel was lost, +caught in the mad dance of the system's bacchants, already drunkard and +debauchee.... Nor might all her love redeem him.... And O the pity! + +Aware of pain welling in her bosom, a sense of suffocation, tears +starting to her eyes, she jumped up hastily lest her friends should see, +mumbled an excuse, and made her way out to the foyer, turning toward the +women's cloak-room. + +A few moments alone would restore equanimity, a little rouge and powder +mend the wear of her emotions. + +The foyer was still fairly thronged; she was almost in Bel's arms before +she saw him, so near to him, when she stopped in shocked recognition of +his grimace of affection, that she caught, as she started back, a heavy +whiff of breath whiskey-flavoured. + +She heard him say, "Why, hello, Linda! what's the hurry?" and cut in +instantly with a gasp of indignation: "What are you doing here?" + +"Thought I'd look in on your party. You know, you asked me----" + +She could not trust her tongue. If she said more in her anger, she would +say too much, considering that time and place, lose what poor vestiges +of self-control remained to her, make a scene. She cried all in a +breath: "Well, go away, then! I don't want you, I won't have you!"--and +pushing past Bel, fled into the cloak-room. + +He lingered half a minute, with perplexed eyes meeting the amused stares +of those who had been near enough to catch an inkling of the +altercation; then drew himself up sharply and ironed out all indications +of his embarrassment, assuming what he believed to be a look of haughty +indifference. + +But he was hurt, stricken to the heart by Lucinda's treatment. He +couldn't think what he'd done to deserve it, he felt sure she couldn't +have noticed the few drinks that had constituted luncheon for him. But +whatever had been the matter, obviously it was up to him to find some +way to placate Linda. He was through with Amelie and all such +foolishness, from now on he was going to be good to Linda; and it +wouldn't do at all to begin his new life by getting on the outs with +her. + +His gaze focused intelligently upon the glass case that displays the +wares of the hotel florist. Women liked flowers. But there were four in +Linda's party, her guests would think it funny if he joined them +bringing flowers for his wife only.... A tough problem. He decided to +step round to the club and mull it over.... + +He had disappeared by the time Lucinda felt fit to show herself again. +Inwardly still forlorn and disconsolate, but outwardly mistress of +herself, she resumed her chair; and had hardly done so when she saw +Richard Daubeney pass by with his luncheon party, pause at the door and +take leave, then turn back and make directly for her corner. And +instantaneously Lucinda experienced a slight psychic shock and found +herself again the individual self-contained, the young woman of the +world whom nothing could dismay. + +Dobbin knew everybody except the Lontaines; and when the flutter created +by his introduction had subsided, he found a chair by Lucinda's side and +quietly occupied himself with a cigarette until the conversation swung +back to the pageant; whereupon he took deft advantage of the general +interest in that topic to detach Lucinda's attention. + +"I couldn't resist the temptation to butt in, Cinda. Hope you don't +mind." + +"I do, though, fearfully. It's always nice to see you." + +"Many thanks. Appreciation makes up for a lot of neglect." + +"Poor old soul: somebody been neglecting you again?" + +"Somebody's always neglecting me and my affectionate disposition. That's +why I've wiggled to your side, wagging a friendly tail, ready to lick +your hand at the first sign of an inclination to adopt me." + +Lucinda eyed him in grave distrust. "Dobbin: are you trying to start +something? I thought we'd settled all that last night, agreed I wasn't +in a position to adopt stray men, no matter how nice." + +"That was last night. You've had time to sleep on it. Lots of things can +come up overnight to change a woman's mind. Don't tell me: I can see +something unusual has happened." + +"Oh! you can?" + +"Don't be alarmed: you're not wearing your heart on your sleeve. I can +see you're troubled about something, simply because I know you so much +better than anybody else. Oh, yes, I do. You never knew how thoroughly I +studied you in the dear, dead days of yore. I'll lay long odds no one +else has noticed anything, but to my seeing eye you've been flying +signals of distress all during luncheon. That being so, it wouldn't be +decent of me not to give you a hail and stand by in case I'm needed--now +would it?" + +Momentarily Lucinda contended against temptation. Then, "You are a dear, +Dobbin," she said almost regretfully. "But it isn't fair of you to see +too much. If it's true I have secrets I don't want to share, it would be +kinder to let me keep them--don't you think?" + +"Lord bless you, yes! But it's my observation the human being in trouble +has got to talk to somebody, and will to the wrong body if the right +isn't handy. Not only that, but you'll find most people will listen to +your troubles only to get a chance to tell you their own; whereas I have +none except the one you know all about. So you needn't fear reprisals." + +She pondered this, sweetly serious, then in little better than a whisper +said: "At least, not now...." + +Jean Sedley was claiming her attention. "What do you think of that, +Cindy? Isn't it a ripping idea?" + +"Afraid I didn't hear--I was flirting with Dobbin." + +"Yes, I know. But Mr. Lontaine has just made a priceless suggestion +about the pageant. He says we can have moving-pictures taken as we enter +the ball-room and shown before the evening is over." + +"But is that possible?" + +"Oh, quite," Lontaine insisted--"assure you. It's really extraordinary +how they do these things, three or four hours is all they require to +develop and prepare a film for projection. Say your pageant starts at +ten: by one you can see yourself on the screen." + +"Everybody would adore it!" Nelly Guest declared with deep conviction. + +"And you could arrange it, Mr. Lontaine?" + +"Easily, Mrs. Druce--that is to say, if I'm still in New York." + +"What do you think, Cindy?" Jean urged. "Almost everybody is +moving-picture mad. We could sell twice as many tickets on the strength +of such a novelty. And it is a charity affair, you know." + +"Meaning to say," Dobbin put in, "you're rather keen about it yourself." + +"Of course--crazy to see myself as others see me. So is every +woman--Fanny, Jean, Cindy----" + +"I don't know," Lucinda demurred. "It must be a weird sensation." + +"Not one you need be afraid of," Lontaine promised. "If you don't mind +my saying so, you would screen wonderfully, Mrs. Druce." + +"You think so, really?" + +"Oh, no doubt about it, whatever. You're just the type the camera treats +most kindly. If you wanted to, you could make a fortune in the cinema. +No, seriously: I'm not joking." + +"I'm glad of that," Lucinda returned soberly. "It wouldn't be at all +nice of you to trifle with my young affections. Still, I will admit I'm +skeptical." + +"Tell you what," Lontaine offered eagerly: "Suppose you take test, what? +No trouble at all to fix it up for you--chaps I know--only too +glad--anything I say. I'd like to prove I know what I'm talking about. +Take us all, for that matter, just as we are. What do you say?" + +"I say it's perfectly damn' splendid!" Jean Sedley declared. "We'd all +love it. When can you arrange it?" + +"Any time you like--this afternoon, if that suits everybody. Only have +to telephone, and in half an hour they'll be all ready for us. Shall I?" +Lontaine got out of his chair. "Do say yes, all of you. Mrs. Druce? I +know the others will if you do?" + +"I don't mind...." + +"Right-O! Give me five minutes...." + + + + +VII + + +Lontaine brought back a gratified countenance from the telephone booths. +As he had promised, so had he performed. This cinema chap he knew, Culp, +had professed himself only too delighted. Rum name, what? A rum +customer, if you asked Lontaine, diamond in the rough and all that sort +of thing, one of the biggest guns in the American cinema to boot. + +Dobbin wanted to know if Mr. Culp wasn't the husband of Alma Daley, the +motion-picture actress. Lontaine said he was. Extraordinary pair. +Married a few years ago when they were both stoney, absolutely. Now look +at them; Culp a millionaire and better, Miss Daley one of the most +popular stars. You might say he'd made her and she'd made him. Showed +the value of team-work in marriage, what? You pulled together, and +nothing could stop you. You pulled in opposite directions, and what +happened? You stood still! What? + +(Lucinda remarked the patient smile with which Fanny listened. But +repetition is, after all, a notorious idiosyncrasy of the married male.) + +Charming little woman, Miss Daley. As it happened, she was working in a +picture at the studio now. Rare luck; they'd get a look in at practical +producing methods in addition to getting shot for their tests. Not bad, +what? + +Somebody echoed "shot" with a puzzled inflection. But that term, it +appeared, was studio slang; one was shot when one was photographed by a +motion-picture camera. No doubt because they first aimed the camera at +one, then turned the crank--like a machine-gun, Lontaine meant to say. + +Lucinda discovered that it was already three o'clock, and wondered how +long they would need to get properly shot. Lontaine protested it would +take no time at all. Astonishing chaps, these American cinema people, +absolutely full of push and bounce, did everything in jig-time, if you +knew what he meant. + +With two cars at its disposal, the party split up into threes, Mrs. +Sedley, Mrs. Guest, and Lontaine leading the way. On the point of +entering her own car after Fanny, however, Lucinda recalled her promise +to look in at the bridge-tea for the Italian Milk Fund, and bidding +Dobbin keep Fanny amused while they waited for her, turned back into the +hotel to telephone Mrs. Wade that she would be a little late. + +Having seen no more of Bellamy since their encounter near the +cloak-room, she had assumed that he had taken her at her word, and had +dismissed from her calculations the possibility of his returning. The +surprise was so much the more unwelcome, consequently, when on leaving +the telephone booth she saw her husband with his hat on the back of his +head and his arms full of lavender orchids, wavering irresolutely in the +entrance to the Palm Room, surveying with a dashed expression its now +all but deserted spaces; a festive spectacle that left no room for +surmise as to what he had been up to. And with sickening contempt added +to the bitterness already rankling in her heart, Lucinda made hastily +for the revolving door. + +Simultaneously Bel caught sight of her and, with a blurred travesty of +his really charming smile, and a faltering parody of that air of gallant +alacrity which she had once thought so engaging, moved to intercept +Lucinda. And finding her escape cut off, she paused and awaited him with +a stony countenance. + +"Ah! there you are, eh, Linda! 'Fraid I'd missed you. Sorry couldn't get +back sooner, but----" + +"I'm not," Lucinda interrupted. + +"Had to go over to Thorley's to find these orchids...." Bel extended his +burden as if to transfer it to Lucinda's arms and, when she prevented +this by falling back a pace, looked both pained and puzzled. "Ah--what +say? What's matter?" + +"I said," Lucinda replied icily, "I'm not sorry you couldn't get here +sooner. Surely you can't imagine I'd care to have my friends see you as +you are, in the middle of the afternoon. It's bad enough to have them +know you get in this condition nearly every night." + +"But--look here, Linda: be reasonable----" + +"I think I have been--what you call reasonable--long enough--too long!" + +Bellamy hesitated, nervously moistening his lips, glancing sidelong this +way and that. But there was nobody in the foyer at the moment but +themselves; even the coatroom girls had retired to their office and were +well out of ear-shot of the quiet conversational key which, for all her +indignation, Lucinda had adopted. For all of which the man should have +been abjectly grateful. Instead of which (such is the wicked way of +drink) Bellamy took heart of these circumstances, their temporary +isolation and Lucinda's calculated quietness, and offered to bluster it +out. + +"Here--take these flowers, won't you? Plenty for you and all your +friends. Tha's what kept me so long--had to go all over to find enough." + +Again Lucinda defeated his attempt to disburden himself. "Oh, Bel!" she +cried sadly--"how can you be such a fool?" + +"How'm I a fool? Like flowers, don't you? Thought I was going to please +you.... And this is what I get!" + +"You know all the orchids in New York couldn't make up for your +drinking." + +"Why cut up so nasty about a little drink or two? Way you talk, anyone'd +think I was reeling." + +"You will be before night, if you keep this up." + +"Well, I'm not going to keep it up. I've made arrangements to have the +afternoon free, just to be with you. We'll go somewhere--do +something----" + +"Thank you: I'd rather not." + +"Don't talk rot." Most unwisely, Bellamy essayed the masterful method. +"Of course we'll go some place----" + +"We will not," Lucinda told him inflexibly. "My afternoon is booked full +up already, and----" + +"Where you going? I don't mind tagging along----" + +"Sorry, but I don't want you." + +Injudiciously again, Bellamy elected to show his teeth, stepped closer +to Lucinda and with ugly deliberation demanded: "See here: where you +going? I've got a right to know----" + +"Have you, Bel? Think again. I never ask you such questions. If I did, +you'd either lose your temper or lie to me, and justify yourself by +asserting that no man ought to be asked to stand prying into his +affairs. So--I leave you to your affairs--and only ask that you leave me +to mine." + +"Meaning you won't tell me where you're going?" + +Lucinda shrugged and turned away; but Bellamy swung in between her and +the exit. + +"See here, Linda! there are limits to my patience." + +"And to mine--and you have found them. Let me go." + +She didn't move, but her face had lost colour, her eyes had grown +dangerous. Neither spoke in that clash of wills until Bellamy's +weakened, his eyes shifted, and he stepped aside, slightly sobered. + +"Please!" he begged in a turn of penitence. "Didn't mean.... Frightfully +sorry if I've been an ass; but--you know--pretty well shot to pieces +last night--had to pull myself together somehow to talk business at +luncheon----" + +"Oh! it was a business luncheon, then?" asked Lucinda sweetly, pausing. + +"Of course." + +With an ominous smile she commented: "It has come to that already, has +it?" + +"Ah--what d'you mean?" + +"Since you tell me it was a business luncheon, you leave me to infer +that your affair with Amelie has reached the point where you take her to +the Clique Club to talk terms." Bellamy's jaw sagged, his eyes were +dashed with consternation. "What else do you wish me to think, Bellamy?" + +He made a pitiable effort to pull himself together. "Look here, Linda: +you're all wrong about this--misinformed. I can explain----" + +"You forget I know all your explanations, Bel; I've heard them all too +often!" + +"But--but you must give me a chance! Damn it, you can't refuse----!" + +"Can't I? Go home, Bel, get some sleep. When you wake up, if you still +think you have anything to say--consider it carefully before you ask me +to listen. Remember what I tell you now: you've lied to me for the last +time, one more lie will end everything between us, finally and for all +time!" + +Conscious though she was that her wrath was righteous, she experienced +an instant of irresolution, of yielding and pity excited by the almost +dog-like appeal in his eyes. But immediately she remembered Amelie, +hardened her heart and, leaving him agape, pushed through the door to +the street. + +And instantly she effected one of those shifts of which few but the +sensitive know the secret, who must hide their hurts from alien eyes +though they spend all their strength in the effort; instantly she +sloughed every sign of her anger and with smiling face went to rejoin +Fanny and Dobbin. + +As soon as she appeared the latter jumped out of the car and offered his +hand. He said something in a jocular vein, and Lucinda must have replied +to the point, for she heard him chuckle; but she could not, a minute +later, recollect one word of what had passed between them. + +With her hand resting on Dobbin's she glanced back and saw +Bellamy--still with his armful of orchids--emerge from the hotel. He +halted, his face darkening as he watched Daubeney follow Lucinda into +the car. It drew away quickly, giving him no chance to see for himself +that it held another passenger. + +He stood still upon the steps, deep in sombre and chagrined reflection, +till a touch on his arm and a civil "Pardon!" roused him to the fact +that he was obstructing the fairway. As he moved aside he was hailed by +name. + +"Well, I'm damned! Bellamy Druce drunk, dressed up, and highly +perfumed." + +In his turn, he recognized the speaker, a personage of the theatrical +world with modest social aspirations and a noble cellar. + +"Why, hello, Whittington!" said Bellamy, smiling in spite of his +disgruntlement, to see that carved mask of a wise clown upturned to his. +"All by yourself? What's happened to the girl crop you should be so +lonesome?" + +Without direct reply, Mr. Freddie Whittington linked his arm and began +to walk toward Fifth avenue. + +"Just the man I'm looking for," he declared without a smile. "Come +along. Got a thousand women I want you to meet 'safternoon. They'll take +care of your orchids." + +"Well," Bellamy conceded, "that sounds reasonable. But what do you say, +we drop in at the Club? Got something there won't do us any good--in my +locker." + + + + +VIII + + +On the far West Side, well beyond the drab iron articulation of the +Ninth Avenue Elevated, in a region of New York whose every aspect was +foreign to Lucinda's eyes, the brougham drew to a shuddering stop, in +thoroughbred aversion to such surroundings, before a row of blank-avised +brick buildings whose façades of varying heights and widths showed them +to have been originally designed for diverse uses. That they were today, +however, united in one service was proved by the legend that linked them +together, letters of black on a broad white band running from end to end +of the row beneath its second-story windows: + + ALMA DALEY STUDIOS--CULP CINEMAS INC.--BEN CULP, PRES'T. + +Across the way unsightly tenements grinned like a company of draggletail +crones who had heard a rare lot about the goings-on of picture actors +and, through this happy accident of propinquity, were in a position to +tell the world it didn't know the half of it. Children liberally +embellished with local colour swarmed on sidewalks where ash and +garbage-cans flourished in subtropical luxuriance, and disputed the +roadway with the ramshackle wagons and push-carts of peddlers, +horse-drawn drays, and grinding, gargantuan motor-trucks that snarled +ferociously at the aliens, the frail, pretty pleasure cars from Fifth +avenue. Apparently an abattoir was languishing nearby, discouraged in +its yearning to lose consciousness of self in the world's oblivion. At +the end of the street the Hudson ran, a glimpse of incredible blue +furrowed by snowy wakes. + +Such the nursery in which what Mr. Culp (or his press agent) had +brilliantly imaged as the youngest, fairest sister of the plastic arts +was fostering the finest flower of its expression, to wit, the artistry +of Alma Daley.... + +"Like a lily springing from the mire," Fanny Lontaine murmured. + +Lucinda laughed and gave Fanny's arm a mock-pinch, grateful for any +gleam of wit to lighten life's dull firmament. The temper in which she +had left Bel at the Ritz had been quick to cool; and though its cooling +had not affected her determination to brook no longer his misconduct, +she was beginning to experience premonitions of that débâcle whose event +was certain if this breach, so lately opened, were to widen. + +If it should come to a break asunder, what would become of her? of the +home she loved so well? and what of Bel, whom she loved best of all? + +In the eyes of Dobbin, as he waited for her at the main entrance to the +building, she read too shrewd a question; and understanding that she had +for a moment let fall her mask, she hastily resumed that show of +debonair amusement which was her heart's sole shield against the tearing +beaks and talons of envy, malice and all manner of uncharitableness. + +Fortunately there was something to jog her sense of humour in the utter +absence of preparations to receive them, such as Lontaine had +confidently promised. + +A sense of hostility made itself felt even in the bare antechamber, a +vestibule with makeshift walls of match-boarding, and for all features a +wooden bench, a card-board sign, NO CASTING TODAY, a door of woven iron +wire at the mouth of a forbidding tunnel, and a window which framed the +head of a man with gimlet eyes, a permanent scowl, and a cauliflower +ear. + +Interviewed by Lontaine, this one grunted skeptically but consented to +pass on the name and message to some person unseen, then resumed his +louring and distrustful watch, while beyond the partition the +professional sing-song of a telephone operator made itself heard: +"Lis'n, sweetheart. Mista Fountain's here with a party, says he's got +'nappointmunt with Mista Culp.... Wha' say?... Oh, a'right, dearie. Say, +Sam: tell that party Mista Culp's into a conf'rince, but they kin go up +to the stage if they wanta an' stick around till he's dis'ngaged." + +With every symptom of disgust the faithful watchdog pressed a button on +the window ledge, a latch clicked, the wire door swung back, the party +filed through and in twilight stumbled up two flights of creaking steps +to a tiny landing upon which a number of doors stood all closed, and +each sternly stencilled: PRIVATE. + +After a moment of doubt during which even Lontaine began to show signs +of failing patience, one of the doors opened hastily and ejected a +well-groomed, nervously ingratiating young man, who introduced himself +as Mr. Lane, secretary to Mr. Culp, and said he had been delegated to do +the honours. A public-spirited soul, he shook each visitor warmly by the +hand, protested that he was genuinely pleased to meet them all, then +threw wide another of the PRIVATE doors. + +"This is the main stage, ladies. Miss Daley is working on one of the +sets now, making the final scenes for her latest picture, 'The Girl in +the Dark'; so if you'll be kind enough not to talk out loud while she's +before the camera.... Miss Daley is very, er, temperamental, +y'understand...." + +Reverently the barbarians obeyed a persuasive wave of Mr. Lane's hand +and tiptoed into the studio, to huddle in a considerately awe-stricken +group on one side of an immense loft with a high roof of glass. + +Stage, as the layman understands that term, there was none; but the +floor space as a whole was rather elaborately cluttered with what +Lucinda was to learn were technically known as "sets," in various stages +of completion and demolition; a set being anything set up to be +photographed, from a single "side" or "flat" with a simple window or +door, or an "angle" formed of two such sides joined to show the corner +of a room, up to the solid and pretentious piece of construction which +occupied fully one-half of the loft and reproduced the Palm Room at the +Ritz-Carlton, not without discrepancies to be noted by the captious, but +by no means without fair illusion. + +On a modest set near at hand, apparently a bedchamber in a home of +humble fortunes, a bored chambermaid in checked shirt and overalls, with +a cigarette stuck behind his ear, was making up the bed. + +In another quarter a number of workmen were noisily if languidly engaged +in knocking down a built wall of real brick and lugging away sections of +a sidewalk which had bordered it, light frames of wood painted to +resemble stone. + +At the far end of the room a substantial set represented a living-room +that matched up with the bedchamber nearer at hand, or seemed to, for a +good part of it was masked from Lucinda's view by a number of massive +but portable metal screens or stands arranged in two converging ranks, +at whose apex stood a heavy tripod supporting a small black box. To +these stands lines of insulated cable wandered over the floor from every +quarter of the room. Just back of the tripod several men were lounging, +gazing off at the set with an air of listless curiosity. The spaces +between the screens afforded glimpses of figures moving to and fro with, +at that distance, neither apparent purpose nor animation. + +Elsewhere about the studio, in knots, by twos and singly, some +twenty-five or thirty men and women, mostly in grease-paint and more or +less convincing afternoon dress, were lounging, gossiping, reading +newspapers, or simply and beautifully existing. + +An enervating atmosphere of apathy pervaded the place, as if nothing of +much moment to anybody present was either happening or expected to +happen. An effect to which considerable contribution was made by the +lugubrious strains of a three-piece orchestra, piano, violin, and +'cello, stationed to one side of the living-room set. + +At first sight this trio intrigued Lucinda's interest. To her its +presence in a motion-picture studio seemed unaccountable, but not more +so than patience with its rendition of plaintive and tremulous melodies +of a bygone period, tunes which one more familiar with the cant of the +theatre would unhesitatingly have classified as "sob stuff," and to +which nobody appeared to be paying any attention whatever. + +Mystified to the point of fascination, she studied the musicians +individually. + +The pianist, perched sideways on his stool and fingering the keyboard of +an antique upright without once looking at the music on its rack, as +often as not played with one hand only, using the other to manipulate a +cigarette which he was smoking in open defiance of the many posted +notices that forbade this practice. + +The violinist, stretched out with ankles crossed, occupied a common +kitchen chair which his body touched at two places only, with the end of +his spine and the nape of his neck. His eyes were half-shut, his bowing +suggested the performance of a somnambulist. + +The 'cellist, too, seemed to be saved from falling forward from his +chair solely by the instrument which his knees embraced. His head +drowsily nodding to the time, the fingers of his left hand automatically +stopped the strings at which his right arm sawed methodically. An honest +soul, a journeyman who for a set wage had contracted to saw so many +chords of music before the whistle blew and was honestly bent on doing +his stint.... + +Mr. Lane, having excused himself for a moment, returned from consulting +some member of the group round the tripod. + +"'Sall right," he announced with a happy smile. "They won't begin +shooting a while yet. You can come closer if you want, I'll show you +where to stay so's you won't be in the way." + +Guided by him, the exotics gingerly picked their way across the banks, +coils, loops and strands of electric cable that ran in snaky confusion +all over the floor, like exposed viscera of the cinema; and Lucinda +presently found herself on the side lines of the living-room, between it +and the dogged orchestra, and well out of range of the camera. + +She could now see three people on the set, two men with a girl whom, +thanks to the wide circulation of the lady's photographs, she had no +difficulty in identifying as Alma Daley herself--a prepossessing young +person with bobbed hair, a boldly featured face, comely in the flesh +rather than pretty, and a slight little body whose emaciation told a +tale of too-rigorous dieting and which she used not unpleasingly but +with a rather fetching effect of youthful gaucherie. Her make-up for the +camera was much lighter and more deftly applied than seemed to be the +rule. Gowned effectively if elaborately in a street dress hall-marked by +the rue de la Paix, she was leaning against a table and lending close if +fatigued attention to the quiet conversation of the two men. + +Of these one was tall and dark, with a thick mane of wavy black hair, a +wide and mobile mouth, and great, melancholy eyes. His well-tailored +morning-coat displayed to admiration a splendid torso. The other was a +smaller, indeed an undersized man, who wore a braided smoking-jacket but +no paint on his pinched, weather-worn face of an actor. His manner was +intense and all his observations (and he was doing most of the talking) +were illustrated by gesticulation almost Latin in its freedom and +vividness. + +"King Laughlin," Mr. Culp's secretary informed Lucinda--"man in the +smoking-jacket, he always wears one when he's working--greatest +emotional director in the business, nobody can touch him. Why, alongside +him, Griffith's a joke in a back number of Judge. You wouldn't guess +what he gets: thirty-five hundred." + +"That's almost a thousand a week, isn't it?" + +"Thousand a _week_!" Mr. Lane suspiciously inspected Lucinda's profile. +Could it be possible that this well-born lady was trying to kid him? But +no; he could see she was quite guileless. In accents of some compassion +he corrected: "Three-thousand five-hundred every week's what King +Laughlin drags down in the little old pay en_vel_ope. But that's Mr. +Culp all over; expense's no object when he's making an Alma Daley +picture, nothing's too good." + +"I'm sure...." Lucinda agreed vaguely. + +Out of the corner of an eye the director had become aware of a new +audience and one worthy of his mettle, and he was already preparing to +play up to it. Dropping the easy, semi-confidential manner in which he +had been advising the younger and taller man, with surprising animation +Mr. King Laughlin snatched a silk hat and stick from the other's +unresisting hands. + +"Right-O, Tommy!" he said in the nasal tone of the English Midlands. "I +think you've got me now, but just to make sure I'll walk through it with +Alma." He turned graciously to the woman: "Now, Alma dear...." + +Miss Daley, herself not unconscious of a fashionable gallery, shrugged +slightly to signify that she didn't mind if Mr. Laughlin thought it +really worth while, it was all in the day's drudgery, and made a +leisurely exit from the set by way of a door in its right-hand wall. At +the same time Mr. Laughlin walked off by a door approximately opposite, +and the young man in the morning-coat strolled down to the front of the +set and settled himself to observe and absorb the impending lesson. + +Mr. Laughlin then re-entered in character as a dégagé gentleman with an +uneasy conscience, indicating this last by stealthily opening and +peering round the edge of the door before coming in and closing it with +caution, and gentility by holding hat and stick in one hand and +carelessly trailing the ferrule of the stick behind him. Relieved to +find the room untenanted, he moved up to the table, placed the hat on it +crown-down, propped the stick against it, turned and gave the door in +the right-hand wall a hard look, then bent over the table and pulled out +and began to ransack one of its drawers. Thus engaged, he said clearly: +"_All right, Alma!_" and immediately gave a start, whereby it appeared +that he had heard footfalls off, and slammed the drawer. At this Miss +Daley entered, a listless little figure so preoccupied with secret woe +that she quite failed at first to see Mr. Laughlin, and when she did +gave a start even more violent than his had been, clasping both hands to +her bosom and crying out in a thrilling voice: "_Egbert!_" + +Mr. Laughlin kept his temper admirably under the sting of this epithet; +all the same, anyone could see he didn't fancy it a bit. However, first +and always the gentleman, he offered Miss Daley a magnanimous gesture of +outstretched hands. Instantly the poor girl's face brightened with a +joyous smile, a happy cry trembled upon her lips as she ran to his arms. +He enfolded her, with a fond hand ground her features into the shoulder +of his smoking-jacket, and turned his own toward the camera, working +them into a cast of bitter anguish. + +Gently rescuing herself, Miss Daley discovered _Egbert's_ hat and stick, +turned to him and looked him up and down with dawning horror, audibly +protesting: "_But Egbert! you are going out!_" He attempted a +disclaimer, but it wouldn't wash, the evidence of the top hat and the +smoking-jacket was too damning; and in the end he had to give in and +admit that, well, yes, he was going out, and what of it. + +Evidently Miss Daley knew any number of reasons why he ought to stay in, +but she made the grave mistake of trying to hold him with affection's +bonds, throwing herself upon his neck and winding her arms tightly round +it. And that was too much: _Egbert_ made it clear that, while he'd stand +a lot from a woman to whom he was Everything, there was such a thing as +piling it on too thick. And against her frenzied resistance he grasped +her frail young wrists, brutally broke her embrace, and flung her from +him. She fell against the table, threw back her head to show the pretty +line of her throat, clutched convulsively at her collar-bone, and +subsided upon the floor in a fit of heart-broken sobbing; while _Egbert_ +callously took his hat, clapped it on his head, and marched out by a +door in the rear wall, his dignity but slightly impaired by the fact +that the hat was several sizes too large and would have extinguished him +completely if it hadn't been for his noble ears. + +Without pause Mr. Laughlin doubled round to the front of the set, threw +the waiting actor a brusque "See, Tommy? Get what I mean?" and +encouraged Miss Daley with "That's wonderful, Alma dear. Now go on, +right through the scene." + +Miss Daley, lying in complete collapse, with her head to the camera, +writhed up on an elbow, planted her hands upon the floor and by main +strength pushed her heaving shoulders away from it, keeping a tortured +face turned to the camera throughout. Then she got her second wind, +caught hold of the edge of the table, pulled herself up, looked around +wildly, realized that she was a deserted woman, saw her hat by Tappé +hanging on the back of a morris-chair by Ludwig Baumann, seized it, +rushed to the door by which _Egbert_ had escaped, and threw herself out +in pursuit. + +Mr. Laughlin clapped gleeful hands. + +"Fine, Alma, wonderful! You're simply marvelous today, dear. Now Tommy, +run through it just once with Alma, and then we'll shoot." + +Mr. Lane bustled about and found chairs for Lucinda and her friends, +upon which they composed themselves to watch Tommy interpret Mr. King +Laughlin's tuition in the art of acting for the screen. + +To the best of Lucinda's judgment, however, the greater part of Mr. +Laughlin's efforts had meant to Tommy precisely nothing at all. Beyond +the rudimentary mechanics of the physical action sketched in by the +director, Tommy made no perceptible attempt to follow pattern, and +disregarding entirely its conventional but effective business, +embellished the scene instead with business which was, such as it was, +all his own, or more accurately that of a dead era of the speaking +stage. + +Like a wraith of histrionism recalled from the theatre of _East Lynne_ +and _The Silver King_, Tommy carved out his effects with flowing, florid +gestures, and revived the melodramatic stride and heroic attitudinizing; +and though he wilfully made faces at the camera throughout, he +demonstrated the deep veneration in which he really held it by never +once showing it his back, until, having duly spurned the clinging +caresses of Miss Daley, he was obliged to march to the door, and even +then he made occasion to pause with a hand on the knob and, throwing out +his chest and fretfully tossing rebellious black locks from tragic +brows, granted the camera the boon of one last, long look at him ere +making his exit. + +And when Mr. Laughlin tranquilly approved this performance and announced +that they would forthwith "shoot it," Lucinda began to wonder if there +were possibly something wrong with her own powers of observation. + +"But," she protested to Mr. Lane, who had coolly elected himself her +special squire and placed his chair close to hers--"that man they call +Tommy--he didn't play the scene as Mr. Laughlin did." + +"Oh, Tommy Shannon!" said Mr. Lane equably--"Tommy's all right, he knows +what he's doing--best leading man in the movin' picture business, bar +none. King Laughlin knows he can trust Tommy to put it over his own +way. All you got to do is to let Tommy Shannon alone and he'll ring the +gong every shot." + +"But if that's the case, why did Mr. Laughlin take so much trouble to +show him----?" + +"Well, you see, it's this way," Mr. Lane explained: "King's all right, +and Tommy's all right, too, both stars in their line; but if Tommy don't +see a scene the way King shows him, and King starts to bawl him out, +why, Tommy'll just walk off the lot. And then where are you? You can't +finish your picture without your leading man, can you? And there's maybe +a hundred-and-fifty or two-hundred thousand dollars invested in this +production already. One of the first things a director's got to learn in +this game is how to handle actors. That's where King Laughlin's so +wonderful, he never had an actor quit on him yet." + +"I see," said Lucinda thoughtfully. "The way to handle an actor is to +let him have his own way." + +"You got the idea," Mr. Lane approved without a smile. + +"But suppose," she persisted--"suppose the leading man insists on doing +something that doesn't suit the part he's supposed to play, I mean +something so utterly out of character that it spoils the story?" + +"Sure, that happens sometimes, too." + +"What do you do then?" + +"That's easy. What's your continuity writer for?" + +"I don't know, Mr. Lane. You see, I don't even know what a continuity +writer is." + +"Why, he's the bird dopes out the continuity the director works +from--you know, the scenes in a picture, the way they come out on the +screen: Scene One, Scene Two, and all like that." + +"You mean the playwright?" + +"Well, yes; only in pictures he's called a continuity writer." + +"But that doesn't tell me what you do when an actor insists on doing +something that spoils the story." + +"That's just what I'm trying to tell you, Mrs. Druce. You get your +continuity writer, of course, and have him make the change." + +"You mean you change the story to please the actor?" + +"Sure: it's the only thing to do when you got maybe a hundred-and-fifty +or two-hundred thousand dollars hung up in a picture." + +"But doesn't that frequently spoil the story?" + +"Oh, what's a story?" Mr. Lane argued reasonably. "People don't go to +see a story when they take in an Alma Daley picture. They go because +they know they get their money's worth when they see a Ben Culp +production that's taken from some big Broadway success and costs a +hundred-and-fifty or maybe two-hundred thousand dollars. But princip'ly, +of course, they go to see Alma Daley, because she's the most pop'lar +actress on the screen, and makes more money than Mary Pickford, and +wears the swellest clothes that cost sometimes as much as twenty +thousand dollars for each picture; and besides she's the grandest little +woman that ever looked into a lens, and there's never been no scandal +about her private life, and an Alma Daley picture's sure to be clean. +Why, Mr. Culp wouldn't let Miss Daley act in any picture where she had +to be wronged or anything like that. When he buys a play for her and the +heroine's got a past in it or anything, he just has the story changed +so's there's never any stain upon her honour or anything anybody could +get hold of. That's one thing Mr. Culp's very partic'lar about; he says +no wife of his shall ever go before the public in a shady part." + +"Has he many?" + +Mr. Lane looked hurt, but was mollified by the mischief in Lucinda's +smile. + +"Well, you know what I mean. But we better stop talking, if it's all +the same to you, Mrs. Druce, or Miss Daley'll get upset. They're going +to shoot now." + +The warning was coincident with the sudden deluging of the set with +waves of artificial light of a weird violet tint, falling from great +metal troughs overhead and beating in horizontally from the metal stands +or screens, which were now seen to be banks of incandescent tubes +burning with a blinding glare. + +Nor was this all: shafts and floods of light of normal hue were likewise +trained upon the scene from a dozen different points, until the blended +rays lent almost lifelike colouring to the faces of the actors, whose +make-up had theretofore seemed ghastly and unnatural to uninitiate eyes. + +Stationed just beyond the edge of the area of most intense illumination, +the audience sat in a sort of violet penumbra whose effect was hideously +unflattering. In it every face assumed a deathly glow, resembling the +phosphorescence of corruption, the red of cheeks and lips became purple, +and every hint of facial defect stood out, a purple smudge. So that +Lucinda, reviewing the libelled countenances of her companions, breathed +silent thanks to whatever gods there were for their gift of a complexion +transparent and immaculate. + +"Camera!" + +The command came from King Laughlin. Lucinda could just hear a muffled +clicking, and seeking its source discovered a youngish man, with a keen +face and intelligent eyes, standing behind the tripod and turning in +measured tempo a crank attached to the black box. + +Coached by Mr. Laughlin, who danced nervously upon the side lines, the +scene was enacted. + +"Now, Tommy, come on--slowly--hold the door--look around, make sure the +room is empty--hold it--now shut the door--up to the table--don't forget +where to put your hat--'sright, splendid! Now you look at the other +door--listen--show me that you don't hear anything--good! Open the +drawer--easy now, remember you're trying not to make a noise--look for +the papers--show me you can't find them. _My God! where can they be!_ +That's it. Now you hear a noise off--(_Ready, Alma!_)--shut the +drawer--start to pick up your hat--too late--! Come on, Alma--_come on_! +You don't see him, you look out of the window and sigh--let's see you +sigh, Alma--beautiful! beautiful! Now, Tommy, you move--she sees +you--see him, Alma. Slowly--hold it--wonderful! Now call to him, +Alma--_Egbert! Egbert!!_" + +The little man's voice cracked with the heart-rending pathos he infused +into that cry; but he did not pause, he continued to dance and bark +directions at star and leading-man till the door closed behind Miss +Daley's frantic exit; when all at once he went out of action and, +drawing a silk bandanna from his cuff to mop the sweat of genius on his +brows, turned mild, enquiring eyes to the cameraman. + +"Got it," that one uttered laconically. + +"Think we want to take it over, Eddie?" The cameraman shook his head. +"Good! Now we'll shoot the close-up. No, Tommy, not you--the only +close-up I want for this scene is Alma where she gets up. We must get +those tears in, she cries so pretty." + +There was some delay. The camera had to be brought forward and trained +at short range on the spot where Miss Daley had fallen; several stands +of banked lights likewise needed to be advanced and adjusted. And then +Miss Daley had to be given time to go to her dressing-room and repair +the ravages her complexion had suffered in _Egbert's_ embrace. But all +these matters were at length adjusted to the satisfaction of director; +the actress lay in a broken heap with her face buried on her arms, the +camera once more began to click, Mr. King Laughlin squatting by its +side, prepared to pull the young woman through the scene by sheer force +of his inspired art. + +But now the passion which before had kept him hopping and screaming had +passed into a subdued and plaintive phase; Mr. Laughlin was suffering +for and with the heroine whose woes were to be projected before the eyes +and into the hearts of half the world. He did not actually cry, but his +features were knotted with the anguish that wrung his heart, and his +voice was thick with sobs. + +"Now, dear, you're coming to--you just lift your head and look up, +dazed. You don't realize what's happened yet, you hardly know where you +are. _Where am I, my God! where am I?_ That's it--beautiful. Now it +begins to come to you--you remember what's happened, you get it. He has +cast you off--_O my God! he has deserted you._ Fine--couldn't be +better--you're great, dear, simply great. Now go on--begin to cry, let +the big tears well up from your broken heart and trickle down your +cheeks. Fine! Cry harder, dear--you must cry harder, this scene will go +all flooey if you can't cry any harder than that. Think what he was to +you--and now he has left you--_who knows?--perhaps for-ev-er!_ Your +heart is breaking, dear, it's breaking, and nobody cares. Can't you cry +harder? Listen to the music and.... Good God! how d'you expect _any_body +to cry to music like that?" + +The last was a shriek of utter exasperation; and bounding to his feet +the little man darted furiously at the musicians, stopping in front of +the trio and beginning to beat time with an imaginary baton. + +"Follow me, please--get this, the way _I_ feel it. So--slowly--draw it +out--hold it--get a little heart-break into it!" + +And strangely enough he did manage to infuse a little of his fine +fervour into the three. They abandoned their lethargic postures, sat up, +and began to play with some approach to feeling; while posing before +them, swaying from the toes of one foot to the toes of the other, his +hands weaving rhythms of emotion in the air, the absurd creature threw +back his head, shut his eyes, and wreathed his thin lips with a beatific +smile. + +Throughout, on the floor, before the camera, under that cruel glare of +lights, Alma Daley strained her face toward the lens and cried as if her +heart must surely break, real tears streaming down her face--but cried +with fine judgment, never forgetting that woman must be lovely even in +woe. + +And while Lucinda watched, looking from one to the other, herself +threatened with that laughter which is akin to tears, a strange voice +saluted her. + +"Saw me coming," it observed, "and had to show off. He's a great little +actor, that boy, and no mistake--never misses a chance. Look't him now: +you'd never guess he wasn't thinking about anything but whether I'm +falling for this new stunt of his, would you?" + +Lucinda looked around. Mr. Lane had mysteriously effaced himself. In his +place sat a stout man of middle-age with a sanguine countenance of +Semitic type, shrewd and hard but good-humoured. + +"How d'you do?" he said genially. "Mrs. Druce, ain't it? Culp's my name, +Ben Culp." + + + + +IX + + +Of a sudden Miss Daley missed her mentor's voice, his counsel and +encouragement, and in the middle of a sob ceased to cry precisely as she +might have shut off a tap. + +In a moment of uncertainty, still confronting the clicking camera, still +bathed in that withering blaze, she cast about blankly for her runagate +director. Then discovering that he had, just like a man! deserted her in +her time of trouble to follow a band, outraged womanhood asserted +itself, in a twinkling she cast her passion like a worn-out garment and +became no more the broken plaything of man's fickle fancy but once again +the spoiled sweetheart of the screen. + +As Lucinda saw it, there was something almost uncanny in the swiftness +and the radical thoroughness of that transfiguration, the fiery creature +who sprang to her feet with flashing eyes and scornful mouth was hardly +to be identified with the wretched little thing whom she had seen, only +a few seconds since, grovelling and weeping on the floor. + +The cameraman stopped cranking and, resting an elbow on his camera, +turned with a satiric grin to observe developments. And following a +sharp, brief stir of apprehension in the ranks of the professional +element, there fell a dead pause of dismay, a complete suspension of all +activities other than those of the musicians and their volunteer leader, +and of the calloused carpenters, who, as became good union laborers, +continued to go noisily to and fro upon their lawful occasions, scornful +of the impending storm. + +As one who finds the resources of her mother tongue inadequate, Miss +Daley in silence fixed with a portentous stare the back of King +Laughlin, who, all ignorant of the doom hovering over his devoted head, +kept on swaying airily to and fro, smiling his ecstatic smile and +measuring the music with fluent hands. + +One of the Daley feet began to tap out the devil's tattoo, she set her +arms akimbo, her eyes were quick with baleful lightnings, her pretty +lips an ominous line; an ensemble that only too clearly foretold: _At +any minute, now!_ + +With a smothered grunt Mr. Culp heaved out of his chair and lumbered +over to his wife, interposing his not negligible bulk between her and +the unconscious object of her indignation--and in the very nick of time, +or Lucinda was mistaken. + +What he said couldn't be heard at that distance, the sour whining of the +violin, the lamentations of the 'cello, and the tinkle-tinkle of the +tinny piano conspired to preserve inviolate those communications between +man and wife which the law holds to be privileged. But Lucinda noticed a +backward jerk of the Culp head toward the group of which she made one, +and caught a glance askance of the Daley eyes, oddly intent and cool in +contrast with the guise of unbridled fury which her features wore. And +whatever it was that Mr. Culp found to say, indisputably it proved +effectual; for nothing worse came of Miss Daley's wrath, at least +publicly, than a shrewish retort inaudible to bystanders, a toss of her +head, and a sudden, stormy flight from the scene. + +Mr. Culp followed with thoughtful gaze her retreat toward her +dressing-room, then looked a question to the cameraman. + +"'Sallright," said that one, imperturbable. "Got enough of it." + +Mr. Culp nodded in relief, and signed to the electricians. As he made +his way back to Lucinda's side the lights sputtered out. And as soon as +this happened Mr. King Laughlin, cruelly wrenched out of his dream-land +of melody, came down to an earth dangerous with the harsh dissonances of +reality. + +"What the--where the--what--!" he stammered, looking in vain for the +little woman whom he had so heartlessly abandoned in her woe on the +living-room set. Then, catching sight of her half-way across the studio, +he bleated "_Alma!_" once in remonstrance, and again in consternation, +and set out in panic pursuit. + +Before he could overtake her, Miss Daley disappeared round one side of +the Palm Room, at which point, beating the air with suppliant hands, Mr. +Laughlin disappeared in turn. + +"That's the sort of thing you're up against all a time in the fillum +business, d'y'see," sighed Mr. Culp with a rueful grin. "A lot of kids, +that's what we got to make pitchers with. And audiences all a time +kickin' because we don't make 'em better.... A lot of kids!" + +He did not, however, appear greatly disheartened, but recounted his +tribulations rather as a matter of course, appealing informally to the +sympathies of his guests. + +"King Laughlin all over, nice a little feller's anybody'd want to work +with, but temp'amental, d'y'see, got to show off like a kid every time +he gets a chance. And what's the answer? Mrs. Culp gets sore, says she +won't do another stroke of work s'long's King's directin'. And here we +was tryin' to finish shootin' today, behind on our release date and all, +and thirty extra people, d'y'see, gettin' five and seven and maybe ten +dollars, been waitin' all day to work on the big set and got to be paid +whether they work or not...." + +Mr. Culp broke off suddenly, singled out from the attendant cloud of +retainers a young man wearing an eyeshade and a badgered expression, and +instructed him to send the extra people packing, but to tell them to +report for work at eight o'clock the next day. + +"'Sno use keepin' 'em any longer, 'safternoon," he explained +confidentially. "When that little woman says a thing she means it, +d'y'see, so chances are it'll be mornin' before she changes her mind. +And if you ladies'll excuse me, I guess I ought to be sittin' in with +her and King now. The only things they think I'm any good for, in this +studio, is pay salaries and referee battles." + +He was affably disposed to waive ceremony under the circumstances, but +gave in with good grace when Lontaine insisted on formally presenting +him to each of his guests; and thus reminded of the first purpose of +their visit, which he seemed to have forgotten altogether, Mr. Culp +delayed long enough to recall the worried young man with the eyeshade, +whom he made known as Mr. Willing, the assistant director, and charged +with supervision of the proposed tests. + +And Mr. Willing was to understand that these were to be regular tests +and no monkey business; he was to see that someone with plenty of +know-how helped the ladies make up; after which he was to shoot the +party as a whole in some little scene or other, in addition to making +individual close-ups. + +If Mr. Willing accepted this commission with more resignation than +enthusiasm, he proved to be a modest person with pleasing manners and no +perceptible symptoms of temperament. And he was as good as his name. It +was his suggestion that a corner of the Palm Room be utilized, as most +suitable for the group scene. And while the cameraman was amiably +setting up his instrument to command this new location and +superintending the moving of the lights, it was Mr. Willing who +conducted Lucinda, Nelly, Jean and Fanny to a barn-like dressing-room +and hunted up a matronly actress, a recruit from the legitimate theatre, +to advise and assist them with their respective make-ups. + +Lucinda killed time while waiting for her turn by trying her own hand +with grease-paint, powder, and mascaro, with the upshot that, when she +presented her face for inspection and revision, the actress refused to +change the effect by the addition or subtraction of a single touch, and +laughingly declined to believe it had been achieved without experience. + +"It's no use, Mrs. Druce, don't tell me you haven't been in the +business!" + +"On the stage, you mean? But only in the most amateurish way, schoolgirl +theatricals." + +"No," the woman insisted--"they don't make up like that for a test +unless they're camera-wise." + +To this she stuck stubbornly; and Lucinda found herself curiously +pleased, though she had done no more to deserve commendation than +supplement native good taste and an eye for colour with close +observation of the Daley make-up and how it had fared under the lights. + +Another compliment signalized their return to the studio; nothing less +than the presence of Miss Daley--"in person"--composed, agreeable, +hospitable, showing every anxiety to make their tests successful and +never a sign of the storm that had presumably broken behind the scenes. + +But Lucinda reckoned it significant that Mr. King Laughlin was nowhere +visible. + +"I thought it would be nice if we could all have tea in my +dressing-room," Miss Daley explained; "and then Daddy suggested we could +have it served here, on the set--make a regular little scene of it, you +know, for the camera." + +"I'm sure that would be delightful," replied Lucinda, suspended judgment +melting into liking even in those first few minutes. + +"Oh, Daddy thinks of all the nice things!" + +"And I'll see each you ladies gets a print," Culp volunteered benignly, +"so's you can get it run through a projectin' machine any time you want, +d'y'see, and show your friends how you once acted with Alma Daley." + +"Daddy! don't be ridiculous." + +Vivacious, by no means unintelligent, and either an excellent actress in +private life or else an unpretending body, happy in her success and +unashamed of humble beginnings, Miss Daley was tactful enough to make +her guests forget themselves and the trial to come, as they took their +places--with no prearrangement but much as if they were actually meeting +at the Ritz--and were served with tea by actor-waiters in correct +livery. All the same, Lucinda noticed that their hostess ingeniously +maneuvered to a central position in the foreground, where she sat +full-face to the camera; this being by far her best phase. And just +before the lights blazed up, the girl launched into a spirited account +of her passage-at-arms with King Laughlin, which, recited without malice +but with keen flair for the incongruous, carried the amateur players +easily over the first minutes, in which otherwise constraint must +inevitably have attended camera-consciousness. + +"I was so fussed," she concluded, "I swore I'd never act another scene +for him. But when I remembered how foolish he looked, posing in front of +that awful orchestra like a hypnotized rabbit, I just had to laugh; and +I couldn't laugh and be mad at the same time, of course. And then I had +to tell King what I was laughing at, and that made him so ashamed he's +sulking in his office now and won't come out while any of you are here." + +"Then all's serene-o once more, Miss Daley?" + +"Oh, sure. You see, Mr. Lontaine, we've simply got to finish this +picture tonight, somehow, even if we have to work on till morning; so I +accepted his apology and made it up." + +"But those extra people Mr. Culp let go----?" + +"That's all right," Culp responded from his place beside the camera. +"When I see how things was goin', I sent down to the cashier and told +him not to pay 'em off, so they didn't any of 'em get away." + +At this point, clever actress that she was, Miss Daley extemporized a +star part for herself by rising without warning and announcing that she +would have to run and change for the scenes to be photographed as soon +as the tests had been made. + +"I'll hurry and try to get ready before you go," she said, shaking hands +all round with charming grace; "but if I don't see you again, it's been +just wonderful to meet you all, and I do hope this isn't good-bye +forever!" + +The general flutter in acknowledgment of her farewells had barely +subsided when the bank lights hissed out and the camera stilled its +stuttering. + +"Nice little scene," Mr. Culp applauded generously, intercepting Lucinda +as, with the others, she left the set, clearing it for the individual +tests. "Goin' to screen pretty. You'll be surprised." + +"Can you really tell, Mr. Culp?" + +"How it's goin' to look in the projectin'-room, y'mean? Sure. Not that +I'd gamble on my own judgment, I don't pretend to know how to make +pitchers; all I know's how to make money makin' 'em, d'y'see. When I say +that little scene's goin' to go great on the screen, I'm bankin' on Jack +here." + +He dropped an affectionate, fat hand on the shoulder of the cameraman. +"Excuse me, Mrs. Druce, want to introduce you to Mr. Jack Timilty, best +little cameraman ever turned a crank." The cameraman grinned sheepishly +and preferred a diffident hand. "No temp'ament, no funny business about +Jack, Mrs. Druce, always on the job and deliverin' the goods. And +sticks, d'y'see. Take it the way it is nowadays, you don't hardly get +time to get to know a director before he stings somebody else for a +coupla hundred dollars more'n you're paying him, d'y'see, and quits you +cold as soon's he finishes his pitcher. But Jack sticks. That's why +y'always can count on good photography and lightin' effects in an Alma +Daley production. And when Jack says that little scene took pretty, I +_know_ it did." + +"'Sright, Mrs. Druce," Mr. Timilty averred. "I wouldn't like to say +about the others, but you and that other little blonde lady----" + +"Mrs. Lontaine." + +"Guess so, ma'm, didn't catch her name. Her and you registered like a +million dollars." + +"It's awfully nice of you to tell me so, Mr. Timilty----" + +"Jack wouldn't pass you a compliment unless he meant it, Mrs. Druce. +He's no kidder." + +"Anyway I guess it ain't the first time anybody's told you that, ma'm. +It's easy to see you've been camera-broke." + +"But I haven't," Lucinda protested, laughing. "Really, I assure you----" + +At this juncture Mr. Willing called for Mr. Timilty's co-operation in +taking the test of Jean Sedley. So Lucinda stood aside and watched and +wondered if it were really true that she had shown any evidences of +ability out of the ordinary. + +Not that it mattered. + +Nevertheless the little fillip administered to her self-esteem made her +feel more contented; into the bargain, it deepened her interest in the +business in hand. + +Mr. Willing seemed to be taking a deal of pains to make fair and +thorough tests. For each of the four women he improvised brief but +effective solo scenes to bring out their best points, if nothing that +made severe demands upon the ability of the subject or the invention of +the director. + +Lucinda, for example, was discovered to the camera arranging flowers in +a vase. A servant entered, delivered a letter, retired. Lucinda +recognized the handwriting, and (the word was new to her in this +application) "registered" delight, then--as, smiling, she opened and +read the letter--bewilderment, misgivings, and a shock of cruel +revelation which strangled all joy of living in her, struck her down, +and left her crushed and cringing in a chair. + +Despite a natural feeling that she was making herself ridiculous, +Lucinda executed to the best of her ability the gestures prescribed and +tried to impart to them some colour of sincerity. As a matter of fact, +she was singularly (and stupidly, she assured herself) anxious to +deserve the further commendation of Mr. Culp's cameraman. + +But it was at best a trying task and, when it came to posing for the +close-up with a wall of blinding incandescence only a few feet from her +eyes, a true ordeal. She was glad when it was over, and quite satisfied +that she wouldn't care to repeat the experience, in spite of Mr. +Timilty's encouraging "Pretty work, Mrs. Druce!"--whose source she could +only surmise, since in her bedazzled vision everything remained a blur +for some time after she had been delivered from the torture of the +lights. + +When at length that cloud of blindness cleared, Mr. Culp was nowhere to +be seen. Nor did he show up again until the last test had been made and +the party, once more shepherded by Mr. Lane, was on the point of +leaving. Then Culp put in a hasty reappearance, coming from the +direction of the dressing-rooms, nominated an hour for projecting the +tests at the studio the next afternoon, bade a hearty good-bye to each +of his guests, and insisted on escorting Lucinda to the door. + +On the way, however, he managed to detain her and let the others draw +ahead and out of hearing. + +"Lis'n, Mrs. Druce," he abruptly volunteered: "Jack says your test's +going to turn out great. That's just what he said--'like a million +dollars.' And I been thinkin' ... I was speakin' it over with Mrs. Culp +in her dressing-room, d'y'see, and she's strong for it, says she'd be +tickled to pieces. She's a wonderful little woman, Mrs. Culp is, she +ain't never yet made any mistake about nobody, d'y'see, and she's took +the biggest kind a fancy to you, and says tell you she's sure you'll +never regret it----" + +"Please, please, Mr. Culp! You are too good, and it makes me most happy +to know Mrs. Culp thinks well of me. But what," Lucinda laughed--"what +_are_ you talking about?" + +"Why," said Culp in some surprise--"I was thinkin' maybe you'd like to +try goin' into pitchers. You got everythin', d'y'see, looks and style +and all, everythin' but experience; and that's somethin' you can get +right here in this studio, workin' with Mrs. Culp. I got a good part for +you in her next pitcher you could try out in, and----" + +"It's awfully kind of you," Lucinda interrupted, "and I'm truly +appreciative, Mr. Culp; but really I couldn't think of it." + +"That right?" Culp seemed to be genuinely dashed. "'Sfunny," he observed +dejectedly. "I s'pose you know best what you want to do, but it'd be +great little experience for you, take it from me, Mrs. Druce." + +"I'm sure it would." + +"And I got a hunch you'd make good all the way. You've got things nobody +else on the screen's got but my little woman, d'y'see, and it wouldn't +be no time at all, maybe, before you'd be a star with your own company. +I'll take care of that, you wouldn't have to worry about the money end +of it at all, d'y'see----" + +"But what if I don't _want_ to be a motion-picture actress, Mr. Culp?" + +"Well, of course, if you don't, that's different." He pondered gloomily +this incomprehensible freak. "Lis'n," he suggested, brightening: "Tell +you what, Mrs. Druce: you go home and think it over. You got all night +and most of tomorrow--you won't be comin' here to look at the tests till +five o'clock, d'y'see--and if you should want to change your mind, I +stand back of all I said. All you got to do is say yes, and walk right +into a nice part, fit you like a glove, in the next Alma Daley +pitcher----" + +"Seriously, Mr. Culp; if I should think it over for a month, my decision +would be the same. But thank you ever so much--and please thank Mrs. +Culp for me, too." + +"Well," Culp said reluctantly, holding the street door, "if that's the +way you feel about it ... well, of course.... G'dnight, Mrs. Druce, and +pleas't'meet you." + +The street was dark with a gentle darkness kind to eyes that still ached +and smarted. And the frosty air was grateful to one coming from the +close atmosphere of the studio, heavy with its composite smell of +steam-heated paint and dust and flesh. + +And crossing to her car, Lucinda experienced a vagary of vivid +reminiscence. Just for an instant the clock was turned back for her a +dozen years and more, she was again a little girl, a child bringing +dazed eyes of dream from the warm and scented romance of a matineé, her +thrilled perceptions groping mutinously toward reconciliation with the +mysterious verities of streets mantled in blue twilight. + +That passed too quickly, too soon she was Lucinda Druce once more, grown +up and married, disillusioned.... + +And with a shiver of pain Lucinda realized anew what the afternoon with +its unsought boons of novelty and diversion had made her for hours on +end forget, the secret dolour of her heart. + + + + +X + + +Notwithstanding that she drove directly home, or paused only to drop +Daubeney at his club and the Lontaines at their hotel, it was after +seven when Lucinda regained her rooms and was free at last to be once +more her simple self, disembarrassed of the pride and circumstance that +stayed the public personality of Mrs. Bellamy Druce. + +Out of that social character she stepped as naturally as out of her +gown, and with much the same sense of relief, in the easing of that +tension to which she had been keyed all afternoon. Even at the studio, +when interest in that quaint, ephemeral environment of other lives had +rendered her forgetful of both self and the passage of time, +subconsciously the strain of keeping up appearances had been still +constant and made unremitting demands upon her stores of fortitude and +nervous energy. + +But she counted that cost not exorbitant, seeing the immunity it had +purchased. + +Dobbin alone had not been taken in.... + +She began to be a bit afraid of Dobbin. A danger signal she had the wit +to apprehend in its right value. The woman who pretends to be afraid is +setting a snare, but she who is truly afraid is herself already in the +toils. + +Dobbin saw too much, too deeply and clearly, and let her know it in a +way that not only disarmed resentment but made her strangely willing to +let him see more. She to whom reserve was as an article of faith! But if +the woman in love with her husband knew she had no right to foster an +intimacy, however innocent, with any other man, the woman harassed and +half-distracted was too hungry for sympathetic understanding not to be +tempted when it offered, grateful for it and disinclined to pass it by. + +This common life is unending quest for spiritual companionship--and love +is the delusion that one has found it. + +At twenty-six Lucinda was learning what life often takes twice that tale +to teach, that though flesh must cleave unto flesh, the soul is lost +unless it walk alone, creature and creator in one of its own bleak +isolation. + +In a moment of clear vision she promised herself to go warily with +Dobbin.... + +And in the next, the telephone rang in the boudoir. Lucinda was in her +bath, so her maid answered for her, and presently came to report: Mr. +Druce had called up to say he wouldn't be dining at home that night, he +was detained by a "conference." + +Without looking, Lucinda knew that the woman's eyes were demure, her +lips twitching. + +Her just anger of that afternoon recurred with strength redoubled. + +Not that she had been looking forward with any eagerness to the evening, +the "quiet" dinner during which Bel would defiantly continue his +tippling, the subsequent hours at the opera poisoned by forebodings, the +homeward drive in antagonized silence, finally the trite old scene +behind closed doors, of the piqued wife and the peccant husband, with +its threadbare business of lies, aggrieved innocence, attempts at +self-extenuation, ultimate collapse and confession, tears of penitence +and empty promises ... and her own spirit failing and in the end +yielding to Bel's importunity, out of sheer weariness and want of hope. + +It had been sad enough to have all that to anticipate. To be left in +this fashion, at loose ends, not knowing what to expect, except the +worst, was too much. + +On leaving her bath Lucinda delayed only long enough to shrug into a +dressing-gown before going to the telephone. + +The voice that responded to her call said it thought Mr. Daubeney had +just left the club, but if madame would hold the wire it would make +sure. + +She knew a moment of pure exasperation with the evident conspiracy of +every circumstance in her despite. + +Then the apparatus at her ear pronounced in crisp impatience: "Yes? This +is Mr. Daubeney. Who wants him, please?" + +"Oh, Dobbin! I'm so glad." + +"You, Cinda!" The instantaneous change of tone would have been laughable +if it hadn't been worse, the cause of a little flutter of forbidden +delight. "Why, bless your soul! I'm glad I came back. They barely caught +me at the door." + +"Were you in a hurry to get on somewhere, Dobbin? I mean, am I detaining +you?" + +"Not a bit. Foolishly staggering out to try to find some place where the +cooking was less perfunctory than here at the club." + +"Sure you've got nothing important on?" + +"If you must know, I was wondering what to do with a lonely evening." + +"Then that makes two of us. Why can't we join forces and be miserable +together?" + +"With you? I'll do my best, but I don't promise.... What's up?" + +"Oh, everything, more or less. I'm in a villainous temper, Dobbin, and +you'll be a dear if you'll come and dine with me--Bel's telephoned he +won't be home--talk me into a decent humour and take me to the opera. +And then--I don't care what we do!" + +"Well, if you're half as reckless as you try to make out, you certainly +need somebody to keep you from kicking over the traces." + +"Then you will come?" + +"Stop pretending to be stupid. When?" + +"As soon as you like." + +Later, seated at her dressing-table, adding those deft touches whose +secret one woman in ten thousand knows, touches which lift an evening +toilette out of the ruck of commonplace prettiness and render it wholly +sorcerous, Lucinda caught in her mirror an odd look of dubious +speculation on the face of the maid who waited by her shoulder. + +Half an hour earlier such a look would have irritated, now its +impertinence had no more effect than to make Lucinda smile illegibly at +her image in the glass. What did it matter what questions might be +taking form in that shallow mind? If Bel could afford to ignore the +gossip of servants, that had its source in knowledge of his escapades no +doubt infinitely more detailed and precise than she might ever hope or +fear to gain--why, so could Bel's wife afford to go her own way and let +this scandal-mongering world go hang. + +Whether or not she could afford it, she meant henceforward to make her +own life--as Bel did, as everybody did--and an end to this drifting with +the winds of forlorn and fading hopes. She was too young, too proud, too +richly warmed by ardent wine of life, to accept without a murmur +affronts and slights such as were now her daily portion, without a +struggle reconcile herself to the estate of the outworn wife, tolerated +mainly as an ornamental prop to the dignity of the house of Druce. + +Bel should learn.... + +Poised lightly before the cheval-glass for the final inspection from +head to foot, she perceived that she had never made herself lovelier for +Bel; and Dobbin's spontaneous tribute as she entered the drawing-room +agreeably confirmed this judgment. + +"Heavens, Cinda! how do you do it?" + +"Like the way I look tonight?" + +"Like! It's unfair, it's premeditated cruelty, monstrous! You ought to +be ashamed of yourself to look like that to a man who's having a +tough-enough fight with himself as it is." + +"Fraud," Lucinda commented coolly. "You know you fancy yourself no end +in the rôle of the luckless lover, you'd be scared silly if I gave you +any reason to fear you'd ever have another part to play." + +"Try me and see." + +"No fear. I like you too well as you are. The part fits you to +perfection, you do play it beautifully. Please don't ever stop: I love +it." + +"Imp! You need a good shaking. Don't you know you're flirting with me?" + +"Do you mind?" + +"Oh, no. Not if it amuses you. Not if you'll play fair." + +"What do you call unfair?" + +"For one thing, the way you've turned yourself out tonight." + +"But only a moment ago you were leading me to believe I'd turned out at +least passing fair." Lucinda affected a sigh. "And I was so happy to +think I'd found favour!" + +"I presume the intellectual level would be lowered if I were to say with +What's-his-name, '_If she be not fair to me, what care I how fair she +be_'?" + +But Lucinda, in a pensive turn, shook her head and, eyeing him gravely, +murmured: "I wonder...." + +"What do you wonder, Cinda?" + +"What you told me last night.... Was it true?" + +"That I had never stopped being in love with you? God help me! that was +true enough, too true." + +"Then I wonder if it's fair to you, and to me, the way we're going. I +mean...." She faltered, with a sign of petulance. "Be patient with me, +Dobbin. It isn't easy to figure some things out, you know. I mean, if +you _are_ in love with me----" + +"Forget the 'if'." + +"And Bel is not.... Oh, no, he isn't! He's in love with the figure he +cuts as my lord and master and the dashing beau of every other pretty +woman--not with me. Well! since you are and he isn't, and I'm +discontented, and so fond of you, Dobbin: _is_ it fair to either of +us--because I'm bound to think of you, you know, and can't very well +think of you dispassionately...." She concluded with a little shrug and +a deprecating smile. "I don't know, Dobbin, I really don't know!" + +"It isn't fair," he said--"of course--unless--" + +She nodded seriously: "That's just it." + +"I can only say, Cinda, whatever you do or say or think is right. It's +all for you to decide." + +"And I'm afraid I can't--not yet, at least. And when I do, I ought to +warn you, the chances are I shan't decide the way you want me to." + +"I know. But don't worry about me. I can take punishment, I've proved +that, I think. So do what seems best to you. I'll faithfully follow your +lead. I only want to play the game." + +"And I.... But we both want to be sure it's worth the scandal, don't we, +Dobbin?" + +"You joke about what's life and death to me!" + +"I did it on purpose, old dear." Lucinda tapped his arm intimately with +her fan. "Yes, I did. I don't want you to think, afterwards--if it turns +out so you'd be tempted to think it--that I didn't, as you say, play +fair. So it's only fair to let you find out as soon as possible that I'm +an incurably frivolous person, Dobbin, vain, trifling, flippant, +and--I'm afraid--a flirt." + +"Not you!" + +"Truly. Haven't I been letting you believe I made myself pretty tonight +for your sake? It isn't true, at least not all true. It was for my own +sake, really, because we're going to the opera, and everybody I know +will see me there, and I want them to know what Bel neglects for +his--other women!" + +From the doorway an unctuous voice announced: "Dinner is served, +madam." + + + + +XI + + +In this newest phase of that day's protean gamut, in this temper of +reckless yet cool determination to avenge her pride and coerce life into +rendering up all that it had of late withheld, she put every curbing +consideration behind, and resolutely set herself for that night at least +to live only for the moment and wring from each its ultimate drop of +pleasure, to be amused and to be amusing, to make fête and to be fêted. + +Daubeney, wanting whom all her efforts must have been wasted, for +whether she love him or not a woman needs a man in love with her at hand +to be at her best--Dobbin was fairly dazzled, not so much by charms of +person never more witching as by gay spirits the gayer for this sudden +indulgence after long inhibition, by delicate audacity, wit swift, +mutable and pungent, and passages of sheer bravura in Lucinda's +exposition of the arts of coquetry. + +The way she flirted with him was something shameful. For the matter of +that, never a masculine moth blundered into the Druce box during the +entr'actes but flopped dazedly away, wondering what the deuce was the +matter with old Bellamy, had he gone absolutely balmy. But Dobbin in his +capacity of cavalier servente suffered more than anybody, for she took +an impish delight in luring him beyond his depth and then leaving him to +flounder out as best he might. + +"See here!" he reminded her indignantly as the curtain rose on the last +act of _Louise_--"you promised to play fair." Lucinda arched mocking +brows above round eyes. "Don't call this sort of thing keeping your +word, do you?" + +"Aren't you having a good time, Dobbin dear?" In the half-light of the +box Lucinda leaned slightly toward him, and her delicious voice dripped +sympathy. "I'm so sorry, I've been trying so hard not to bore you." + +"I didn't say I was bored. I ain't--I'm being plagued by a heartless +young she-devil that ought to be spanked and sent to bed. Damn it, +Cinda! you not only ought to, you do know better. You know _I_ take it +seriously. But you--you're merely playing." + +"But with fire--eh, Dobbin?" + +"You know that, too." + +"And you're warning me lest I get singed?" Lucinda contrived to look a +little awed. "How thoughtful!" + +"Don't make me out a greater dunce than I am." + +"Meaning you don't think I'm in any danger of getting scorched, carrying +on with you?" + +"Worse luck!" + +"Dobbin: have you been deceiving me, aren't you the least bit +inflammable, after all?" + +"You know jolly well I took fire years ago and have never since managed +to get the conflagration under control. Isn't ladylike to put the +bellows to flames you don't mean to quench." + +"How appallingly technical! But you do sputter so entertainingly, +Dobbin--burning under forced draught, I presume you'd say, with your +passion for riding a metaphor till it flounders--I'm not sure I'd care +to see you quenched; I hate to think of you being put out with me." + +"You play with words precisely as you play with me." + +"You think so? Well, perhaps, but--Dobbin--don't be too sure. Think how +sad it would be if you were to find out, too late, you'd been mistaken, +you'd meant more to me than words could tell, more than you knew." + +Over this equivoque Dobbin shook a baffled head; and Lucinda laughed, +glanced carelessly toward the stage to make sure that the act still was +young, and offered to rise. + +"Let's not stay any longer, Dobbin, or we'll be caught in the carriage +jam. Let's trot along and have a good time." + +"What's the next jump?" + +"To the Palais Royal." Dobbin uttered an involuntary sound of dissent. +"Why not? Julie Allingham wants us to join her party--says everybody +goes there nowadays, and it's desperately rowdy and loads of fun--said +to ask for her box and make ourselves at home if we got there before she +did." + +Mrs. Allingham was not one of Daubeney's favorites. A persevering body, +with a genius for trading in last season's husband for the latest model, +gifted likewise with incurable impudence and poverty of tact, both of +which she was clever enough to veneer with vivacity and exploit as +whimsical idiosyncrasies, she failed to measure up to his notion of the +type of woman with whom Lucinda ought to be seen. He had been civil, no +more, when she had danced into the box during the first entr'acte to +make a public fuss over her darling Cindy, and then--engaged in +small-talk by Julie's satellites, two sleek but otherwise featureless +bloods--had failed to hear her invitation; and Julie had carefully +forgotten to remind him of it on taking her leave. + +So Daubeney wasn't pleased as he helped Lucinda with her wraps; and she +read disgruntlement in his silence and constraint. + +"You don't want to go, Dobbin? With me? Why?" + +"With you, anywhere. But...." He mustered an unconvincing grin. "Oh, +it's all right, of course. But Julie Allingham--you know--really!" + +Lucinda's mouth tightened, for an instant her eyes held a sullen light. +"How tiresome! You sound just like Bel. How often have I heard him use +almost the same words: 'Julie Allingham--you know--really!'" + +"Sorry," Dobbin said stiffly. + +"What's the matter with Julie Allingham?" Lucinda demanded in a pet. +"She's amusing, I like her." + +"Then there's nothing more to be said." + +"Oh, you're all alike, you, Bel, and all the rest of you!" + +"Think so?" + +"What if Julie has made history of a few husbands? At least, she's been +honest about her changes of heart; when she tired of one, she got rid of +him legally before taking on another. I call that more decent treatment +than most men give their wives." + +"Never having had a wife, can't argue." + +"Oh, you sound more like Bel every minute! Do come along." + +All at once her succès had evaporated into thin air, the flavour of it, +that had been so sweet, had gone flat, like champagne too long uncorked. +And all (she thought) because Dobbin with his stupid prejudices had +reminded her of Bel! + +It began to seem as if there might have been more truth than she had +guessed in her assertion that men were all alike in their attitude +toward women, toward their wives and toward--the others. + +But if that were so (surely she wasn't the first to glimpse an immortal +truth) why did women ever marry? + +And why, in the name of reason! having once worried through the ordeal +of having a husband, did any woman ever repeat an experiment which +experience should have taught her was predestined to prove a failure? + +She emerged from a brown study to find herself in the car, with Dobbin +at her side watching her thoughtfully. + +"Cross with me, Cinda?" + +With an effort Lucinda shrugged out of her ill-humour. + +"No, of course not. With myself, rather, for being a silly. Dobbin: +you're a dear." + +"I know," he agreed with comic complacence; "but it doesn't get me +anywhere." + +"You're not very flattering. I don't tell every man he's a dear." + +"I'm wondering what the term means to you." + +"It means a great deal." + +"But what are the privileges and appurtenances of a dear's estate in +your esteem? Does it carry the right to take liberties?" + +"It might be worth your while to try and find out." + +"Well.... It's been a question in my mind ever since last night, and +something you said just now.... Is the inference justified, you and +Druce aren't getting along too well?" + +"Oh, do stop reminding me of Bel! I do so want to forget him for +tonight." + +"Then it's worse than I thought." + +"It's worse than anybody thinks that doesn't know, Dobbin." + +"So he hasn't changed...." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Why, I used to know Bellamy pretty well, pal around with him and that +sort of thing...." + +"No," said Lucinda slowly, eyes straight ahead--"if you mean what I +mean, Bel hasn't changed." + +"Then...." Daubeney found a hand which Lucinda resigned to his without a +struggle. "As a man who truly loves you, dear, and always has, I think +the right is mine to ask yet another question: What are you going to +do?" + +She shook her head dolefully: "I don't know yet." + +"You said last night you were still in love...." + +"Last night it was true." + +"But today----?" + +"I don't know." + +"I won't ask you what has happened, Cinda----" + +"Please don't. I don't want to talk about it." + +"Only I must know one thing: Is there anyone else--with you, I mean?" + +Lucinda met those devoted eyes honestly. "No, Dobbin, I'm sorry--not +even you...." + +"Then that's all right. No need for either of us to worry. You'll come +through with flying colours. Only, don't do anything in haste, and right +or wrong, count on me." + +Lucinda gave his fingers a friendly pressure and disengaged her hand. +"Dear Dobbin," she said gently. + +The car was pulling in toward a corner. + + + + +XII + + +Though they had left the Metropolitan long before the final curtain, on +Broadway the midnight tidal bore of motor traffic was even then +gathering way and volume, the first waves of after-theatre patrons were +washing the doorsteps of those sturdy restaurants which had withstood +the blast of Prohibition, the foyer of the Palais Royal already held a +throng of some proportions. In this omnium-gatherum of confirmed New +Yorkers and self-determined suburbicides, arrayed in every graduation of +formal, semi-formal and informal dress, and drawn together by the happy +coup of that year's press-agent in heralding the establishment as a +favorite resort of what the Four Million still styles its Four Hundred, +the women stood grouped in their wraps and wistfully watching their +men-folk importune a headwaiter who was heroically holding the staircase +against all-comers, passing only the fore-handed in the matter of +reservations, and putting all others to ignominious rout with the +standardized statement that there was not a table upstairs left untaken. + +At first glance, the huge main room on the second story, with its +serried semicircles of tables and its flamboyant colour scheme, seemed +less frequented by clients than by waiters; but the influx of the former +was constant, and when, shortly after Lucinda and Daubeney had been +seated, a gang of incurable melomaniacs crashed, blared and whanged into +a jazz fox-trot, the oval dance floor was quickly hidden by swaying +couples. + +For some minutes Lucinda sat looking out over without seeing these +herded dancers, only aware of the shifting swirl of colour and the +hypnotic influence of savage music, her thoughts far from this decadent +adaptation of jungle orgies which she had come to witness. And presently +a smile began to flicker in the depths of her eyes. + +"Oh!" she said, rousing when Daubeney uttered a note of +interrogation--"I was thinking about this afternoon, remembering that +funny little man moping and mowing in his magnificent delusion that he +was conducting an orchestra." + +"It was amusing, illuminating, too. One begins to understand why the +movies are what they are. If I'm not mistaken, the author of that +asinine exhibition is rated as one of the ablest directors in the +business." + +Lucinda quoted Mr. Lane's eulogy of King Laughlin. + +"Well, there you are," Dobbin commented. "I presume genius must be +humoured in its poses; even so, I saw nothing in Laughlin's directing to +offset the silliness of his performance with the orchestra. I should say +the business is poorly organized that permits men of his calibre, with +so little sense of balance, to hold positions of absolute authority." + +"You don't think Mr. Lane may have exaggerated Mr. Laughlin's +importance----" + +"Perhaps; though he was honoured with suspicious reverence by everybody +present." + +"Except Mr. Culp." + +"Well, yes; Culp didn't seem so much overpowered. All the same, I +noticed he didn't attempt to call Laughlin to order." + +"But possibly the man _is_ a genius. He seemed to know what he was about +when he was showing them how to play that scene." + +"I'll admit his grasp of primary mechanics; but the scene as he built it +would have been ridiculous in the theatre." + +"But it wasn't for a theatre, it was for the movies." + +"Precisely my point. Why should motion-picture plays be less plausibly +done than plays on the stage? The American theatre outgrew 'Nellie, the +Beautiful Cloak Model' long before motion-pictures were seriously +thought of; I mean, American audiences outgrew such trash. Yet today our +movies are shaped on identically the lines of the popular melodrama that +was laughed off the boards a generation ago. There's something wrong." + +For some reason which Lucinda didn't stop to analyze, Daubeney's +arguments stirred up a spirit of contentiousness. + +"At all events, Mr. and Mrs. Culp seemed satisfied." + +"Two people who have made a huge lot of money in an astonishingly short +time: it isn't likely they'd be disposed to interfere with the system +that enriched them, even allowing that they are sensible of its +defects." + +Lucinda caught herself frowning, then had the grace to laugh. "Can't +make me believe they're lacking in artistic appreciation, Dobbin." + +"Why not?" + +"You don't know about the handsome offer Mr. Culp made me, with his +wife's approval, just as we were going away." + +It was Dobbin's turn to frown. "What kind of an offer?" he demanded +shortly. + +"To become a movie actress under the Culp banner, a sister-in-art to +Alma Daley." + +Daubeney ejaculated "What for?" with an expression of such utter +dumbfounderment that Lucinda gasped with stifled mirth, then gave way to +outright laughter. + +"You're awfully funny, Dobbin! And they thought they were paying me a +compliment." + +But Daubeney would not see the fun of it. + +"Do you mean to tell me that fellow Culp actually had the +impertinence----" + +"Oh, come!" Lucinda's amusement subsided. "It wasn't so bad as all that. +Mr. Culp was most kind, at least he meant to be. He said he, his wife +and his cameraman--whose opinion he values more highly than any +director's--all agreed I had shown a great deal of promise; and that, if +I cared to try it on, he'd be glad to give me a good part in Miss +Daley's next picture, and if I made good in that he'd form a company to +star me." + +"What rot!" + +"Dobbin!" + +"They're trying to work you----" + +"But, my dear! isn't it barely possible Mr. Culp was sincere?" + +"The thing's absurd on the face of it." + +"Isn't that a matter of opinion?" + +"It's a characteristic scheme to exploit you to Alma Daley's profit, to +get her a lot of publicity on the cheap by letting the newspapers +announce that Mrs. Bellamy Druce is going to act in her support." + +"You won't admit, then," Lucinda persisted, nettled, "I may possibly +have some latent ability as a motion-picture actress?" + +"It doesn't matter. The proposition is a piece of--of preposterous +impudence. What did you say to Culp?" + +With countenance half averted, Lucinda said coldly: "My dear Dobbin: do +you realize you're being rude?" + +He was all contrition. "Oh, I'm sorry, Cinda, if I let my indignation on +your behalf----" + +"Gratuitous, you'll admit." + +Daubeney reddened and swallowed hard. "I repeat: I didn't mean to +offend. I apologize." + +"Very well, Dobbin. Let's say no more about it." + +But Lucinda's tone lacked friendliness, and the eyes were visibly sulky +that, refusing to recognize his pleading, blindly surveyed the milling +riot of dancers. + +The silence that fell between them, like a curtain of muffling folds, +was presently emphasized by an abrupt suspension of the music. When +Daubeney could endure it no longer, he broke it with a question, the +most impolitic conceivable: "You didn't tell me what answer you gave +Culp, Cinda?" + +"Didn't I? But I'm sure it doesn't matter." + +To himself, but half-aloud, Dobbin groaned: "Oh, the devil!" + +But his manifest penitence earned him no more than a show of restoration +to favour. The heart in Lucinda's bosom felt hot and hard and heavy with +chagrin, she had banked so confidently on Dobbin's sympathy.... He might +be truly in love with her, she hadn't much doubt that he was, but the +understanding she had counted on was denied her, the sense of security +in his affection was no more. She felt cruelly bereft, more desolate +than at any time since the breach with Bel had begun to seem +unbridgeable. + +It made no difference that she knew this feeling was unfair to both, +that its childishness was clear to her whom it victimized the most. The +day-long drain upon her emotions was inexorably exacting its due. With +no more provocation than a sting of puerile pique, she had lost her +temper, and all her efforts to retrieve it seemed unavailing. She felt +broken, beaten, and very tired, she wanted to creep away to bed and cry +herself asleep. Yet she must somehow find strength to hold up, or +forfeit self-respect, she dared not confess the stuff of her spirit as +mean as her heart's. She shook herself impatiently.... + +At the same time the band rewarded tireless hand-clapping by again +breaking loose in blasts of delirious cacophony, and Lucinda pushed back +her chair. + +"Don't let's talk any more for a while, Dobbin--I'd rather dance." + +Descending the several steps from the box level to the common, they +threaded their way through a jam of tables to the fringe of the +dance-mad mob, in whose closely-packed, rocking and surging rout +considerable imagination and ingenuity were required to find room. +Nevertheless Daubeney adroitly created a space where none had been, and +swinging smoothly away, they became one with and lost in the crush, +their progress of necessity slow but amazingly easy, for Daubeney led +with grace and skill. + +Lucinda tried to forget her vexation in watching the faces of their +fellow dancers and their styles, a diversion which seldom failed to +flood her being, even when she was saddest, with sweetness and light. + +All about them couples were practising every conceivable variety of step +that could be executed to the rhythm beaten out by tireless drums whose +timbre had all the grim and weirdly stimulating monotony of African +tom-toms. Many contented themselves with a solemn, wellnigh ritualistic +jigging by means of which they traversed the floor crab-wise, inch by +inch. Others charged short distances at headlong speed, checked short, +whirled madly, darted and swooped again with incredible agility, in a +sort of corybantic frenzy. Still others favoured a tedious twirling, +like amorous dervishes. Yet there were strangely few collisions.... + +Young things drifted by with faces buried in the shoulders of their +partners, whether for shame or in somnambulism it was impossible to say. +Those who are always with us, locked as in a death-grapple, ploughed +doggedly along with tense mouths and rapt eyes. Couples whose mutual +passion was stronger than feminine regard for the most carefully +composed complexion, moved as one, her cheek glued to his. Portly and +bedizened dowagers wore set smiles on lips that moved to inaudible +counting, and their paid partners, professional young male dancers, that +patient yet abstracted expression that tells of bandaged, swollen feet. +Little girls who apparently should have been at home, getting a good +night's rest in preparation for a long school-day tomorrow, lifted up +unformed, flower faces breathlessly to the hard, mature faces of the +vulpine men who held them. + +Lucinda saw those to whom this was adventure, those to whom it was +romance, those to whom it was physical agony, and those to whom it was +a source of soul-destroying ennui. She smelt the breath of sticky bodies +and the cloying perfumes in which the optimistic reposed mistaken faith. + +And all her movements were, like theirs, measured by the swing of that +giggling, grunting, whistling, clanging, moaning band.... + +Suddenly she knew she had had enough. + +"It's too crowded," she told Dobbin; and he nodded agreement. "Shall we +stop when we get around to our box?" + +Without warning more than a smothered cry of alarm in a woman's voice, +Lucinda was struck by a wildly careering body with such force that she +lost footing altogether and must have fallen but for Dobbin, who +instantly tightened his hold and braced himself against the dead drag of +her weight, this though the shock of collision almost carried him off +his own feet. + +Simultaneously the floor shook with the impact of two heavy falls. And +clinging to Dobbin, a little dazed, Lucinda saw a strikingly pretty +young woman, stunningly undressed, sprawling at her feet, and at a +yard's distance a man in similar plight. + +Derisive cackles and guffaws of clowns broke out on all sides, a space +was cleared round the unfortunates. + +"Are you all right, Cinda?" Dobbin asked. She nodded and tried to smile. +"Sure you're not hurt?" + +She shook her head vigorously, and by way of proof stood out of his +arms, but swayed dizzily and, with a little apologetic laugh, caught at +one of them again. + +"All right," Dobbin said hastily. "Let's get out of this." + +"No--wait!" Lucinda insisted. "Perhaps she's hurt." + +She brushed his arm aside, only to discover that the overthrown woman +had regained her feet, and now stood watching her partner in shrewish +fury as, grinning foolishly, he scrambled up. + +"You clumsy dumb-bell!" she stormed in a rasping voice that must have +carried clearly half across the room. "I hope to Gawd I got enough sense +not to dance with you again when you're pickled!" + +And catching her first glimpse of the man's crimson face, Lucinda +yielded all at once to Daubeney's insistence. + +But she never quite knew how they got back to their table. + + + + +XIII + + +But even with the three sides of the box affording their false show of +privacy, it never entered Lucinda's head to sit down and pretend nothing +had happened, the instinct to fly at once from this theatre of disgrace +was still predominant. Only for a moment she rested standing, while her +eyes, darkly dilate, sought Daubeney's, which held a look of such +heart-broken regret that they won a compassionate smile even in her hour +of affliction, and somehow helped Lucinda pull together the rent and +draggled garment of her dignity. + +"At least," she said quietly, "Julie Allingham isn't here--thank Heaven +for that! You saw him, of course?" + +Dobbin made a vague gesture of sympathy: "Frightfully sorry...." + +Lucinda shrugged. "Don't be. It wasn't your fault, it was I who insisted +on coming here." + +Her gaze veered to the floor; but the dancers had already swarmed over +and abolished the break in their ranks, and though she looked beyond the +sea of bobbing heads, to right and left, reviewing all she could see of +the room, Bellamy was nowhere in sight. + +"I presume we couldn't have been mistaken...." Dobbin ventured +half-heartedly. + +"No: it was Bel." + +"Hoped we might have been misled by a resemblance. Somehow the poor +devil didn't look quite like Bellamy." + +"He's apt to look not quite like himself when he is--as the pretty lady +with him so delicately put it--'pickled.'" + +"Think he knew you?" + +"Oh, yes; I saw him look directly at me just before we turned away." +Lucinda took up her wrap. "If you'll help me with this, Dobbin, I think +I'd like to go." + +"Afraid I'll have to ask you to wait a minute or two. I've got these to +pay for...." Daubeney indicated the untasted glasses of lemonade they +had ordered. "I've sent for our waiter." + +"Then if you don't mind, I'll go ahead. Let me have the carriage check, +and I'll wait in the car." + +Daubeney surrendered the pasteboard slip, and Lucinda went out. The +passageway behind the boxes enabled her to gain the entrance without +running the gauntlet of the floor, and she descended the stairs with her +head slightly lowered, in panic hope that she might thereby escape +recognition if bad luck would have it that she must meet Julie +Allingham. But she was spared that misfortune. + +At the street door she gave the attendant the carriage-check together +with a coin. "And hurry, please!" The man saluted respectfully and +vanished. + +She waited restlessly just inside the glass doors till the reflection +that every second was making an encounter with the Allingham woman more +certain drove her out to the street; a move which she found immediate +reason to repent. Only a few feet away Bellamy stood with an +affectionate arm round the shoulder of the door-porter, greatly to the +seeming embarrassment of that monumental personage and the amusement of +the street. A knot of grinning bystanders had already begun to gather. + +Bel's derby was perilously perched, his overcoat, donned in haste, was +poorly settled on his shoulders, though he had contrived to worry two +buttons through the wrong buttonholes, and he was explaining, +unconsciously to everybody within a wide radius, the personal service he +required in return for the ten-dollar bill which he was waving beneath +the porter's nose. + +"Now, lishn, Jim.... Do' mind my callin' you Jim, do you, ol' scout?... +Get thish straight: M'wife's here t'night 'nd I don' want her know I +wash here, shee? If she don' know I wash here, she's got nothin' on me, +nothin' 'tall, shee? So you don' know me, you never heard of me, shee?" + +"Yes, Mr. Druce." + +"'Caush it's this way: if she's got nothin' on me, I'm all right, 'nd I +got somethin' on her. Believe me, Jim, I got good 'nd plenty on her +t'night. She's here with man I know and don' like, man I got no ush for +at all--shee?--no ush whatever. Ain't that limit, jush like woman? +Insist you gotta walk chalk-mark, but minute your back'sh turned, what +they do? Go off on private lil parties all their own, that'sh sort of +thing they do!..." + +Panting and sick with mortification, Lucinda turned from the sound of +that babbling voice of a fool--and heard her own name pronounced. + +"The car is here, Mrs. Druce." + +In a wild stare she identified the face of her chauffeur, saw that he +understood the situation and was anxious to be helpful. + +"Wait," she quavered. + +And then by a miracle of will-power she managed to master her nerves +and, putting aside her horror and humiliation, took thought quickly and +clearly. + +"All I wan' you to do ish remember, if Mishish Druce asks if you've seen +me, you never heard of me, don' know me 'tall--shee, Jim, shee what I +mean?" + +As Lucinda drew near the porter must have guessed who she was, for he +spoke to Bellamy in a low voice, and the latter swung round with +startled eyes and a dropping jaw. She closed her fingers on his wrist +and put all her strength into their grasp. + +"Come, Bel," she said clearly and not unkindly. "Please don't keep me +waiting. The car is here, we're going home." + +For a moment the balance wavered, then Bel's eyes fell, and she knew she +had won. + +"Oh, a'right," he mumbled with strange docility. "Didn' know you were +waitin', Linda. Get ri' in the car--be with you in jush a minute." + +"No," she said firmly--"you're coming with me now." + +She drew him away. He yielded without remonstrance, permitted her to +lead him to the door of the car, stumbled in on his knees, and crawled +up to the seat. Lucinda followed, the door closed behind her with a clap +sweeter than music in her hearing, and with purring gears the car shot +out of range of those leering faces. + +Lucinda had forgotten Dobbin as utterly as if she had never known him. + +Bellamy lay in a loose slouch, breathing heavily. The passing lights +revealed the stupidity of his congested features. His eyes were +half-closed, he seemed to be asleep. + +Cringing as far away from him as she could, Lucinda dug nails into her +palms to keep from giving over body and mind to the dominion of +hysteria. She saw nothing of the streets through which they passed, knew +no thought other than to preserve her self-control. + +When at length the car stopped, she jumped out and, leaving Bellamy to +the care of the chauffeur and footman, ran up to her room. The maid +waiting there she dismissed for the night in half a dozen words whose +decision sent the woman from her in astonishment. + +Alone, her first move was to secure the door communicating with Bel's +rooms. Then she threw herself upon the bed and lay listening to the +noise on the stairway of voices and stumbling feet. The door between the +hall and Bel's rooms banged. She heard him maundering incoherently to +his valet for a time, a long time; the valet seemed to be trying to make +him listen to reason and failing in the end. The neck of a decanter +chattered against the rim of a glass, there was a lull in the murmur of +voices, then a thick cry and the thud of a fall. After that the quiet +was little disturbed by the valet's labours with the body of the +drunkard. Eventually the man went out and closed the door. In the +subsequent silence the clock downstairs chimed twelve. + +Lucinda rose then, and changed to her simplest street suit. + +For half an hour or so she was busy at desk and dressing-table, packing +a checque book and her jewels with other belongings in a small handbag. +She did not falter once or waste a single move through indecision. +Indeed, it did not once occur to her that there was anything to be done +but what she meant to do. + +Shortly after one o'clock she left Bel snoring, crept down the stairs +and with infinite stealth let herself out to the street. + +Nobody saw her go, neither did she hesitate as she turned her back upon +the home that had till then held for her every precious thing in life. + + + + +XIV + + +Spurred by irrational fear lest Bellamy wake up, discover her flight, +and give chase, Lucinda made in haste for Fifth avenue; but had not +taken half a dozen steps when a cab slid up to the curb by her side, its +driver with two fingers to his cap soliciting a fare. He seemed +Heaven-sent. Lucinda breathed the first address that came to +mind--"Grand Central, please"--hopped in, and shrank fearfully away from +the windows. + +On second thought, the destination she had named seemed a sensible +choice. Any one of the several hotels which tapped the railroad terminal +by subway would take her in for the night. In the morning she would be +better able to debate her next step. At present she felt hopelessly +incapable of consecutive thought. + +At the station a negro porter with a red cap opened the cab door and +took possession of her single piece of luggage, and when she had paid +off the taxi and looked to him in indecision, prompted her with: "What +train was yo' wishin' to tek, ma'm?" + +An instant later Lucinda was wondering why she had replied: "The first +train for Chicago, please." She knew no reason why she should have named +Chicago rather than any other city where she was unknown and where, +consequently, she might count on being free to think things out in her +own time and fashion. + +"Ain't no Chicago train befo' eight-fo'ty-five tomorrow mawnin', ma'm." + +"Very well. I'll go to a hotel for tonight." + +"Yes'm. W'ich hotel, Commodo', Biltmo', Belmont?" + +Lucinda settled on the Commodore, because it was the largest of the +three and she would be lost in the multitude of its patrons. + +She registered as _Mrs. L. Druce_, _Chicago_, and, before proceeding to +her room, arranged to have the head porter purchase her ticket and +reservation the first thing in the morning. + +Some hours later she was awakened by a cramp in one of her arms and +found that she had fallen asleep while sitting on the edge of her bed. +In a daze she finished undressing, and sleep again overwhelmed her like +a dense, warm, obliterating cloud. + +It seemed but a minute or two before she was being scolded awake by the +shrewish tongue of the telephone by the head of the bed, to hear a +dispassionate voice recite the information that it was seven o'clock, +the hour at which she had asked to be called. + +She felt as if she had not slept at all. + +Again, in the train, the aching misery of heart and mind could not +prevent her nodding and drowsing all morning long; and after a meal of +railroad food by way of luncheon, she gave up trying to stave off the +needs of a highly organized nature fatigued by inordinate strains, +called the porter, had him make up the lower berth in her drawing-room, +and went to bed. + +In the neighborhood of midnight she woke up to discover, first by +peering out under the edge of the window-shade at concrete platforms +bleakly blue and bare in the glare of unseen lamps, then by consulting a +timetable, that the train was in Cleveland. + +As it pulled out again, she resigned herself to the inescapable. Rested, +her mind clear and active, and with nothing to do but think for eight +hours more, she must go down into the hell appointed. + +Nor was she spared any portion of its torments. Successively and in +concert, vanity wounded to the quick, sickening self-pity, and +implacable, grinding regret laid hold on her heart and soul and worried +them till she had to bury her face in the pillow and sink her teeth +into it to keep from screaming. + +It was cruel enough to have loved and lost, but to have lost and still +to love seemed punishment intolerable. The shameful knowledge that body +and spirit still hungered for the man who had served both so shabbily +ate into her amour-propre like a corrosive acid. + +To her agonized imagination she figured in the semblance of a leaf +harassed by that high wind of fatality which latterly had swept into and +through her life with Bel, driving them asunder; a leaf torn from the +homely branch that had given it life and nurtured it, a leaf hunted +helplessly into strange ways and corners, even now being hounded on and +on.... And to what end?... + +She burned with resentment of her persecution by those unknown powers +whose ill-will she had not wittingly done anything to invite, she +writhed in the exasperation bred of her impotence to placate them or +withstand their oppression. + +A lull fell at last in the transports of her passion, she lay quite +still, and her mind too grew calm in awareness of the quiet, resolute +mustering of all her forces to wrest from malicious chance and +circumstance the right to live a life of her own choosing; as if her +soul, drawing strength from new-found knowledge of its indestructible +integrity, lifted up its head and with calm eyes challenged Fate. + +Her paroxysms were now spent and ended, the past had been put definitely +behind her, it was with the future alone that she had need to be +concerned. + +She addressed herself to the task of taking stock of Lucinda Druce, the +woman all alone, her condition and resources, and of trying to map out +for her a new and independent existence that would prove somehow +livable. + +If she had not succeeded in this undertaking when the train breathed its +last weary puffs under the echoing glass canopy of the La Salle Street +station, success was not forfeited, it was but deferred. There was so +much to be taken into consideration, she could not yet see further than +tomorrow, if so far. Certain immediate steps were indicated to her +intelligence as requisite and reasonable; whither they would lead she +could by no means guess. + +Bred on the Atlantic seaboard, she knew more of Europe than of the +United States west of the Alleghenies. Chicago to her was a city that +once had burned to the ground because a cow kicked over a lighted lamp; +a city famous for great winds, something known as "the Loop," something +hardly less problematic called "stock-yards." The name of a hotel, too, +the Blackstone, had found lodgment in her memory. + +The short drive in a yellow taxicab from the station to the hotel +through a labyrinth of back streets a-brawl with traffic, failed to +register any impressions other than of cobblestones, blasphemous truck +drivers, street-cars pounding and clanging, begrimed buildings, endless +columns of self-absorbed footfarers. The hotel itself seemed in grateful +contrast, it might have been one of her own New York. Only the view from +her rooms, many stories above the street, of a public park bleached, +frost-bitten, desolate, and slashed by a black railroad cutting, and +beyond this a vast expanse of tumbled waters, slate-grey flecked with +white, blending with a grim grey sky, drove home the fact that her first +uncertain gropings toward a new life were to be framed in a foreign, and +to her perceptions an unfriendly, environment. + +But she turned from the window with the light of battle in her eyes. +Nature was wasting its effects, she was not to be disheartened by an +ill-dispositioned day. + +After breakfast she went out to do a little necessary shopping, and +spent the morning and most of her cash in hand as well in department +stores which she was unreasonably surprised to find differed not +materially from establishments of the same character in the East, save +in the crowds that thronged them, drab rivers of people persistently +strange in her sight. + +But the experience served to remind her that she had more material +problems to solve than those provided by her inner life. She found +herself running short of ready money and with a checque-book valueless +unless she were willing to prove her identity as the wife of Bellamy +Druce. + +She thought of telegraphing old Harford Willis, who had been her +father's close friend, legal adviser, and executor of his estate, as he +was today steward of Lucinda's. But he could not be expected to +understand a peremptory demand for money in Lucinda's name, from a city +which he had no reason to believe she had ever even thought of visiting, +without explanations too lengthy and intimate for transmission by +telegraph. The alternative was to write him, and that meant a long, full +letter, for (Lucinda suddenly discovered) Willis was the one man in the +world whom she could safely and freely confide in, consult and trust. + +She did not even remember Dobbin's pretensions to such standing with +her. In the first twenty-four hours of her flight from Bellamy she had +not thought of Daubeney once. Now, when she thought of him at all, it +was as of some revenant of kindly countenance from a half-forgotten +dream. + +She spent most of the afternoon composing her letter and despatched it +after dinner, a rather formidable manuscript under a special delivery +stamp. + +After that there was nothing to do but fold her hands and commend her +soul to patience. + +Three eventless days dropped out of her history. The dreary weather +held, there was rain and snow, gales like famished banshees pounded and +yammered at the hotel windows. She seldom ventured into the streets, +even for exercise. She read a great many novels purchased at the hotel +news-stand, or pretended to, for her mind refused as a general thing to +travel with the lines of print. Her most exciting diversion lay in +reviewing and enlarging the list of things she meant to buy as soon as +she was able. And one afternoon she went to see Alma Daley in her latest +production (not "The Girl in the Dark," of course, it was too soon for +that) at a motion-picture theatre near the hotel. + +She came away confirmed in her belief that Miss Daley was an unusually +attractive and capable young mistress of pantomime. But the picture-play +itself had seemed frightfully dull stuff. Indeed, Lucinda had +experienced considerable difficulty in following its thread of plot, and +sat it out only because of her personal interest in the actress. + +Returning to her rooms possessed by memories of that afternoon she had +spent at the studios of Culp Cinemas Inc., the last afternoon of her +life as Bellamy's wife, she wondered, not with any great interest, how +her tests had turned out, what the others, Dobbin and Jean and Nelly, +and Fanny Lontaine and her husband, had thought of them; whether any one +had known or guessed the reason for her absence, when they had gathered +in Culp's projection-room for the showing; whether any one had cared. + +Dobbin had cared, of course. At least, Dobbin had believed he cared. So +had Lucinda, then.... + +How long ago it seemed! + + + + +XV + + + INEXPRESSIBLY SHOCKED ARRIVING TO-MORROW WILL CALL ON YOU TEN A + M MEANWHILE BANK OF MICHIGAN WILL SUPPLY YOU WITH FUNDS IN ANY + AMOUNT YOU MAY REQUIRE IF YOU WILL BE PLEASED TO IDENTIFY + YOURSELF TO MR. SOUTHARD THERE. + +The author of this telegram, which was delivered on the morning of +Lucinda's fifth day in Chicago, was punctual to the minute of his +appointment; otherwise he would hardly have been the rectilinear +gentleman of the frock-coat school that he was. + +Notwithstanding that Harford Willis was pledged to a code of morals and +manners vinted in the early Eighteen-Eighties, and so implacably +antagonistic to the general trend of present-day thought on the divorce +question, his great affection for Lucinda predisposed him to allow that +the course she had taken with Bellamy had been the only one his conduct +had left open to her. + +On the other hand he was unhappily unable to hide the disconcertion +inspired by the simple gladness of her greeting, the spontaneity of +which was in such marked contrast to his own well-composed demeanour of +honorary pall-bearer at a fashionable funeral. + +"If you only knew how good it is to see a friendly face for the first +time in a whole week!" + +"But, my dear Lucinda," Willis intoned deliberately in his +well-modulated voice of a public speaker, "I must say you seem to be +bearing up remarkably well, all things considered, re-mark-ably well." + +"I've stopped howling and drumming the floor with my heels," Lucinda +admitted--"if that's what you mean. When I found it didn't do any good, +I gave it up, and I've felt more cheerful ever since." + +"Cheerful!" Willis repeated in a sepulchral voice. + +"More like an average human being who's been horribly hurt but who can't +see why life should be counted a total loss for all that; less like the +wronged wife in a movie, mugging at a camera." + +"But, my poor child! how you must have suffered." + +"Let's not talk about that, please," Lucinda begged. "It only makes me +vindictive to remember; and I don't want to feel that way about Bel, I +don't want to be unjust. It's bad enough to have to be just." + +"Must you?" Willis asked, shaking a commiserative head. + +"Yes." Lucinda met his skeptical old eyes with eyes of clear candour. +"Absolutely," she added with a finality not to be discredited. + +Willis sighed heavily, released her hand, sat down, and meticulously +adjusted the knees of striped grey trousers. + +"I will confess I had hoped to find you of another mind." + +"I'm sorry. Please don't think me hard or unforgiving, but ... I've had +plenty of time to mull things over, you know; and _I_ know I couldn't +consider going back to Bel, no matter what he might be ready to promise. +Bel can't keep a promise, not that kind, at least." + +"I feel sure you wrong him there; it's true I don't know your husband as +well as I know you, my dear, but I assure you that amongst men he has +the reputation of a man of honour." + +"Man of honour meaning, I presume, one who won't cheat another man but +will cheat a woman." + +"Oh, come! that's a bit sweeping." + +"The men who know Bel know how he's been treating me--all New York +knows! If he treated them as treacherously, would they call him a man of +honour?" Willis gave a vague gesture of deprecation, and Lucinda laughed +a little, but not in mirth. "Women are at least more honest among +themselves; if a woman knows another who isn't playing fair with her +husband, she either keeps quiet about it or calls her a cat, and lets it +go at that--she doesn't call her a woman of honour." + +"You don't think it would be worth while," Willis suggested as one in +duty bound, "to forgive Bellamy, give him another chance?" + +"I don't know I've got anything to forgive him, Mr. Willis. Bel did the +best he could. And that's the whole trouble. Why should I forgive him +for being true to himself? It's myself I can't forgive, because I was +silly enough to let him go on as long as I did, making me a +laughing-stock.... Besides, I'm not so sure it's good for us to be +forgiven our sins; we're all such vain creatures, we're too apt to take +forgiveness as a license to misbehave still more.... Don't you see?" + +"I see you are beginning to formulate a philosophy of life." + +"Isn't it about time?" + +"You will need it, my dear, if you mean to fight this out alone. +Philosophy is good medicine only for lonely hearts. The others it merely +hardens." + +Lucinda eyed Willis sharply. "Bel has been to see you." + +"He looked me up," Willis admitted in mild surprise, "two days after +your disappearance, thinking you might have communicated with me. Of +course, I could tell him nothing. But how did you know----?" + +"That suggestion, the underlying thought that I might not be intending +to fight out my fight alone--that originated with Bel, didn't it?" + +"Well!" Willis stammered, trying to smile disarmingly--"I confess----" + +"It wasn't enough, of course, that I should have found Bel out for the +dozenth time, there had to be a lover in _my_ background to account for +my leaving _him_! Did he mention any name?" + +Willis made a negative sign. "Bellamy didn't imply--he merely said he +was afraid----" + +"It doesn't matter. What else did he have to say?" + +"He seemed most remorseful----" + +"I know how remorseful Bel can seem." + +"And determined----" + +"In what way?" + +"To find you----" + +"He'd only be wasting his time." + +"He spoke of employing detectives to trace you, when I assured him I +knew nothing of your whereabouts and that when--and if--I did hear from +you, I would necessarily be guided by your wishes." + +"Thank you," said Lucinda. "It wouldn't do Bel any good to see me; it +would only irritate him to find I could hold out against a plea he made +in person." + +"I understand," Willis agreed; and then with a quizzical look: "You seem +to know your own mind, young woman; so I shan't attempt to advise you. +But would you mind telling me what you have decided to do?" + +"I shall divorce Bel, of course." + +"You don't think it might be advisable to wait a while? It makes me very +sad to think of you in relation to divorce proceedings. But then, of +course, I belong to a generation that viewed divorce in a different +light." Lucinda was silent. "Ah, well!" Willis sighed, and renounced +hope then and there--"if you must, you must, I presume; and I will do my +best to serve your wishes, my dear. Only tell me how...." + +"Why, naturally, I want to get it over with as quickly and quietly as +possible, with the minimum amount of public scandal." + +"Then you won't sue in New York State." + +"Why not?" + +"Its laws recognize only one ground for absolute divorce." + +"No," Lucinda concluded thoughtfully; "I'd rather not drag others into +the case, I'd rather get my freedom, if I can, without making anybody +unhappy, more than us two." + +"The laws of the State of Nevada are most liberal. But it would be +necessary for you to establish a legal residence by living in Reno for, +I believe, six months." + +"I suppose that's unavoidable." + +"I will look up the most reputable firm of lawyers there, and recommend +you to them. If you find yourself in need of other advice, write or +telegraph me and I will come out to confer with you." + +"I hope I won't have to impose on your kindness to that extent." + +Willis blinked, removed the gold-rimmed pince-nez of his fading day, and +polished the lenses with a silk handkerchief. + +"I should not consider it an imposition, but a privilege, Lucinda. I can +think of nothing I wouldn't do for your father's daughter, or for yours, +if you had one." + +"Thank God I haven't!" + +"I'm afraid I can't say Amen to that. But then, as I have already +remarked, I am in many respects a survival, an interesting one, I trust, +but a survival none the less, of a conservative-minded generation." + +He replaced the glasses. + +"Is there anything else, my dear? If so, we can take it up over our +luncheon. That is to say, I am hoping you will find it convenient and +agreeable to lunch with me today." + +Bowing punctilious acknowledgment of Lucinda's acceptance, he sat back +and joined the fingers of both hands at his chin. "And now," he +pursued--"if you don't mind satisfying an inquisitive old man--I would +very much like to know what you propose to do with your freedom, when +you get it." + +Lucinda jumped up and turned away with a quaver of desolation. + +"Ah, I wish you hadn't asked me! That's what I'm trying all the time to +forget----" + +"I thought so." + +"The emptiness to come!... What _can_ a woman do to round out her life +when she's lost her husband and is fit for nothing but to be a wife?" + +"She can find another husband. Many do." + +"Marry again!" A violent movement of Lucinda's hands abolished the +thought. "Never that! I'm through with love for good and all." + +"No doubt," agreed the student of law and life. "But are you sure that +love is through with you?" + + + + +XVI + + +Willis left for New York on a late afternoon train; and when Lucinda had +said good-bye to him at the station, she felt as if she had parted with +her one real friend in all the world. + +Nevertheless it had done her good to see and talk with him, and it was +in a courageous if not altogether a cheerful temper that she bade the +driver of her taxi stop at the Consolidated Ticket Office on the way +back to the Blackstone. + +But a set-back threatened immediately when she applied for +transportation and a drawing-room through to Reno. The Winter stampede +of California tourists was in full westward swing, she learned, and not +only was every drawing-room and compartment sold for the next fortnight +on the trains of the Union Pacific system, the direct route to Reno, but +she would have to wait several days even if she were willing to content +herself with an upper berth. + +The appalled expression with which she contemplated this alternative, +and tried to make up her mind which would be worse, to nurse her +loneliness in Chicago for another two weeks, or condemn herself for +three days to the promiscuous indecency of open sleeping-car conditions, +enlisted the sympathies of the susceptible if none too brilliant clerk +who had dashed her hopes; and promising to see what he could do, he +busied himself mysteriously with a battery of telephones, and presently +returned in a glow of vicarious delight, to announce that he had +arranged to book Lucinda through to San Francisco via the Santa Fé +system, with a section all to herself on the California Limited leaving +the next night. + +To Lucinda's objection that she didn't want to go to San Francisco, she +wanted to go to Reno, he explained, and produced bewildering maps and +time-tables to prove his contention, that she would not only travel in +more comfort but would actually save time by going out immediately via +the Santa Fé and returning eastward from San Francisco to Reno, a +comparatively insignificant trip of some eleven hours. + +To clinch the matter he offered to telegraph for a drawing-room +reservation to Reno on the first train to leave San Francisco after her +arrival. And Lucinda feebly humoured his anxiety to be of service to a +pretty lady. + +Perhaps it was just as well, after all, that she wouldn't be able to +shut herself up on the train and mope alone, perhaps it would take her +out of herself a bit to be thrown into indiscriminate association with +fellow-travellers. + +Among the first purchases she had made after calling at the Bank of +Michigan were a wardrobe trunk and a fitted dressing-case. And when the +trunk had been checked and trundled away by a porter, the next morning, +Lucinda had a long afternoon to fill in, and accomplished this by +attending a matinée. + +Returning to the hotel about five, she was approaching the elevators +when, midway in the foyer, she stopped stock still, even her heart and +lungs momentarily refusing their office, transfixed by the sight of +Bellamy standing at the registry desk, in earnest consultation with one +of the clerks. + +Apparently Bellamy had just learned what he wanted to know; Lucinda +recognized the backward jerk of the head that was an unfailing sign of +gratification in him, and saw him turn away from the desk. Galvanized, +she hurled herself toward one of the elevator shafts, the gate to which +was even then being closed. Luck and agility enabled her to slip through +before the gate clanged and the car shot upward--the passengers eyeing +Lucinda in amusement or amazement or both, the operator treating her to +a dark overshoulder scowl. + +But she didn't care, her recklessness had purchased her a respite, +provisional and short-lived though it might prove; and when the elevator +had discharged its other passengers on floors below hers, she found a +richly compensating tip for the attendant. + +"Sorry if I frightened you," she apologized. "There was somebody in the +lobby I didn't want to see me, and I had to act quickly." + +"'Sall right, ma'am," the boy grumbled, pocketing the money. "Only yeh +don' wanta count on gettin' away with that sort of thing often, yeh +might of got yehself killed." + +"I'll be more careful," Lucinda promised humbly, as the car stopped to +let her off. "And will you do something for me, please: tell the +management I'd like my bill sent up to my room at once, and that, if +anybody asks for me, I'm not in." + +"Sure I will, ma'm." + +When she entered her room the telephone was calling. She locked the +door; and for as long as it continued to ring, which it did for upwards +of five minutes with brief rests in discouragement, Lucinda did not move +or cease to regard it in frightened fascination, as if it were a thing +of malign intelligence which all her wit and ingenuity would hardly +serve to frustrate. At length it gave it up as a bad job, and she sank +limply into a chair near the door, and there remained stirless, trying +to master demoralized nerves, trying to think, till a knock brought her +to her feet in a flutter. + +She had trouble finding voice enough to be heard through the door: "Who +is it?" + +"Your bill, ma'm." + +Not Bel's voice. Still it might be a trick. When she forced herself to +turn key and knob, she more than half expected to see her husband. But +the bellboy was alone. Lucinda took the bill and was counting out the +money, when the telephone began to trill again. + +"Take those bags, please," she said, indicating the new dressing-case +and the bag which she had brought from New York, "put them in a taxi at +the door, and hold it till I come down. I shan't be long." + +Alone, she answered the telephone. + +"Hello? That you, Linda? It's I, Bel." + +"Y-yes, I--I know." + +"Thank God, I've found you! See here: I'm coming up, if you don't mind. +All right?" + +"Yes, Bellamy--it--it's all right." + +Running out into the hall, she found the stairs and pelted up two +flights. One of the elevators was rising. It stopped two floors below, +then came on up in response to her ring. The attendant whom she had +tipped so well was in charge, and there was nobody else in the car. + +"Did you let somebody out at my floor?" + +"Yes, ma'm, gempman." + +"Take me down, please, without stopping." + +The car dropped with sickening rapidity, and she stepped out into the +foyer, but only to realize in consternation the flat futility of her +strategem when Bel placed himself before her, blocking the way to the +street. + +Her heart checked and raced, she was oddly at once aghast and elated. +She couldn't be sorry her ruse had failed, subconsciously she had wanted +all along to see Bel, just for a minute, face to face, with her own eyes +to see how he looked, how her flight had affected him, whether ill or +well. + +Though he seemed to be quite himself, neither under the influence of nor +suffering from recent indulgence in drink, his face looked thinner, his +eyes a trifle more deeply set in his head; and there was new firmness in +the set of his mouth. + +In this new guise, the old appeal was strong. For a space of several +beats her heart misgave her.... + +In a matter-of-course way Bel offered a hand, and Lucinda touched it +mechanically. + +"Sorry, Linda, if I disappointed you, but thought I recognized your +handbag being carried to the door, and waited for this car to come down +on the off-chance...." + +"I see," she articulated with an effort. + +"Hope you're not angry...." Bel smiled as if he read her weakness, +smiled with a fatal trace of over-confidence. "Had to see you, couldn't +let you get away without giving me a hearing, after all the trouble I've +had finding you." + +"It's too late, I'm afraid--this isn't the place, either, to discuss +such matters. Besides, I'm in a great hurry." + +"You can give me a few minutes, surely. If you'll step into the +reception-room with me for a minute----" + +"Bel: I tell you it's too late." + +Struggling to keep his temper, Bel caught his underlip between his +teeth, while Lucinda cast witlessly about her for some way of escape. +None offered. But she noticed that a young man standing nearby was +observing them with keen interest, a rather brilliantly good-looking +young man, brilliantly well dressed. As Lucinda's glance rested +transiently on him, his face brightened with a tentative smile, and she +thought he started as if he were impulsively minded to approach. If so, +he reconsidered instantly. With a frown she looked back to Bel. + +He made a gesture of entreaty. "You can't put me off like this, Linda, +when I've come so far, gone through so much----" + +"I can because I must, Bel--I will." + +"No, by God! you can't and shan't!" + +He caught her arm lightly as she tried to pass. She stopped, her face +hardening. + +"Are you going to make another scene, publicly disgrace me again even +when sober?" + +His hand dropped to his side. Lucinda began to walk rapidly toward the +street entrance, but had taken few steps when Bellamy ranged alongside. + +"Linda: you've _got_ to listen to me! There's something I've got to tell +you----" + +"Then go back to New York and tell it to Harford Willis. If it's +anything I want to hear, he will write me." + +"Harford Willis! What's he--!" The significance of her words seemed to +come to Bel all at once. "You don't mean to say you're going--! You +can't be meaning to--!" With a long stride Bel swung in front of her +again at the head of the stairs to the street. "At least, tell me what +you mean to do." + +"I mean to go to Reno, as soon as you let me pass." + +Bellamy's eyes narrowed as if in physical pain. He threw out a hand of +inarticulate protest, and let it fall in despair. Subduing a strong +desire to bolt for it, Lucinda began to descend at a pace not +inconsistent with dignity. At the same time, sensitiveness to the +situation, the feeling that they had been playing a scene of intimate +domestic drama for the edification of an entire hotel, made her aware +that the young man whose interest had first manifested near the +elevators had followed and was now standing at the head of the steps, +over across from Bellamy. + +Pushing through the door, she breathed thankfully the stinging winter +air. The canopy lamps made the sidewalk bright and discovered her +bellboy shivering by the open door of a taxicab. As she moved toward it +she heard the revolving door behind her buffet the air, then Bel's voice +crying out her name. + +Abandoning all pretense, Lucinda ran. The bellboy caught her arm to help +her into the cab and chattered: "W-where t-t-to, m'm?" She was prevented +from answering by Bel, who elbowed the boy aside and caught her by the +shoulders. + +"No!" he cried violently. "No, you shan't--d'you hear?--you shan't go +without listening to me!" + +By some means, she did not know quite how, Lucinda broke out of his +hands and stepped back. + +"Let me alone!" she insisted. "Let me----" + +Somebody came between them. Startled, she identified the strange young +man of the foyer. + +"Can I be of service?" he suggested in an amused drawl. + +Instinctively she gasped: "No, please--!" At the same time Bel tried to +shoulder the other roughly out of his way; the gratuitous champion stood +firm, merely counselling "Easy, old thing, easy!" Then Bel lost his +head. Lucinda heard him damning the other. There was a slight scuffle, +in which the two, locked in each other's arms, reeled to one side. The +bellboy was shouting "Now, ma'm--now's your chance!" She stumbled into +the taxi. Holding the door, the boy demanded: "Where to, ma'm--where +to?" She gasped: "Anywhere--only, tell him, hurry!" The door crashed, +gears meshed with a grinding screech, the cab leaped forward with such +spirit that Lucinda was thrown heavily against the back of the seat. + +When she recovered, the vehicle was turning a corner. Through its window +she caught a glimpse of the sidewalk in front of the Blackstone, just a +bare glimpse of two figures struggling, with several others running +toward them. Then the corner blocked out the scene. + + + + +XVII + + +Darting and dodging through traffic-choked thoroughfares, the taxicab +had travelled a mile and more before Lucinda felt able to give the next +steps the careful consideration which this pinch of mischance imposed. + +In the upshot, though street clocks advised that she had the best part +of two hours to kill before she could board her train, she tapped on the +window and directed her driver to proceed to the Santa Fé Station. She +felt reasonably safe in assuming that Bel wouldn't look for her there. +Since she had told him she was going to Reno, his natural inference +would be that she meant to travel by the direct overland route, he would +set himself to waylay her in the Union Pacific terminal if anywhere. +Provided, of course, that he had succeeded in discouraging the +attentions of the gallant busybody in fit shape to make himself a +nuisance again that night. + +She couldn't help giggling nervously over the picture painted by a +superexcited imagination. + +The remaining hours of the evening worked out as eventlessly as she had +hoped. Bellamy didn't show up at the station, she dined after a fashion +in its restaurant, with her nose in a newspaper none of whose +intelligence meant anything to hers, as soon as the platform gates were +opened she was conducted by a porter to her reservation in the last car +of the train but one, the observation-car; and in the latter Lucinda +waited till her berth had been made ready. Then she went to bed. + +She had planned to read herself asleep, but the armful of books and +magazines purchased at the station bookstall either purveyed only +fiction of a peculiarly insipid sort or else life itself was just then +too richly coloured, too swift of movement to admit of that +self-surrender which is requisite if mere artistic effort is to take +effect. + +And then the thoughtful porter had fastened a folded sheet across the +double windows to temper the penetrating breath of that bitter night. So +it wasn't possible to divert oneself by watching the snow-clad land +unroll its blurred vistas of blue nocturnal beauty. + +One could do nothing, indeed, but try vainly not to think, watch the +curtains swaying that shut out the aisle, listen to the tireless +thrumming of the trucks and the melancholy hooting with which the engine +saluted every cross-road, and pray for sleep. + +Somewhere a peevish child wailed fitfully for hours on end, somewhere +else a man snored as if strangling in his sleep. Till long after +midnight noisy feet straggled intermittently to and from the observation +car. And once Lucinda, at last on the verge of drifting off, started +suddenly wide-awake, stabbed to the heart by tardy appreciation of the +fact that, now Bel knew where she was bound, she could not be sure of +finding even Reno a refuge from his persistence, his importunities. + +For the matter of that, if Bel, or the detectives whom he had told +Willis he might employ, had been cunning enough to trace her to Chicago, +they would find her no matter where else she might seek to hide herself +away. + +Only perhaps by changing her name.... + +But how could she sue for divorce if she lived under an assumed name? + +Toward morning she drifted into an uneasy form of semi-slumber, and from +this into deep sleep. It was late when she was awakened by the bustle of +people fighting with their garments and breaking the trails to the +wash-rooms, and in the aisle a negro voice intoning musically: "Las' +call fo' brekfus in the dinin'-cyar"--over and over. + +To find the dining-car Lucinda had to make her way through so many +sleeping-cars that she lost count, cars all alike as to aisles +obstructed by people dressing, people passing to and fro, porters +dismantling tumbled berths. By way of some slight compensation, she was +allotted a small table with places for two, the other chair being +untenanted, which she considered much preferable to the tables for four +across the aisle. Then, too, the napery was spotless, the silverware +lustrous, flowers were brave in a vase at her elbow, the waiter was +civil and seemed eager to please. + +Lucinda scribbled her order on the blank form provided, then rested her +cheek on a hand and gazed moodily out at wheeling perspectives of a +countryside blanketed with snow. Reminding herself that the train was +due in Kansas City during the morning, she seriously thought of leaving +it there and waiting over till accommodations could be had that would +insure privacy for the remainder of the journey, even though this might +involve weeks of delay. + +Grape-fruit, coffee, and toast, all excellent, made her feel a bit +better. Nevertheless she made up her mind to ask the conductor to +arrange a stop-over for her at Kansas City. + +As she was pouring herself a second cup of coffee, the vacant chair at +her table was drawn out and an amiable, amused voice asked: "Do you mind +my sitting here, Mrs. Druce?" + +Lucinda jumped in consternation. The speaker bowed with an ingratiating +smile: her unsought champion of the night before!... + +She recollected herself and gave a jerky inclination of her head; but +all she could find to say was "Oh!" Whereupon the young man laughed +quietly and, construing her consent, sat down. + +"I'm surprised, too," he confessed--"pleasantly, if you don't mind my +saying so. And yet the dear public continually kicks about +coincidences!" + +Lucinda found her tongue but found it incompetent to frame any but +formal phrases: "I have a great deal to thank you for----" + +"Please don't think of it that way. To the contrary, I owe you all sorts +of apologies----" + +"Apologies!" + +"For butting in where any rational angel would have been scared to death +to tread, and particularly for being here--though that was my fault and +this isn't. But I'm glad you're not angry with me--" The waiter thrust +an order blank with the bill of fare under the young man's nose, and he +concluded to give them attention with an easy: "If you'll excuse me...." + +The head he bowed over the cards was well-modelled and thatched with a +good quantity of hair, light brown in colour and amazingly lustrous. A +skin whose patina of faint tan resembled that of old ivory, with never a +blemish, covered boldly fashioned features. The mobile face had a trick +of lighting up when its owner was talking as if aglow with the light of +his thought, so that his look was in fact more eloquent than his speech. +Lucinda thought she had never seen hands more strong and graceful, or +any better cared for, not even Bel's. Nor had Bel ever dressed in better +taste. + +The object of her interest waved the waiter away and met her openly +interested regard without loss of countenance. + +"I guess it's time I introduced myself, Mrs. Druce. My name is +Summerlad." After a slight pause and with a hint of self-consciousness, +he amplified: "Lynn Summerlad." + +Sensible that he seemed to expect her to think well of that precious +name, Lucinda found no echo for it in the chambers of her memory. She +bowed and said "Thank you," and all at once discovered that she had +reason to be mystified. + +"But how is it you know my name, Mr. Summerlad?" + +"That's easy: your husband told me." + +Again Lucinda was reduced to a blank "Oh!" This time she felt that she +was colouring. + +"In the police station," Mr. Summerlad added with a broad grin. "But +don't be alarmed, we weren't either of us mussed up much. Only, you see, +Mr. Druce rather lost his head--can't say I blame him--and when the +innocent bystanders insisted on separating us, and a cop happened along +and took a hand, he--wouldn't be happy till he'd had me arrested on a +charge of assault. So the officer marched us both off to the nearest +station-house, with half Chicago tagging at our heels. By the time we +got there your husband had cooled down and remembered that publicity +wasn't his best bet. So he withdrew the charge." + +"How dreadful!" Lucinda murmured, her thoughts with Bellamy. "I'm so +sorry." + +"No reason to be. If you must know, I enjoyed the adventure +tremendously. That's what one gets for having been born with a perverted +sense of humour." + +"But if you had been locked up----!" + +"Oh, it wouldn't have been for long, I'd have got somebody to bail me +out inside of fifteen minutes. But there wasn't ever any danger of that, +really. You see, the sergeant knew me at sight and--well, the sentiment +of all hands seemed to be with me. Besides, it wasn't as if I'd never +been pinched before." + +"You don't mean to tell me you're in the habit of--of--" + +"Of mixing in every time I run across a matrimonial rukus? Hardly! I +mean, pinched for speeding. You know what the roads are, out on the +Coast, hard and smooth and straight as a string for miles at a time. You +can hardly resist them, once you get beyond the city limits. Guess I'll +have to after this, though. The last time they got me, the judge gave me +his word I wouldn't get off again with a fine, the next offense would +mean the hoosegow for mine. And between you and me, I haven't any +hankering to see the inside of the Los Angeles County jail." + +"I should hope not." + +Lucinda caught the eye of her waiter and gave him a bill to pay for her +breakfast. But she couldn't escape with good grace just yet, unless she +wished to administer a downright snub she would have to wait for her +change. + +"I'd like to show you what motoring is around Los Angeles," Mr. +Summerlad pursued with breath-taking assurance. "If it isn't an +impertinent question, may I ask if that's where you're bound?" + +"No," Lucinda replied briefly. One began to foresee that to put a damper +on such abounding enterprise would prove far from easy. + +"I see: taking in the Grand Canyon, I suppose. You'll find it well worth +your while. Gorgeous scenery and everything. I've done the Canyon a +dozen times, used to run up there whenever I got a week to myself, you +know. If it wasn't for this wretched business I'm in"--again that +suspicion of self-consciousness--"I'd drop off there for a few days this +trip. But I'm afraid it's no go. Too busy. Beastly nuisance. Still, +there's nothing more uncertain than a job like mine. So it's well to +make pay while the sun shines." + +"I'm sure ..." said Lucinda, gathering up her change. And Summerlad's +face fell touchingly as he grasped the fact that she was really going to +leave him to finish his breakfast alone. "I am deeply indebted to you," +she pursued. "No, please don't tell me again I must forget it, because I +can't and don't want to. I was at my wits' ends last night. But, of +course, it isn't a thing one can talk about----" + +"Well, there are lots of other things we can talk about," Summerlad +rejoined cheerily. "So let's forget the unpleasant ones. That is--hope +you don't think I'm impertinent--but it's a long, lonesome trip, and +I'll be very happy if you'll let me prattle in your company now and +then." + +Since she was leaving the train at Kansas City there was nothing to be +gained by being rude. Lucinda contented herself with replying, no, she +wouldn't mind, and thrust back her chair. Immediately Summerlad was on +his feet, napkin in hand, bowing prettily. + +"Awfully good of you, Mrs. Druce. Where shall I find you, say in an hour +or two? The observation car?" + +"Perhaps," Lucinda smiled. + +"Or would you rather I looked you up----?" + +"I'm in the last car but one," Lucinda told him sweetly--"Section Ten." + +She made her way back to that reservation determined to lose no time +about interviewing the conductor. But the porter failed to answer +repeated pressures on the call-button, and at length surmising the +truth, that he was getting his own breakfast, Lucinda resigned herself +to wait. There was plenty of time.... + +Now that she was extricated from it the comic element in her late +rencontre began to make irresistible appeal. She picked up a book, +opened it, bent her head low above it to hide smiling lips and dancing +eyes from people passing in the aisle; but was not well settled in this +pose when she heard a joyful cry--"Cindy! Cindy Druce!"--and rose, +dropping the book in her astonishment, to be enfolded in the arms of +Fanny Lontaine. + + + + +XVIII + + +"I feel," Lucinda confessed, "precisely like a weathervane in a +whirlwind, I mean the way it ought to: every few minutes I find my nose +pointing in a new direction." + +"You dear!" Seated opposite her at the windows of the Lontaine +drawing-room, Fanny leaned over and squeezed her hand affectionately. "I +can't tell you how happy I am that pretty nose is pointing now the same +way as ours." + +"And I, Fanny. It's really a wonderful sensation, you know, after all +that worry and uncertainty, to know one's life is mapped ahead for a few +days at least. I don't believe any lost puppy ever felt more friendless +than I did just before we met, when I thought I was going to get off at +Kansas City. And my present frame of mind is that same puppy's when it +finds itself all at once adopted by a family that likes animals." + +Kansas City was already the idle menace of a dimming dream. Awkward but +unavoidable explanations, haltingly offered, had been accepted without +question: a manifestation of tactful sympathy which had not only won +Lucinda's heart completely but, working together with her reluctance to +proceed to Reno before she could feel reasonably sure of being suffered +to live there unmolested, had influenced her to agree to go on with the +Lontaines to Los Angeles; whither (she was tacitly led to infer) his +motion-picture interests had peremptorily called Lontaine. + +It seemed a sensible move as well as one most agreeable in prospect. She +could rest in comfort and friendly companionship for a few weeks, +consult with Harford Willis by letter, at leisure and with a calm mind +plan for the future. She now saw, as if new light had somehow been cast +upon her problems by this meeting of happy chance, that there was really +no hurry, no reason why she shouldn't take her time about the unpleasant +business, attend to its transaction only when and as it suited her will +and convenience. It wasn't as if she wanted to remarry, or was in any +way dependent upon Bel and must beg the courts to make him provide for +her. If anything, her personal resources exceeded Bellamy's. + +And then it would be amusing to see Los Angeles under the wing of so +well-informed a motion-picture impresario as Lontaine. That afternoon at +the Culp studios had been fascinating; how much more so would it be to +live for a time in a city that was, at least as Lontaine limned it, one +vast open-air studio, to be associated with people who were actually +doing something with their lives. What a change from the life that had +grown to seem tedious and unprofitable even before Bellamy had made its +continuance intolerable! + +"But you haven't told me," she complained, "about those tests. Did you +go to see them that day? How did they come out? How did I look?" + +"Oh, Cindy! what a shame you missed it. You were adorable, everybody +simply raved about you." + +"Fact, Mrs. Druce. You outclassed even Alma Daley in that Palm Room +scene. No, but seriously: it was you first, Miss Daley second, Fanny a +good third, the rest nowhere. You missed scoring no end of a personal +triumph in the projection-room. Though, if you ask me, Miss Daley was +just as well pleased." + +"You're making fun of me." + +"Absolutely not." + +"Well, it's hard to believe, but if you mean it, the Culps and their +cameraman would seem to have been right." + +"Oh, I'd almost forgotten!" Fanny cried. "Mr. Culp was terribly put out +because you weren't there, and made me promise faithfully to ask you to +call him up and make an appointment for another private showing." + +"Right about what?" Lontaine earnestly wanted to know. + +"Why, they were so sure I would screen well, as they put it, Mr. Culp +made me an offer, as we were leaving, to act with his wife in her next +picture." + +Lontaine's eyes widened into a luminous blue stare; and abruptly, as if +to hide the thought behind them, he threw away a half-smoked cigarette +and, helping himself to another, bent forward, tapping it on a +thumb-nail. + +"Really, dearest? How priceless! And what did you say to the creature?" + +"Oh, I was kind but firm." + +"Ben Culp's a big man in the cinema game," Lontaine commented without +looking up. "His advice is worth something, Mrs. Druce. If he says you'd +make a hit, you might do worse than listen to him. That is, of course, +if you should ever think of taking a flyer in the motion-picture +business." + +"I'm not even dreaming of such a thing. Why, it's absurd!" + +"I'll wager you wouldn't say so if you once saw yourself on the screen. +Only wish I had a print of those tests to show you." + +"I'm not curious." + +"Then you're the modern miracle, Mrs. Druce--a woman without either +vanity or a secret ambition to be a cinema star." Lontaine laughed and +lazily got up. "I can only say you've got a chance to make a name for +yourself I wouldn't overlook if I stood in your shoes.... But if you'll +excuse me now, think I'll roll along and arrange matters with the +conductor and porters." + +"You're too good to me," Lucinda protested. "I know I'm imposing----" + +"Absolutely nothing in that. Only too happy." + +The door was behind Lucinda's shoulder. Closing it, unseen by her, +Lontaine contrived to exchange with his wife a look of profound +significance. Then he lounged thoughtfully forward to the club car and +delayed there, in deep abstraction, long enough to smoke two cigarettes +before proceeding to hunt up and interview the conductor about Lucinda's +change of destination, then instruct the porters to shift her luggage to +the Lontaine drawing-room and his own effects to the section she was +vacating. + +Into making this move Lucinda had been talked against her half-hearted +demurs. She knew very well it wasn't the right thing to do, to take +advantage of their kindness of heart, to separate husband and wife; but +they wouldn't listen to her; and after all it was hardly in human nature +to undergo again the ordeal of the open sleeping-car by night if one +might by any means avoid it; while Lontaine insisted he wouldn't mind in +the least. + +"I'm an old hand at travelling under any and all conditions," he had +asserted--"accustomed to roughing it, you know. Even upper berths hold +no terrors for me, while a whole section is simply sybaritic sensuality. +If one hadn't brought Fanny along, it would never have entered the old +bean to do oneself better than a lower. Absolutely. You don't imagine +Fan and I could rest in comfort, knowing you were unhappy back there? +Rather not!" + +In point of fact, Lontaine had been at once eager to earn Lucinda's +favour and not at all averse to a move which promised more personal +liberty than one could command penned up in a stuffy coop with one's +wife. Oh, not that he wasn't fond enough of Fan, but--well, when all was +said, one was bound to admit Fan was a bit, you know, American. Not to +put too fine a point on it, decidedly American. Nobody's fool, Fan. Had +a head on her shoulders and used it, and a way of looking at one, +besides, as if she were actually looking through one, now and then, that +made one feel positively ratty. Chap could do with an occasional +furlough from that sort of thing. + +It wasn't as if they were still lovers, you see. Rough going, the +devil's own luck and mutual disappointment had put rather a permanent +crimp into the first fine raptures. They got along well enough nowadays, +to be sure, but it was no good pretending that either couldn't have done +just as well alone. But then it had hardly been in the first place what +one might call a love match. Oh, yes, tremendously taken with each +other, and all that; but if you put it to the test of cold facts, the +truth was, Fan had married with an eye to that distant title, whose +remoteness the War had so inconsiderately failed to abridge, while +Lontaine had been quite as much influenced by Fan's filial relationship +to a fortune of something like eighty millions. But that hope, too, had +long since gone glimmering. + +Rotten form, not to say vicious, on the part of the Terror of the Wheat +Pit, to cut off his only begotten daughter with a shilling, one meant to +say its equivalent measured by the bulk of his wealth. The legacy Fan +had picked up in Chicago would have been barely enough to satisfy their +joint and several creditors. Not that one was mad enough to fritter the +money away like that. But if this Los Angeles venture were to turn out a +bloomer.... + +But why anticipate the worst? Buck up and consider the widely advertised +silver lining.... A bit of luck, falling in with this Druce girl, under +the circumstances. No question about the solid establishment of her +financial standing: the good old Rock of Gibraltar was a reed in the +wind by comparison.... Now if only one dared count on Fan's being +amenable to reason, grasping the logical possibilities, doing her bit +like a sensible little woman.... + +Seated in Section 10, waiting for the porter to bring back his personal +impedimenta from the drawing-room, Harry Lontaine turned a handsome face +to the window, frowning absently, the nervous frown of a man whose +cleverness has never proved quite equal to the task of satisfying +appetites at once strong and fastidious. + +By degrees its place was taken by a look of dreaming: Lontaine was +viewing not the dreary wastes of Kansan lands under the iron rule of +Winter but a California of infatuate imagining, a land all smiling in +the shine of a benign sun, set with groves of orange trees and olives, +dotted with picturesque bungalows whose white walls were relieved by the +living green of vines, and peopled by a race of blessed beings born to a +heritage of lifelong beauty, youth, and love-in-idleness; a land in +whose charmed soil fortunes grew of seeds of careless sowing, and +through whose scenes of subtropical loveliness prophetic vision descried +a heroic figure moving, courted and applauded by happy, unenvious +multitudes, the figure of Harry Lontaine, Esq., newest but mightiest +overlord of the cinema.... + +From this delectable realm the dreamer was recalled by consciousness of +somebody standing in the aisle and staring impertinently. Racial shyness +erased all signs of wistfulness in one instant and cloaked sensitiveness +in a guise of glacial arrogance; in another, recognition dawned, and +hauteur was in turn discarded and a more approachable mien set up in its +stead. Lontaine was too diligent a student of motion-pictures not to +know at sight the features of Lynn Summerlad, by long odds the most +popular male star of the American cinema. A personage worth knowing.... + +Misreading his expression, Mr. Summerlad felt called upon to apologize. + +"Beg your pardon, but I was expecting to find a lady in this section, I +may say a friend: a Mrs. Druce. Do you by any chance----?" + + + + +XIX + + +Bridge killed the long hours of that first afternoon on board a train +whose windows revealed seldom a prospect less desolate than one of +prairie meadows fallowed but frozen, dusky beneath a tarnished sky: a +still and roomy land spaciously fenced, scored by rare roads that knew +no turning, but ran like ruled diameters of the wide ring of the +horizon: the wheat-bin of the world swept and garnished by winter winds. + +Lynn Summerlad made a fourth at the table set up in the Lontaine +drawing-room; invited by Lontaine as an acquaintance of Lucinda's and a +grateful addition to the party because he played something better than +merely a good game. + +Not only "fearfully easy to look at" (as Fanny confided to Lucinda) but +fair spoken and well if at times a shade carefully mannered, he was +intelligent and ready of wit; so that, when he proved these qualities by +not forcing himself upon the trio at or after dinner, he was missed; and +Lucinda, while she waited for sleep to blind her eyes that night, +discovered that she was looking forward to the next afternoon, when +Bridge would be again in order and infeasible without the fourth. + +But she was too sleepy to be concerned about the methods with which +Summerlad, making no perceptible effort, had succeeded in winning back +the ground which over-assurance had lost for him at the breakfast table. +It was enough that he qualified as that all too unordinary social +phenomenon, "an amusing person." + +She began to study him more intently if discreetly, however, when the +train pulled into Albuquerque for its scheduled stop of an hour at noon +of the second day, and the Lontaines and Lucinda, alighting to stretch +their legs, found Summerlad, alert and debonnaire, waiting on the +platform, prepared to act as their guide and protect them against their +tenderfoot tendency to purchase all the souvenirs in sight. + +This quiet process of noting and weighing ran like a strand of +distinctive colour through the patterned impressions of the day, till, +retracing it in reverie after nightfall, it was possible for Lucinda to +make up her mind that she liked Lynn Summerlad decidedly. True that he +was not of her world; but then neither was she herself any more, in this +anomalous stage of the apostate wife, neither wife nor widow, not even +honest divorcée. + +If Summerlad's character as she read it had faults, if an occasional +crudity flawed his finish, these things were held to be condonable in +view of his youth. He seemed ridiculously young to Lucinda, but sure to +improve with age, sure to take on polish from rubbing up against life. +Especially if he were so fortunate as to find the right woman to watch +over and advise him. An interesting job, for the right woman.... + +Not (she assured herself hastily) that it would be a job to interest +her. An absurd turn of thought, anyway. Why she had wasted time on it +she really didn't know. Unless, of course, its incentive had lain in +consciousness of Summerlad's naïve captivation. One couldn't very well +overlook that. He was so artless about it, boyish, and--well--nice. It +was most entertaining. + +It was also, if truth would out, far from displeasing. + +Apprehension of this most human foible in herself caused Lucinda to +smile confidentially into the darkness streaming gustily astern from the +observation platform, to which the four of them had repaired to wait +while their several berths were being made up. But the hour was so late, +the night air so chill in the altitudes which the train was then +traversing, that no other passengers had cared to dispute with them the +platform chairs; while Fanny had excused herself before and Lontaine had +quietly taken himself off during Lucinda's spell of thoughtfulness. So +that now she found herself alone with Summerlad, when that one, seeing +the sweet line of her cheek round in the light from the windows behind +them, and surmising a smile while still her face remained in shadow, +enquired with a note of plaintiveness: "What's the joke, Mrs. Druce? +Won't you let me in on the laugh, too?" + +"I'm not sure it was a joke," Lucinda replied; "it was more contentment. +I was thinking I'd been having a rather good time, these last two days." + +"It's seemed a wonderful time to me," Summerlad declared in a voice that +promised, with any encouragement, to become sentimental. + +"Quite a facer for my anticipations," Lucinda interposed +firmly--"considering the way I had to fly Chicago and my husband." Then +she laughed briefly to prove she wasn't downhearted. "But I daresay +you're wondering, Mr. Summerlad...." + +"Eaten alive by inquisitiveness, if you must know. All the same, I don't +want to know anything you don't want to tell me; and I don't have to +tell you, you don't have to tell me anything--if you know what I mean." + +"It sounds a bit involved," Lucinda confessed, judgmatical; "still, I +think I do know what you mean. And it's only civil to tell you I was +leaving to go to Reno by way of San Francisco when my husband found me +at the Blackstone. But now the Lontaines have persuaded me to spend a +few weeks with them in Los Angeles----" + +"That's something you'll never regret." + +"I hope so." + +"You won't if you leave it to me." + +"Yes, I'm sure you mean to be nice to us; but you're going to be very +busy when you get to Los Angeles, aren't you?" + +"I'm never going to be too busy to----" + +"But now you remind me," Lucinda interrupted with decision. "I've got a +great favor to beg of you, Mr. Summerlad." + +"Can't make it too great----" + +"Fanny and I were discussing it this morning, and it seemed wise to +us.... You've seen something of how persistent my husband can be----" + +"Can't blame him for that." + +"Well, then: the only way I can account for his having found me in +Chicago is on the theory that he employed detectives. But of course I'd +made it easy for them by using my own name wherever I went." + +"Why don't you use another name, then?" + +"Just what Fanny and I were saying. If I don't, Bel--Mr. Druce--is sure +to follow me to Los Angeles, sooner or later, and make more scenes. I'd +like to avoid that, if I can." + +"Surest thing you know, he'll find out, if the Los Angeles newspapers +ever discover Mrs. Bellamy Druce of New York is in the civic midst. The +best little thing they do is print scare-head stories about +distinguished visitors and the flattering things they say about our +pretty village." + +"That settles it, then: I'm going to be somebody else for a while. Help +me choose a good, safe nom de guerre, please." + +"Let's see: Mrs. Lontaine calls you Cindy...." + +"Short for Lucinda." + +"How about Lee? Lucinda Lee?" + +"I like that. But it does sound like the movies, doesn't it?" + +"What do you expect of a movie actor, Mrs. Druce?" + +"Mrs. Lee, please." + +"Beg pardon: Mrs. Lee." + +"And you'll keep my horrid secret, won't you?" + +"If you knew how complimented I feel, you'd know I would die several +highly disagreeable deaths before I'd let you think me unworthy of your +confidence." + +"That's very sweet," Lucinda considered with mischievous gravity. "And I +am most appreciative. But if you will persist in playing on my +susceptibilities so ardently, Mr. Summerlad, I'll have to go to bed." + +"Please sit still: I'll be good." + +"No, but seriously," Lucinda insisted, rising: "it is late, and I want +to wake up early, I don't want to miss anything of this wonderful +country." + +"You won't see anything in the morning but desert, the edge of the +Mojave." + +"But we've been in the desert all afternoon and I adore it." + +"Oh, these Arizona plains! they're not real desert; they're just letting +on; give them a few drinks and they'll start a riot--of vegetation. But +the Mojave's sure-enough he-desert: sand and sun, cactus and alkali. I'm +much more interesting, I'm so human." + +"Yes: I've noticed. Masculine human. But, you see, a desert's a novelty. +I really must go...." + +She went to sleep under two blankets, but before day-break a sudden rise +in temperature woke her up. + +The train was at a standstill. Lucinda put up the window-shade to see, +all dim in lilac twilight, a brick platform, a building of Spanish type, +a signboard proclaiming one enigmatic word: NEEDLES. + +Sharp jolts in series ran through the linked cars, a trainman beneath +the window performed cryptic calisthenics with a lantern, one unseen +uttered a prolonged, heart-rending howl, couplings clanked, the train +gathered way. + +As it toiled with stertorous pantings on up-grades seemingly +interminable, the night grew cool again but by no means so cold as at +bedtime. The outposts of Winter had been passed. The porter who tidied +up the drawing-room in the morning opened a window and adjusted a +cinder-screen: the breath of the desert was warm but deliciously sweet. +Outside, heat-devils jigged above a blasted waste that was, as Lucinda +viewed it, weirdly beautiful. The noontide air at Barstow had all the +fever of a windless day of August in the East. Within the riven scarps +of the Cajon Pass it was hotter still. A long, swift down-swoop toward +the Pacific brought them by mid-afternoon to San Bernardino, set in +emerald, where people lolled about the platform in white flannels and +airy organdies. + +The panorama of sylvan loveliness, all green and gold, commanded by the +windows from San Bernardino onward, prepared for a Los Angeles widely +unlike the city of Lucinda's first confused impressions, for something +Arcadian and spacious instead of a school of sky-scrapers that might +have been transported en masse from almost any thriving commercial +centre of the North Atlantic seaboard. She was sensible of dull +resentment as Summerlad's car--an open one but of overpowering bigness +and staggering in its colour-scheme of yellow and black with silver +trimmings--progressed in majesty through streets where monstrous +trolleys ground and clanged, motor vehicles plodded, champing at the +bits, in solid column formation, and singularly shabby multitudes +drifted listlessly between towering white marble walls. + +Only train-weariness and the glad prospect of a tub bath earned the +Hotel Alexandria forgivenness for its sin of ostentation in pretending +to stand at Broadway and Forty-second street, New York. + +That sense of having been somehow swindled was, if anything, stronger in +consequence of an expedition afoot with Fanny after breakfast, in the +course of which the two women explored the shopping and business +district adjacent to the hotel. The imaginations responsible for the +plan and building of the city had suffered from that deadly blight of +imitativeness which afflicts the American mentality all the land over, +restricting every form of emulation to charted channels, with the result +that ambition seldom seeks its outlet in expression of individuality but +as a rule in the belittling of another's achievement through simple +exaggeration of its bulk and lines, in being not distinctive but only +bigger, showier, and more blatant. + +Having lunched with Fanny (Lontaine was busy, it was understood, +promoting his indefinite but extensive motion-picture interests) Lucinda +returned to rooms which Summerlad had caused to be transformed in her +absence into the likeness of a fashionable florist and fruiterer's shop; +and while she was trying to decide whether to move half the lot or +herself out into the hall, the telephone rang and a strange voice +announced that Mr. Summerlad's chauffeur was speaking and Mr. +Summerlad's car was at the door and likewise at the disposition of Mrs. +Lee and Mrs. Lontaine for the afternoon. + +"Ought we?" Lucinda doubted with a little grimace. + +"Why not?" Fanny asked. + +"It seems just a bit.... Oh, I don't know. I presume it would be +ungracious to question Californian hospitality." + +"Copy-Californian," Fanny corrected. "Chances are you'll find +Summerlad's a native son of Omaha or some point East. Does it matter? He +means well, and we want to see Los Angeles." + +"But that car!" + +"It is rather a circus-wagon; but judging by what we've seen in the +streets today, the way to make oneself conspicuous here is to sport a +car of gaudy black or screaming navy blue. In the racy idiom of the +Golden West--let's go." + +They went. In ten minutes Los Angeles of the sky-scrapers was forgotten. +For three hours league after league of garden-land, groves, plantations, +ocean beach, bare brown hills, verdant valleys wide as an Eastern +county, all bathed in sunlight of peculiar brilliance and steadiness +falling through crystalline air from a sky innocent of cloud, passed in +review before beauty-stricken eyes. + +In the end the car turned without warning off a main-travelled highway, +swept the bluestone drive of what might well have been parked private +grounds, and stopped before the imposing, columned portico of an old +Colonial mansion. + +The chauffeur turned back a friendly, grinning face. "This is where Mr. +Summerlad works," he announced--"the Zinn Studios." + +"Studios!" + +"Yes, ma'm--where they make the movin'-pictures." + +Lucinda stared unbelievingly at the building, finding it hardly possible +to reconcile such mellow beauty of scheme and proportion, so harmonious +with the spacious lawns and massed foliage of its setting, with memories +of those grubby, grimy, back-street premises tenanted by the Culp +studios in New York. + +A screen-door beneath the portico opened, Mr. Summerlad emerged, a shape +of slender elegance in Shantung silk, and ran impetuously down to the +car. With more deliberation Lontaine appeared and waited. + +"Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Lontaine: I hope you'll forgive me for telling Tom to +stop in here instead of taking you back to the hotel. Lontaine's here, +and we've planned a little surprise, dinner at my place out in Beverly +Hills, just the four of us. You won't say no and spoil everything? +That's splendid! But it's early, and perhaps you'd like a look around a +regular movie factory first...." + +Conducting them through the building by way of a panelled entrance hall, +Summerlad explained that the stages were temporarily idle, due to the +fact that photography on two productions in process had recently been +finished and their casts disbanded, only the directors and their staffs +remaining to cut and title the films; while the production in which +Summerlad was to play the lead was as yet not ready for the cameras. + +The working premises lay behind the administration building. But here +again Lucinda noted few points of close resemblance to the Culp studios. +A field several acres in extent, about half in turf, was surrounded by a +sizeable village of glass-roofed stages and structures housing the +technical and mechanical departments--a laboratory, a costumier's, +property, carpenter and scene-painting shops, directors' offices, +dressing, projection and cutting-rooms, a garage, sheds to shelter +motor-cars and trucks by the score, stables, a small menagerie, a huge +tank for "water stuff," a monolithic fire-proof vault of cement for the +storage of film. + +Due in great measure to temporary suspension of active camera-work, the +place seemed very peaceful and pervaded by an atmosphere of orderliness +and efficiency. There were no actors wasting time about the grounds, no +sets occupied the huge enclosed stages, the men at work in the several +departments seemed all to be busy. + +"Well, Mrs. Lee: what do you think of a California studio? Not much like +what you've seen back East, eh?" + +Lucinda shook her head, and smiled. "I am enchanted with this country," +she said; "if what I've seen of it this afternoon is any criterion, I'm +afraid it's going to be hard to go away from...." + +"You haven't begun to see it yet." Summerlad declared. "Wait till we've +had a few motor trips." + +"As for your studio, it is most marvellous to me. If they're all like +this, I don't wonder people are mad to act in motion-pictures. If Mr. +Culp had promised me anything like this, I don't believe I should have +had the courage to refuse." + +"It's not too late to change your mind, Mrs. Lee," Lontaine suggested. +"In fact, if I thought there was any hope you would, I'd go down on my +knees to you. Oh, not to act for Culp, but for me; or rather, for +yourself, as the head and the star of your own company. No: I'm +serious. I've been talking with several people today who want me to try +producing out here. I can get unlimited capital to back me. This country +today is crying for better pictures--and I know how to make them. I can +bring to the American cinema the one thing it needs, a thorough +knowledge of European methods. Only one thing makes me hesitate, the +lack of a suitable star. All the people of real ability seem to be tied +up under long-term contracts. I may lose months looking for the right +actress unless you----" + +"Why pick on me?" Lucinda laughed. "I'm not even an actress." + +"Ah! you forgot I've seen you prove on the screen what you can do. You +don't know yourself, Mrs. Lee. There isn't a woman in the country can +touch you, if you'll take your ability seriously. You need only two +things to make you great, a good director, and self-confidence." + +"Aren't you running a great risk, making such flattering overtures to an +untried, unknown amateur?" + +"Don't worry about me. If I had any hope of being able to persuade you +to try it on, I'd tell you to name your own terms, and shoulder the risk +without a murmur." + +Lontaine's earnestness was so real that one might no longer meet his +arguments with levity. There was a strained look of anxiety in the blue +eyes, a restrained passion of pleading in the ordinarily languid +accents. Or else Lucinda fancied these things. + +But a sidelong glance showed that Fanny, too, was apparently hanging +between hope and fear.... + +And a thought revived that had once or twice before presented itself, a +suspicion that all was not as well as one might wish with the state of +the Lontaine fortunes, strengthening the surmise that Lucinda's decision +meant more to them both than Lontaine had confessed. + +Still one hesitated to believe.... + +"But you can't be serious! Do you really want me to become a movie +actress under your management?" + +"You can't think of anything I wouldn't do to persuade you." + +"Why not, Mrs. Lee?" Summerlad urged. "It would be great fun for you, +and you can't fail, you can't lose anything. If you only knew how +inferior most stars are to you in every way...." + +"And if you should fail, Cindy," Fanny chimed in--"what does it matter? +Who would know? It wouldn't be you, it would be Lucinda Lee." + +"No," Lontaine insisted: "I've got a better screen name than that for +her. Not Lucinda: Linda Lee." + +"Come, Mrs. Lee: say you'll try it on, if only for the lark of it." + +"If I should, Mr. Summerlad, it wouldn't be for fun." + +"So much the better." + +"Then you will?" Lontaine persisted. "Do say yes." + +"Let me think...." + +And why not? Lucinda asked herself. She was alone in the world, lonely +but for these good friends who needed her help, or seemed to. It would +be good fun, it would be interesting, it would satisfy a need of which +she had been discontentedly aware even in the days when she had yet to +dream of leaving Bel. And--even as Fanny had argued--if she should fail +and have to give it up, who would care what had become of "Linda Lee"? + +"Very well," she said at length, with an uncertain smile--"suppose we +try." + + + + +XX + + +"To tomorrow's morning star of the screen, Linda Lee!" + +Thus Lynn Summerlad, mildly exalted, graceful and gracious even beyond +his studied habit, flourishing a glass of California champagne above the +dinner table in his bungalow in Beverly Hills. + +The toast went by acclamation, and Lucinda laughed, at once gratified, +diverted, and disposed to deprecate the spirit of these felicitations as +premature. + +It all seemed rather ridiculous, when one stopped to think, this taking +for granted the success of a venture projected so lately, by no strain +of imagination to be considered as already launched, and based wholly +upon the postulation that the greenest of novices might by some sorcery +of the cinema be ripened overnight into a genius of sorts. + +A phrase of Culp's recurred unbidden: "A lot of kids, that's what we got +to make pitchers with, a lot of kids." + +It was childish, in a way; on the other hand, it was undeniably pleasant +to think of oneself as one was being tempted to, as a sort of Sleeping +Beauty of the screen only waiting to be awakened to vivid life by one +wave of the witching wand of courage and self-confidence; pleasant to +let oneself go and believe such things might be. + +Nor was this difficult. Whether it resulted from the catching enthusiasm +of her company, or from self-reliance new-born of her success in doing +without Bellamy, or whether it were the glamour of this romantic land, +where man since time out of memory had been accustomed to see his +maddest dreams come true, certain it was that there seemed nothing +essentially improbable in the assumption that "Linda Lee," could figure +if she would as "tomorrow's morning star of the screen." + +One had only to listen to the gossip of Lontaine and Summerlad to +appreciate that stranger things had happened in the history of +motion-pictures. Nothing, indeed, was conceivably more strange than that +same history, more fantastic and incredible than the record of its +growth, almost within the span of a single decade, from the status of a +toy to that of an institution forming an inseparable part of the fabric +of life, taking its toll of the humblest, and throning and dethroning +kings of finance with the impersonal ruthlessness of an elemental force. + +One of the greatest of the producing organizations, whose studios +covered whole blocks of the heart of Hollywood, had had its beginnings +in a trifling story photographed under a big sun-umbrella in a vacant +lot. Its most formidable rival, with which it had ultimately +amalgamated, had been first financed with the mean savings of a +fur-cutter from the lower East Side of New York. Men whose abilities had +proved inadequate to command steady employment at fifty dollars a week +in the legitimate theatre were drawing a daily wage of five hundred +dollars as directors of motion-pictures. The one-time pantomime comedian +of an English company presenting a knockabout vaudeville act had made +himself a multi-millionaire through clowning before a camera. Young men +whose dramatic equipment was limited to the knowledge of how to show +their teeth and slick their hair, young women who had walked into favour +on the strength of their noble underpinning alone, were selling their +services to the cinema under contracts running for terms of years at +five thousand dollars a week; and you could take it from Mr. Summerlad +that most of these had come to Los Angeles with not more than one dollar +to click against another. + +"Why, look at me," he invited in an expansive moment: "never had earned +a dollar in my life. Didn't have to, you know: folks had a little money. +Six years ago my little sister caught a bad cold and the doctor +prescribed a Winter in California. Mother and I brought her out and +rented a bungalow in the foothills, up back of the Hollywood Hotel. One +day while I was wandering about I saw a car-load of people in paint and +evening clothes stop in front of a house with good-looking grounds. I +stopped, too. So did others; quite a crowd collected while they were +setting up the camera. Presently a little fellow in riding-breeches, +with an eyeshade, a shock of red hair, and more freckles than anybody +ever saw on a human map before or since, came weaving through the crowd +as if he was looking for somebody. When he saw me, he stopped and said: +'You'll do. Got a dress suit?' I laughed and said I had. He took out a +little book, wrote down my name and address and said: 'Studio tomorrow +morning at eight, made up. We'll need you about three days. Five a day.' +Then he hustled on. I went home and told my mother and sister the joke. +They egged me on to try it for the fun of it. Within two months I was on +the payroll at a hundred a week, and now...." + +Summerlad flashed an apologetic smile. "One of the worst faults we movie +actors have, Mrs. Lee, is talking big about our salaries. So I wont say +any more than this: outside the Big Four--Mary and Doug and Charlie and +Bill Hart--there's mighty few that drag down as much green money a week +as I do." + +"I'm glad to absolve you of the sin of boasting, Mr. Summerlad." + +"I suppose that did sound funny; but then, you see, I _am_ a movie +actor, I don't pretend to be better than the rest of us.... You wouldn't +guess who that director was--assistant director he was then--who gave me +my first engagement: Barry Nolan!" + +The name was apparently known to Lontaine, for he exclaimed "You don't +mean it!" as if no more exciting information had come to his ears in +many days. + +"The man I've got in mind to direct you in your first picture, Mrs. Lee; +that is, if you can get hold of Barry. You couldn't do better, but his +salary's ee-normous. He's working down in Culver City now, and I don't +know how long his contract runs, but you might be lucky enough to make a +deal of some sort. I'd give him a ring and find out for you, but I +happen to know Barry's got a party on at Sunset tonight. We might jump +into my machine and blow down there, if you like." + +"There's no hurry, Mr. Summerlad. Remember, Mr. Lontaine hasn't taken +the first step toward forming a company yet; he isn't in a position to +make Mr. Nolan any definite offer." + +"Well, but I'd hate to have you lose a chance. Barry's a wonder. Even +Griffith takes a back seat when Barry Nolan picks up the megaphone. And +there isn't anything I wouldn't do for him. Lord! how he worked to break +me in." + +Summerlad sighed, reminiscent. "Them was the happy days. We worked hard +for little money, but we had a good time and a healthy one, out in the +open air practically all day long. Light effects were then just +beginning to be discussed; I don't believe two studios on the Coast had +enclosed stages. Generally speaking, all our work was done either on +location or on open stages under diffusers." + +Lucinda repeated the last word with an enquiring inflexion, and +Summerlad explained. + +"You see, in those days we had to depend on the sun to light our +interior sets, and direct exposure meant hard contrasts of light and +shadow that didn't look natural. So we stretched great sheets of thin +cloth on wire frames overhead, and they broke up the sun's rays and +diffused an even glow all over the sets. But of course that restricted +us to overhead lighting for all interiors, and that was monotonous and +unnatural besides, because ordinary rooms aren't lighted from the +ceiling. And my! but it used to be cosy, working under diffusers on a +summer's day!" + +"But if you depended on the sun so exclusively," Fanny wanted to know, +"what did you do in the rainy season?" + +"Loafed, that's all: just loafed. There wasn't anything else to do but +loaf around and watch the sky for signs of a break and tell each other +how good we were. That was another reason why artificial lighting had to +come; it cost too much to carry studio overheads with all production at +a standstill during a rainy season that would maybe last five months, or +a heavy production payroll when often the rain would stop camera-work +for five days on end, and you never could count on two clear days +together. So, one after another, the big studios began to build enclosed +stages and work more and more by Kliegs and Cooper-Hewitts, till at +last--well, today the open stage is almost a thing of the past, and +acting for the camera isn't the good fun it used to be--kenneled all day +long on a sweltering stage, and the lights getting your eyes like they +do. Sometimes, after a spell of work on interiors, I'm as good as blind +for a week.... Funny to think--isn't it?--the California studios are +using artificial light almost exclusively, except of course for location +work, when what brought them out here was steady sunlight that didn't +cost anything seven or nine months out of each year." + +"But if there is no longer any real reason, such as the economy of +sunlight, why do the producers stop on here?" + +"Because they took root in Los Angeles in the early days, before people +had forgotten that principles of ordinary economy might be applied to +making pictures, and what took root grew, till today there are hundreds +of millions invested in picture plants here. Also because all the +picture people have dug in around the plants. Nearly every good actor +has his permanent home here, likewise most of the bad ones; and those +who do get a job in the East hurry back as soon as they finish up, so as +not to be among the missing if they're wanted for another job. You can +cast almost any picture perfectly in a few days in Hollywood, whereas +any place else, except maybe New York, it would take weeks to locate +your people and bring them together, and there'd be transportation to +pay for into the bargain." + +Lontaine interposed a question of a technical nature, and as Summerlad +answered him at length, Lucinda's attention wandered, she began to think +more about the speaker, less about what he was saying. Undeniably a most +satisfying creature, at least to look at. Bending over the table, his +face glowing as he illustrated his meaning with an animated play of +hands: though his words were all for Lontaine. Summerlad's consciousness +was constant to Lucinda, his quick eyes were forever seeking hers.... +Hard hit and making no secret of it. + +Not that it mattered, more than for the good it did one's self-esteem to +be respectfully if openly adored by a personable young man whom one +found agreeable. Vanity had been sorely sprung by Bellamy's sacrifice of +his wife's love to his appetite for the cheap excitement of flirting +with women of cheap emotions. His pursuit of her Lucinda valued at no +more than one last effort to salve the hurt her desertion of him had +dealt to his vanity. Neither had Daubeney's devotion meant a great deal: +being something too familiar through old acquaintance not to be +misprized. It had needed some such new conquest as this to make Lucinda +think well of herself again; this at least proved her charms not yet +passée. Reassurance for which she was disproportionately grateful; and +gratitude is commonly the most demoralizing of vices. + +Lucinda inclined to approve the style in which Summerlad maintained +himself. The bungalow, secluded in wide and well-kempt grounds, might +have served as the warm-weather retreat of a Grand Duke. And if there +was a suspicion of rule-of-thumb in some of its effects, at least it +could be said that Summerlad had shown sound judgment in selecting an +interior decorator of sound taste. + +The dinner had been well cooked and served by a deft Japanese. As it +neared its close a more cheerful partie carrée would have been far to +seek. Indeed, had Lucinda entertained genuine misgivings as to the +wisdom of her decision to try her luck on the screen, they must have +been compensated by its action on the spirits of her friends. And it +couldn't have been anything else, for they had partaken sparingly of the +native champagne which, while fair enough of its kind, was nothing to +seduce palates educated on London Dry. Yet Fanny's effervescence outvied +that of the wine. Lontaine's eyes had lost altogether their tense +expression, Summerlad was on his mettle in his dual rôle of host and +courtier, Lucinda herself was stirred by a gayety she had too seldom +known since the first years of her marriage. + +By merely turning her head she could look out through an open casement +to a lawn where moonlight like liquid silver slept between mysterious, +dense masses of purple shadow. The breath of the night was bland and +fragrant. Somewhere at a distance a sentimental orchestra was playing, +possibly at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In Chicago the thermometer had +shivered in the neighbourhood of zero; New York, according to +telegraphic news, was digging out from under a snowfall second only to +that of its legendary blizzard. + +"I want to purr," Lucinda confessed, finding Summerlad's eyes upon her. + +"You're beginning to fall under the spell of California." + +"I told you this afternoon I was already sensitive of its enchantment. +Tonight, I think, completes its work: I am enslaved." + +"I must make the most of these moments, then. Presently we'll both be +busy, you in especial far too busy to give me many evenings like this." + +"I'm not at all afraid of being doomed to ennui through any lack of +ingenuity in you." + +"If I'm not mistaken, that's a dare." + +"It's as you care to take it." + +He accepted with a smile the smiling gage of her eyes. They understood +each other perfectly. + +When it was time to return to the Alexandria, Summerlad insisted on +driving them home himself; and as they drew near to Hollywood swung the +car sharply off the highroad, and took a by-way leading into the +foothills. In a few minutes more they had left behind every hint of +civilization, other than the well-metalled way they travelled, and were +climbing a road that wound snakily up precipitous mountainsides, +threaded unholy gulches, or struck boldly across spine-like ridges from +which the ground, clothed in chaparral, fell dizzily away on either hand +into black gulfs of silence. The air grew colder, Lucinda and the +Lontaines grateful for the wraps which Summerlad had pressed upon them. +In the course of half an hour the car halted on an isolate peak, and all +the lowlands lay unfolded to their vision, from the foothills to the +sea, a land like a violet pool with a myriad winking facets of +blue-white light; as some vast store of diamonds might be strewn by +hands of heedless prodigality upon a dark velvet field. + +Pointing, Summerlad began to recite the names of places represented by +lines and groups of lights: Hollywood at their feet, the Wilshire +district with Los Angeles beyond, Culver City, Pasadena away to the +left, Santa Monica far to the right, Venice, Del Rey, Redondo.... "The +kingdoms of the world you're come to conquer, Mrs. Lee." + +"I shan't say 'Get thee behind me,'" Lucinda retorted; "I've a sensible +notion you're safer where I can keep an eye on you." + +It was true enough that the facile infatuation which California inspires +in the uninitiate already held her senses in fee; she felt as one might +who had miraculously found the way to cross the far horizon and go down +into the magic realms of true romance. + +But she fell asleep that night to dream of coursing a will-o'-the-wisp +through a land whose painted illusion failed and faded as she fled, till +in the end there was no more beauty, nor happiness nor hope, but only +the bare grin of the desert savage and implacable. + +She started awake with her husband's name trembling on her lips. + + + + +XXI + + +The room the Lontaines occupied in the Alexandria adjoined Lucinda's, +and while she was lazing over breakfast and trying to find her way about +in newspapers whose screaming local patriotism made one feel vaguely +ashamed of having been born elsewhere, Fanny tapped on the communicating +door and drifted in, en négligé, with a cigarette and an airy +nonchalance oddly at war with a problematic shadow that lurked in her +eyes. + +"My amiable first husband," she announced, "has charged me to arrange +for an audience at your convenience." + +"As soon as you like," Lucinda laughed--"I mean, give me time to crawl +into some clothes." + +"Sure you don't mind?--and the day so immature!" + +"Not a bit. In fact, I've been thinking, if we're really going through +with this lunatic adventure, the less time we lose the better." + +"If!" Fanny caught the word up quickly. "Does that mean you want to +reconsider?" + +"No, dear; merely that I've been wondering, ever since I woke up, +whether the night might not have brought your husband perhaps wiser +counsel." + +"So much depends upon what you mean by 'wiser.' But if it's a change of +heart, I'm in a position to assure you nothing like that has happened to +Harry." + +"I only meant--between ourselves--I can't think it quite wise of him to +risk much on my chances of making good as a movie star." + +Fanny achieved a ladylike snort of derision. "Never worry about what +Harry risks! Besides, I won't for an instant admit there's any chance +of failure, so far as you're concerned, Cindy. But I will admit I'm +counting on your common-sense to hold Harry down to earth." + +"How do you mean, dear?" + +"Oh, it isn't that I question his grasp of business conditions and +fundamentals. But he's got such an active mind, he finds it hard to let +well enough alone, he's everlastingly embroidering everything he takes +an interest in with the most amazing arabesques. Let him run wild, and +by nightfall he'll have the motion-picture industry of the United States +pooled under one Napoleonic directing head, whose identity I leave you +to surmise--and all on the basis of his undertaking to shape the film +destinies of Linda Lee. And he'll draw diagrams and produce figures to +prove what he predicts can't fail to come true, he'll even name the date +of the coming millenium in the Lontaine fortunes. So somebody's got to +keep a check on the accelerator, and I'm incompetent, I don't know the +first thing about business, and I'm looking to you." + +"Afraid you're leaning on a broken reed, my dear." + +"Don't believe it. You're so wonderfully level-headed about things, +Cindy, I have implicit confidence in you. Now this morning Harry has +waked up with his poor dear bean more than usually addled with gorgeous +schemes, and says he wants to consult you. What he really wants is your +unconditional approval of everything he has to propose. It's only fair +to warn you, any other attitude will prove inacceptable in the extreme. +That's what Harry calls 'talking business.' So do be wise as well as +kind." + +"I'll try," Lucinda promised. + +Considered in the light of this semi-serious warning, all that Lontaine +had to lay before her seemed almost disappointingly conservative. But +perhaps he was more subtile than Fanny knew. Uncommonly grave and intent +when he presented himself for the conference, in business-like fashion +he went at once to the heart of things. + +"I've been thinking it over all night," he assured Lucinda seriously, as +she and Fanny settled to give him attention, "and it seems to me I ought +to let you know more specifically what you're letting yourself in for, +before I ask you to hold yourself pledged." + +"That sounds suspiciously like preparation for letting me down easily." + +"Please don't think that." There was a convincing glint of alarm in +Lontaine's look. "Never more enthusiastic, more sure of anything than I +am of your eventual success. But it's going to mean hard work for both +of us, slavery for many months, and hindrances may crop up we ought to +be prepared against." + +"I shan't mind hard work," Lucinda replied. "In fact, I can't think of +anything that I'd find more agreeable than consciousness of at least +trying to do something worth while with my life. As for disappointments, +I don't expect much, so I can't be very hard hit if everything doesn't +turn out as happily as one might wish." + +"If that spirit won't win for us, nothing will," Lontaine declared. "Now +for a tentative programme.... Our first step, naturally, will be to +incorporate. And since it seems to be the fashion on this side, and our +corporate name will serve as a trade-mark, I venture to suggest '_Linda +Lee Inc._'" + +"One name is as good as another, don't you think?" + +"Good. Call that settled. Then as to finances. Going on my own judgment +and observation, I'm all for a small capitalization, just enough to give +us working capital with a fair margin to insure against loss of time." + +"I don't think I understand." + +"Well, it's like this: My study of American studio conditions has +satisfied me that production costs this side are normally excessive. Of +course, allowance must be made for exaggeration; it seems to be a custom +of the trade for the producer to multiply several times his actual +outlay on a picture and broadside the result as if dollars made +pictures and not brains. But I happen to know the average cost of a +well-made picture today is between eighty and a hundred and twenty +thousand--too much by half." + +"Mr. Culp's secretary told me Alma Daley's pictures cost between a +hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand each." + +"If so, Ben Culp is throwing money away through ignorance or bad +management or indifference. The returns are so tremendous from a really +good picture, or almost any picture with a popular star, nowadays, the +cinema financier can count on getting his money back and as much more in +the first year of a picture's life and still have a going property, one +that will bring in clear profits for a couple of years to come. So he +isn't much inclined to worry about costs. Then again, in the big +organizations, production costs are inflated by heavy overhead charges." + +"I haven't the faintest idea what that means." + +"Overhead means a proportionate charge against each production of the +cost of maintaining the entire organization, including all expenses, +many of which have nothing to do with the actual making of pictures. In +a small organization, such as ours will be, overhead will be cut to the +bone. We can make as good pictures as anybody at an average cost of not +more than fifty thousand dollars; with care and ingenuity, once we get +going, we'll be able to pare that down considerably. But say a picture +does cost fifty thousand, its gross earnings, the first year, should be +two-hundred and fifty thousand. Of that the producer gets sixty-five per +cent., in round figures a hundred and sixty-five thousand. We ought to +turn out not less than four pictures a year, which will mean at least +four-hundred and fifty thousand clear profit to be split up between the +star, the executive, and the capitalists." + +"It sounds like a fairy tale." + +"It _is_ a fairy tale--come true in real life. Nothing else could +account for the present-day tribe of motion-picture millionaires. Some +of them have a certain shrewdness, almost all have business cunning of a +low order, I daresay a dogged Diogenes could run to earth one or two who +are honest, but precious few of them are men of either education, taste, +artistic instinct or appreciation." + +"But how could such men----?" + +"They had imagination enough to see cheap amusement for the masses in +what most intelligent people, a dozen years ago, considered merely a +mechanical curiosity. So they invested their small savings, these +fur-cutters and petty tradesmen and barnstorming actors, in the venture +that high finance scorned; and the boom, when it came, found them +securely in the saddle. That's why the public gets so much perfunctory +and stupid stuff thrown at it today." + +"But our pictures aren't going to be in that class--are they?" + +"Rather not! We're going to go at this thing in an intelligent way. +We'll pick a good staff, select our stories with care, get the best men +to write our scenarios, and gather round us a group of actors, like +those who have made the Continental cinema what it is today, more +interested in their work than in themselves, willing to take their +chances of scoring in fine ensemble acting instead of insistent that +every story shall be distorted, every scene directed, every picture cut +to throw a so-called star into prominence. Even in America such sincere +actors exist, and we'll find and bring them together and prove that +cinema production can be an art as well as a money-grubbing scheme." + +"Bravo! bravo!" Fanny interpolated. "Hark to the dear man! Now if only +he'll perform one-half as bravely as he promises----!" + +Lontaine flushed a little but paid no other heed. "To get back to the +question of capitalization.... Arbitrarily setting fifty thousand as a +fair production cost, we'll want at least a hundred and fifty thousand +to begin with." + +"But surely we won't need a hundred thousand margin for safety?" + +"Not for safety--for economy. When we finish our first picture it will +be a matter of six months at least before it can be exhibited, before, +that is, it will begin to repay its cost. Meantime, we can't afford +either to disband our company or hold it together in idleness. We ought +to start our second picture the day after we finish the first. Thus we +will waste no gestures. And allowing three months to each, we should +have our second and third ready by the time the first is released. Do +you follow me, Mrs. Druce?" + +"I think you're quite right. You said yesterday you had some people +ready to furnish the necessary capital?" + +"In half an hour I can find half a dozen who'd jump at the chance," +Lontaine replied without a quiver. "They don't know you, of course, Mrs. +Druce, I mean they don't know Linda Lee and what she's capable of, and +naturally they would be inclined to boggle at such a proposition coming +from anybody but me. But they do know me, they have faith in my ideals +and my practical knowledge of the business, and nothing would please +them better than to see their money at work in my hands. The question +is: Do we want to take them in? Is it necessary? Is it good business?" + +Lucinda shook her head. "I'm sure I don't know," she said, smiling. +"Please be patient with my stupidity in money matters." + +"I mean to say: With profits of approximately half a million a year in +sight, do we want to see the third share that would ordinarily go to +capital diverted to the pockets of people who have no interest in our +business except as a source of revenue?" + +"Can we avoid that?" + +"Simply enough, if you care to take the risk. I'll be frank with you and +confess I'm not financially in a position to invest in the business +myself. But if you should decide to back yourself, use your own money +to finance Linda Lee Inc. you would ultimately receive two-thirds of the +profits instead of the one you'd be entitled to as the star. And no +outsider would have anything to say about the way we conduct our own +business." + +"I don't think I care about that," Lucinda observed thoughtfully. "But +it does appeal to me, the idea that if I use my own money nobody but +myself can suffer if we're making a mistake." + +"Then--you will find the capital yourself, Mrs. Druce?" + +"I think I can manage it without too much trouble." + +Lontaine sighed quietly and relaxed. The contented glow of last night +crept back into his eyes. He produced his cigarette-case, and began to +smoke in luxurious puffs. + +"Need there be any trouble?" + +"I'm only wondering what Harford Willis will say." Lucinda laughed +quietly. She could imagine the horror that would overspread the carven +countenance of the gentleman of the old school when he learned that she +meant to add the unpardonable solecism of play-acting to the heinous but +after all fashionable estate of divorcée. "An old friend of my father's +who looks after my estate," she explained to Lontaine's echo of the +name. "He thinks I've disgraced myself as it is. When I tell him what +more I mean to do, I'm sure he'll think I'm damned beyond +redemption--socially, at all events." + +"Need he know?" + +"I'm afraid so. I don't believe I've got a hundred and fifty thousand +dollars on deposit altogether. You see, most of my income is reinvested +promptly as it comes in, leaving only enough to meet my usual, everyday +expenses." + +"Surely you can fob him off with some excuse, Mrs. Druce." Lontaine was +frowning at the carpet. "Of course, you understand, I'm only thinking of +your peace of mind." + +"I'll think it over. But whether he likes it or not, we'll go ahead as +we've planned. And as for money to get started with, I'm sure I can put +something over fifty thousand at your command." + +"Famous!" Lontaine's brow cleared instantly. "I may call on you for a +cheque in a day or two, for preliminary expenses, a retainer for our +lawyers, incorporation fees, and the like, you know." + +"That brings up a question that bothers me," Lucinda confessed. "You +see, my cheques will be signed Lucinda Druce, and I don't like to risk +my incognita as Linda Lee. I don't want Bellamy to find out where I +am--and I don't want anybody else to know but the three of us--and Mr. +Summerlad, I'd almost forgotten he knew--unless I really do succeed." + +"Nothing to fret about," Lontaine declared. "Simply make your cheques +payable to me. I'll open an account with a local bank in my name first, +and transfer it to the account of Linda Lee Inc. as soon as we +incorporate." + + + + +XXII + + +Lucinda at about this time began to know imitations of a psychic +phenomenon working within herself for which she could find no better +name than that of multiple personality. She was well aware that she +didn't mean by this precisely what the term would have connoted to the +mind of a psychoanalyst, but it was as near as she was able to come to a +description of the disconcerting performances of the several Lucindas +who seemed to tenant her by turns and be forever warring for the right +to rule her daily actions and form her final destiny. + +Figuring her soul in the likeness of a ship at sea, her sensations much +resembled those which might conceivably inform a passenger watching half +a dozen captains who were continually elbowing one another aside and +taking command and steering each a quite new course of individual +preference; with the inevitable result that a chart of any one day's run +must have closely counterfeited the trackings of a fly that had crawled +out of an ink-pot upon a fair white sheet of paper. + +Most puzzling circumstance of all, the one true captain seemed to be +standing apart throughout and observing the antics of these upstart +understudies with considerable interest, not a little wonder, and some +alarm. + +Certain it was that she had ceased to be the single-minded and +straightforward young woman she had been accustomed to think herself, a +creature moulded in an uncompromising cliché of caste and moving through +life upon lines definitely laid down, thinking only the thoughts, +uttering only the formulæ, describing only the motions, experiencing +only the sentiments and sensations considered suitable to one of her +condition. + +One act of mutiny had made an end to that one's reign and left an empty +throne to be contested by this odd crew of usurpers, who were so many +and so various, and in general so vaguely defined, that they defied +cataloguing; though a few there were who by virtue of pronounced +idiosyncrasy came to be recognized familiars. + +There was one clear of vision, unillusioned even unto cynicism, but +honourable, straight-spoken and fair-dealing, at once proud and +unpretending, who was mostly in evidence in her hours of social life +with the Lontaines, as distinguished from the time she spent with them +in the way of business. This was Mrs. Bellamy Druce of her equivocal +phase, who had ceased to be a wife and had yet to become unwedded: a +woman worldly-wise and a trifle weary, but warm of heart, tolerant, and +companionable. + +Then there was Linda Lee, the rather excited and ambitious young thing +who was all the while flying hither and yon in motor-cars, making +curious acquaintances by the score, simulating an intelligent interest +in affairs, legal matters, comparative merits of different studio +accommodations, cost of equipment, salaries of employees, all those +questions upon which Lontaine did her the honour of consulting her, +knowing full well that she was fully satisfied as to his competence and +incredulous of her own, and would faithfully endorse any course he might +take or recommend. The first function of Miss Lee's office in the scheme +was apparently that of drawing cheques. She led a busy life.... It was +also anything but an uninteresting one, though Miss Lee often wondered +what it was all about and how she had come to be in it and sometimes +felt that she was no better than a poor impostor and doomed in due +course to be disgracefully shown up. + +Another was a rare, shy visitant, never viewed by mortal eyes, who held +dominion only in the dead hours of these nights when Lucinda lay +wakeful and lonely, feeling lost without that which for so long had +seemed an essential part of life, Bel's love and the dearness of him. A +pathetic spirit, prone to tears and sighs and bitter self-reproachings. +But when morning came, this one had always retreated to the outermost +marches of memory, where she lingered, looking back a little wistfully, +a timid wraith with pleading eyes, tenuous and evanescent as the +souvenir of some caress long perished. + +Again one was aware of a Lucinda who, abhorring the vacuum of empty +hours, committed the maddest extravagance and fairly ran amok in shops, +buying right and left with a recklessness that soon made her unawares +the axis of a gale of whispers; in this manner dissipating a minor +fortune before her first month in Los Angeles had run out. + +Lamentably there was a Lucinda who did not scruple to resort to the +shabbiest shifts to compass her ends; who, for example, without one +qualm of conscience wrote to Harford Willis that, having been influenced +to delay proceeding to Reno, she had fallen under the spell of Southern +California, thought seriously of making it her future home, and would be +glad if he would turn her certain investments into ready cash against +the contingency of her deciding to purchase some princely property. + +Last of all the major company of these lately apprehended Lucindas was +the woman emotionally malcontent, newly fallen out of love but none the +less still in love with love, who with eyes now amused, now indulgent, +now shocked or startled, saw herself slowly and reluctantly but surely +weakening to the wooing of Lynn Summerlad. + +In a way the thing seemed fated. She knew nobody else, aside from the +Lontaines. She was meeting people daily, of course, but not on terms to +warrant any but the most commonplace civilities: men of affairs who +reasonably reckoned her a pretty nonentity and concentrated on Lontaine +as the person with money to spend; now and again some minor celebrity of +the cinema colony, who, if male, would find some means to let her know +she wouldn't be too ill treated should she succumb, or if female, would +both envy and resent her inimitable chic, and at the same time put her +in a place as a mere amateur who mustn't expect too much. + +When she came to look back at those days, Lucinda saw herself as one +always on the go with the Lontaines and Summerlad in his spectacular +motor-car: pelting headlong for some objective leagues away, Riverside +for luncheon at the Mission Inn, San Diego for a week-end, Santa Barbara +for the drive along the magnificent Coastal Highway, or any other of +two-score remote play-grounds; going out of an evening to one of the +local restaurants, Victor Hugo's for its good food and urbane service, +Marcelle's for dancing and its dumbfoundering scheme of decorations, +Sunset Inn for the lark of it and the people one saw, the Ship for its +wild traditions, or to some lost place in the labyrinth of strange +streets below South Main, to which Summerlad alone knew the way, where +one might get food purely exotic in character, Spanish, Chinese, +Japanese; or (and this was part of the programme of nearly every night) +braving the bill-of-fare at one or another of the city theatres or their +arrogant rivals, the sumptuous cinemas. + +In the course of that first month Lucinda sat through more photoplays +than she had ever seen before, interested even when, as all too often, +they were overweeningly ambitious of intention and sorry in execution; +determined to read their riddle and learn what Summerlad and Lontaine +were talking about when they argued in the jargon of the studios.... But +it was really the audiences that thronged these thundering temples of +the silent drama that fascinated her, audiences of a texture +inexplicably strange to Eastern eyes, like the street crowds from which +they were drawn, so dense and constant that one was tempted to believe +the people of Los Angeles never went home except to sleep. + +Such torrents of motor vehicles brawled through the city channels, the +only wonder was that anybody ever walked. Yet it was seldom Lucinda's +fortune to view the sidewalks in the heart of town when they were not +aswarm with moving masses of the most heterogeneous composition, +shuffling, staring, oddly taciturn. + +The great body of these seemed to be sober-sided souls in steady +circumstances; a bourgeoisie smug and semi-shabby, ignorant of its past, +heedless of its future, largely unconcerned with its present; +self-dedicated to existences as uninteresting and useful as a cow's. +Summerlad cursed it with a local aphorism to the sense that Los Angeles +was governed by small-town people from the Middle West who had come to +California each with one lung and one dollar and a grim determination to +hang onto both to the bitter end. + +Infiltrating this primary element was one alien to it but comprehending +also figures that might have served for a pageant of North American +history, figures many of them like old wood-cuts brought to life; red +Indians, Down East Yankees, Mexicans, gaunt hillsmen from Kentucky and +Tennessee, towering Texans, ranchmen from the plains, and folk in whose +eyes shone the brooding abstraction of the desert; in the main +ill-clothed and uncouth of gesture, hiding behind apathetic masks a +certain awe and sense of awkwardness. + +And then, like spume wind-torn from the crests of sullen seas, +glittering with rainbow iridescence, a froth of creatures money-drunk +and amusement-mad, drones lured to California by its fabled Winter +climate, and an earth-born army audaciously experimenting with wings +bestowed by the careless bounty of the cinema. + +Against this picture of a ceaseless crush in the centre of the city, +Lucinda set in contrast so sharp that it never lost its power to stir +her wonder, a picture on every hand repeated off the main arteries of +traffic in the radiating residential suburbs: an interminable street of +broad-eaved white bungalows hugging the ground, each isolate in its +unfenced plot of green, to each its vines, its flower beds, its +stripling orange trees, and each and every one silent and in all seeming +lifeless, cowering in the day-long glare of that vast and empty vault of +blue, like a city of doll-houses which the children had outgrown.... + + + + +XXIII + + +The incorporators of Linda Lee Inc. were not, however, long left +dependent on motor-cars that plied for hire and the orange-and-black +outrage on wheels which was everywhere known as "Lynn Summerlad's bus." + +One of Lontaine's first acts as president of the fledgling organization +was to pay out ten thousand dollars of its capital for a startling +blue-and-silver car, the whim of an absent-minded motion-picture star +whose sudden flitting from threats of arrest on charges of bigamy had +left the car on the hands of its builders, to be picked up at what +Lontaine called a bargain price. Lucinda was disposed to hold the cost +immaterial, but demurred about accepting it for her personal use; and +the consideration urged by Summerlad, that the more eye-arresting the +colour scheme the better the advertisement for Linda Lee, failed to move +her. So Lontaine felt constrained to use it himself; and Fanny demurely +professed resignation, pointing out that in such a conveyance no husband +would ever dare pursue any but paths of conspicuous rectitude. + +For herself Lucinda eventually selected a modest landaulet of dark +maroon; but it saw little service, save on shopping trips, till she +began to use it for daily transportation to and from the studio. + +Weeks slipped stealthily away, the rainy season waned, a Spring ensued +like an Eastern Summer, with lusty vegetation, lengthening days of dry +heat, and nights deliciously cooled by airs that swept through every +sunless hour from the highlands to the sea; while delays on delays +accumulated and still the day when "shooting" should begin lingered +remotely down tomorrow's dim horizon. + +Lontaine had leased studio space in the Zinn plant, which Summerlad +recommended as the most modern and completely equipped on the Coast. For +this the company was paying a weekly rental of fifteen hundred dollars. +An expensive executive and technical staff, lacking only a director, was +kicking heels of enforced idleness on full pay. A story had been +selected, an old novel by a moderately popular author to which Zinn had +in 1914 purchased all motion-picture rights outright for five hundred +dollars and which he was now willing to part with for ten thousand as a +special courtesy because he had taken such a mad fancy to Lontaine. A +scenario writer, warranted by Zinn "the best in the business," had +received five thousand for casting the story into continuity form, the +labour of one whole week, and retired rejoicing to his hundred-and-fifty +a week job in the Zinn scenario department. A reading of his bastard +brain-child had persuaded Lucinda that continuity writing must be the +mystery its adepts alleged; in fact, she couldn't understand the greater +part of it, and what she did understand somewhat preyed upon her mind. +But Lontaine seemed satisfied, Summerlad solaced her misgivings with the +assurance that P. Potter Monahan simply couldn't write a poor +continuity, and both agreed that Barry Nolan would know what to do to +make it right when he got down to work on it. + +Incidentally, he did: Nolan read it half-through, thoughtfully shied the +manuscript out of a window, and dictated a continuity all his own, of +which nobody but himself could make head or tail, and which at times in +the course of its production seemed to puzzle even its perpetrator. But +this Nolan was a resourceful lad and never hesitated to revise himself +when at a loss: "That's out," he would inform his assistant; "we'll +cover up the break with a subtitle. C'mon, let's shoot the close-ups;" +or it might be: "Got another angle on that now. Instead of that scene +where she casts him out of her life forever, I'm going to stick in some +business Leslie Carter used to do in the last act of _Zaza_. We'll get +round to that later. What's next?" + +But these revelations of an unique technique, justly celebrated as such, +were reserved for the indefinite future. Notwithstanding that he was +under contract to Linda Lee Inc. to begin work as soon as he had +finished the production he was then making, Lucinda was to be hounded +through her professional début by another megaphone than Barry Nolan's. + +In the engagement of that one resided the only reason for the delays. +While negotiations for his services (at twice as much pay as he had ever +received before) were in progress, Nolan confidently expected to be free +in a fortnight. The day he signed the contract he admitted that he might +possibly keep them waiting a trifle longer. It was two months later when +he at length notified Lontaine that he was running up to San Francisco +for a few days' rest and relaxation but would positively be "on the lot" +and ready to go to work, in another week. + +In the meantime Lucinda had moved to the Hollywood Hotel, the Lontaines +to a furnished bungalow nearby, where they vainly pressed her to join +them. She thought it wiser to decline. + +"I'm far too fond of both of you to risk living with you," she +explained. "It's no good deliberately placing ourselves in a position to +get fed to the teeth with one another. Besides, I've got to get +accustomed to shifting for myself, and it's high time I was learning to +breathe in a proper motion-picture atmosphere." + +This the Hollywood provided to admiration. Summerlad assured Lucinda, +and on her own observation she could well believe, that at one stage or +another of their careers almost every motion-picture player of +consequence in the country must have registered at this hotel. Many +continued to reside there, though no reason existed why they should not +observe the custom of other happy holders of long-term contracts and +move into homes of their own. Aside from such fixtures--and a +non-professional element composed mainly of middle-aged folk with set +incomes who had contracted the habit of spending their Winters and not +much else in California--the hotel boasted a restless movement of birds +of passage: stars of the legitimate stage brought on from New York to +play in a single picture, lesser lights coming West at their own risk to +solicit a "try-out;" playwrights and novelists with reputations in two +continents declining to profit by the experience of innumerable +predecessors, fatuously assuming that imagination, intelligence and +honest workmanship had a dog's chance in the studios; directors enjoying +their favorite pastime of hopping from Coast to Coast with everything +paid; overlords of the cinema visiting the West Coast to look after +their own or their rivals' fences and filch actors and directors from +one another. These came and went by every trans-continental train. +Remained the incurable addicts with yet another element, hardly less +habitué but humbler, maintaining precarious residence in the hotel on +meagre means, on remittances from home or God knew how (and, knowing, +wept) hanging on desperately to hope of happier tomorrows, when they, +too, would have their own cars call to take them to their daily toil, +instead of trudging or trolleying from studio to studio in pursuit of +the elusive day's work as an extra: a class largely feminine and +insistently youthful. + +With most of these Lucinda became acquainted by sight, with many she +grew accustomed to exchange smiles and the time of day. They were a +friendly lot, indomitably cheerful and brisk. If sheer joy of living +didn't keep their eyes bright, belladonna did; their hand-painted smiles +were unfailing; their slender, silken legs twinkled in vivacious by-play +on veranda steps and in the public rooms; by every sign they were ever +on the wing and jolly glad. Lucinda liked them all involuntarily, and +wished them well; and when she came to know some of them better her +heart ached for them. + +This was inevitable. The most glacial reserve must have melted to the +warmth of such gayly casual overtures. It was good business to know Miss +Linda Lee, and they made it their business without undue delay. She had +not been twenty-four hours a sister-guest before all these young things +knew an astonishing lot about her that wasn't so, and a deal that was. + +Lucinda was a raw tenderfoot who was going to finance her own company, a +prominent stage favorite trying her luck under an assumed name, a +Baltimore society beauty with the motion-picture bee in her bonnet, +nobody at all except the dear friend of this or that nationally known +man, who was paying to put her into pictures to get rid of her. It +didn't matter who or what she was, more than what was irrefutably +established: that she was Linda Lee, she had simply sloughs of coin, she +was to star in her own productions, Barry Nolan had been engaged to +direct her, Lynn Summerlad had gone nutty about her; all of which summed +up to this, that Lucinda was in a position to utter words of power whose +fruit might be days and days of work at ten or fifteen per--who +knew?--perhaps the miracle of a steady job! + +They made up to her saucily or shyly, according to the style they +believed became them best, with assurance or with humility, with +ostensible indifference, and some in open desperation. But on one point +they were all agreed: they wanted work. Lucinda spoke about two or three +of them to Lontaine, who laughed and advised her to recommend them to +Barry Nolan's assistant, when that far day dawned on which the question +of casting subordinate rôles would be in order. She spoke to Lynn +Summerlad, and was rewarded with a worried frown, the first sign of care +she had ever detected in him, together with some well-chosen thoughts on +the dangers of contracting haphazard hotel acquaintanceships. Lucinda +explained that she hadn't sought them, they had been practically forced +upon her; she could see no merit in being rude and "upstage." Summerlad +retorted darkly that one never could tell; the motion-picture colony +harboured any number of queer birds; it wouldn't do for her of all women +to pick up with a wrong one. + +"First thing you know, they'll be trying to borrow money from you." + +Lucinda was silent for want of a conscience that would sanction an +indignant rejoinder. + +"I was afraid of this when you moved into the hotel. But then I told +myself not to be a fool, you weren't the sort to encourage total +strangers." + +With malice, Lucinda enquired absurdly: "Are you reproaching me with +relaxing from the conventions of my former milieu, Mr. Summerlad?" + +"You know very well what I mean, Linda." + +"You think, perhaps, I'm growing to be a shade too free and easy?" + +"If you must know, I do." + +"But this is, after all, Hollywood." + +"No excuse for doing as the Hollywoodenheads do." + +"Then, I take it, you think it might be more discreet of me to stop +going about with you alone." + +Since the same roof no longer sheltered them, the Lontaines had ceased +invariably to include Lucinda in their plans and gaddings, as when +social courtesies were extended them by people whom Lontaine met in the +way of business and to whom Lucinda was not known at all. So she was +enjoying some little time to herself, when Summerlad's attentions +permitted; and when they didn't, felt free to follow her inclination and +dispense with chaperonage on occasion, irrespective of the looks of the +thing. (If anything could be held to have any particular "looks" where +principles of laissez-faire and assiduous attention to one's own +concerns were so generally vogue.) Linda Lee, furthermore, could do as +she pleased when her pleasure must have been taboo to Mrs. Bellamy +Druce. + +"O Lord!" Summerlad groaned. "I might've known better than to start an +argument with a woman." + +"I don't relish being reproached by you for lack of decorum." + +"Decorum! I'm only anxious you shan't get in with the wrong sort, be +victimized or worse." + +"Touching thoughtfulness on my behalf.... But Lynn: what do you mean by +'worse'?" + +"Not sure I know, myself. I don't want anything to happen to worry you." + +"What could?" + +"Oh, I don't know. If I did, I could take measures to prevent its +happening. But not so long as you insist on living here. A hotel's no +place for a woman alone. People all the time coming and going.... Who +knows who and what they are? You might be recognized." + +"So that's what's on your mind?" + +"I don't like to think of any outside influences working on you just +now." + +"Just now?" + +"Distracting your attention from really important matters, like me and +what you're going to do about me. I'm so desperately in love with you, +Linda." + +Lucinda said nothing for a little. She had been expecting this for days. +Now that it came it found her, of course, unprepared. Nothing to +complain of in that; a declaration of love always finds a woman +unprepared, no matter how long she may have been preparing for it. The +primitive instinct of flight from the male is deathless, though it +manifest only as in that one brief moment of panic that Lucinda knew. + +She was glad of the darkness of that section of the hotel veranda where +they had been sitting for a quarter of an hour after returning from +dîner à deux in the city. It had seemed early to part, as people +interested in each other reckon the age of an evening together--not +much after ten--and since no one was visible on the veranda, Lucinda had +suggested that Summerlad stop and chat a while. Now she wished she +hadn't. + +Not that it made much difference. This had been bound to come before +long. One knew the signs in a man who had held his peace about as long +as he could. Five weeks since that night when, in the Beverly Hills +bungalow, she had concluded that Summerlad's interest in her was neither +impersonal nor of a transitory nature.... + +An amazingly long time for him to wait, had she but known, a tribute to +the sincerity of the passion she had inspired, to the respect in which +he held her whose training had not been such as to encourage much +respect for women in general. Almost anybody in Hollywood would have +told her that Lynn Summerlad was "a fast worker." That no one had done +so was probably due in most part to an impression that to carry such +information were work of supererogation.... + +The worst of it was, she was glad. + +How strange (and what proof of her heart's unique intricacy!) that she +should be affected by such paradoxical displeasure in the pleasure it +gave her to hear Lynn profess a passion of which she had been so long +and well aware; as if it grated upon some slumbering sense of what was +fitting; as if any reason today existed why Lynn shouldn't be in love +with her and, for the matter of that, she with him (only, of course, she +wasn't) or why he need hesitate to speak and she be loath to listen.... + +"Well, Linda?" + +She put away her pensiveness, smiling softly in the darkness that +enfolded them, smiling to see Summerlad bending forward in his chair, +whose arm just failed to touch the arm of hers, anxiously searching her +face for a clue to her mind, but with the anxiety of impatience more +than the anxiety of doubt. He wanted to have her in his arms. A +pleasant place to be, perhaps; but she wasn't ready yet, she was not yet +sure.... + +"Well, my friend!" she said in amused indulgence--"so it seems you love +me." + +"How long have you known it?" + +"Quite as long as you have loved me." + +"And you----?" + +"I don't know yet." + +He ventured too confidently: "I don't want to hurry you----" + +"You couldn't, Lynn. And--you won't be wise if you count on me." + +"You don't mind my loving you, Linda?" + +"No. I think it makes me happy." + +"Then I'm going to count on you--unless you want me to think you're +merely amusing yourself." + +"But you don't think that. So be patient." + +"I'm not at all sure patience and love are even related." + +"Then I'm afraid the only kind of love you know is not the kind that +lasts." + +"If so, I'm glad I've known none that lasted; that leaves me free to be +truly in love with you." + +"That's rather clever of you, Lynn, almost too clever." + +"I've got to be clever, I guess, to make you love me." + +"Lynn, I'm afraid you're artful. Yes--and much too experienced! You'd +better go now before you talk me into something that isn't real and.... +If you do love me, you aren't wanting anything else." + +"You'd really like to get rid of me?" + +"For tonight, yes. I need to be alone to think--about you." + +"Fair enough--if that's a promise." + +"It's a promise." + +Lucinda stood up, a maneuvre that lifted Summerlad unwillingly out of +his chair. He took her hand and sketched an intention of using it to +draw her to him. But she laughed quietly, shaking her head. + +"Good night, my dear." + +"I've never tried to kiss you, Linda...." + +"And won't, I know, till I want you to." + +"Confound you! That's what I get for giving you an opening to put me on +my honour." + +"It's more than you'd have got--or deserved--if you hadn't." + +His lips barely failed to find her hand; Lucinda had drawn away in the +nick of time. + +"Don't go before you've answered my question, Lynn." + +"Question?" + +"What I'm to do about these unlucky young women?" + +"Hoped you'd forgotten them." + +"I can't." + +"You've got too soft a heart, I'm afraid, Linda. I don't see why you +always let it rule your head--except about me." + +"Perhaps it's a good sign, though." + +"I'm sure I don't know how to advise you. Obviously you can't turn Linda +Lee Inc. into a refuge for misguided females." + +"There's one girl in especial I'm worried about, Lynn. She seems so ill +and wretched. And even so, she's pretty. I'm sure a little happiness +would make her radiant. Why can't we find or make a chance for her +somewhere?" + +"Once you start that sort of thing, the whole pack will be on your back, +they won't give you a minute's peace. But if you insist.... What's her +type?" + +"Olive brune; about my height; and the loveliest, most tragic eyes...." + +"Any experience?" + +"Yes. She told me she'd been working in the East, but her health broke +down and the doctors advised California. She'd been out here before, I +gathered, but not in pictures. At least--I'm not sure--that's what I +understood. She only got in last night, and they put her at my table in +the dining-room, so we met at luncheon today." + +"Lost no time boning you for a job----" + +"She didn't suggest anything of the sort. I don't believe she's heard +yet about my having my own company. All she said was, she hoped she +wouldn't have too much trouble finding work, she needed it so +desperately." + +"Well, since you make a point of it, I'll see what I can do--speak to +Zinn about her. What's her name?" + +"Miss Marquis--Nelly Marquis, I think she said." + +Summerlad had just then opened his cigarette case. After a thoughtful +pause he shut it with a snap, neglecting to help himself to a cigarette, +and replaced it in his pocket. Then becoming sensible of the query in +Lucinda's attitude, he asked in a dull voice: "What name did you say?" + +"Nelly Marquis. Why? Do you know her?" + +"I know a good deal about her. Rather a bad lot, I'm afraid. Look here, +Linda: I wish you'd drop her." + +"Don't be stupid, Lynn." + +"I'm not. I mean it. I can't very well tell you what I know, but I do +wish you'd take my word for it and cut this woman out. She's really not +the sort you can afford to get mixed up with." + +"You're sure, Lynn? You really want me to understand she is--what you're +trying to avoid saying?" + +"Yes--and worse. I'm in earnest, Linda. I think you might trust me. +After all, I ought to know my way about Hollywood, I've lived in it long +enough." + +"Of course I trust you, Lynn. I'm sorry though. I felt so sorry for her, +she didn't seem one of the usual sort." + +"She isn't." Summerlad gave a curt, meaning laugh. "But you said you +wanted to get rid of me, and I think I'd better go before the old +curiosity gets in its fine work and you ask me questions I wouldn't want +to answer." + +He possessed himself of Lucinda's hands again and kissed them ardently, +while she looked on with lenient eyes, more than half in love already. +Why, then, must she persist in hanging fire with him? Was it merely +crude, primordial instinct prompting her to withstand the male till his +will prevailed? Or was there something wanting in the man, some lack +divined by a sense in her subtle, anonymous, and inarticulate? + +Infinitely perplexed, Lucinda lingered on where Summerlad had left her, +near the far end of the veranda, where it rounded the rotund corner of +the hotel. Here there was always shade by day, thanks to a screen of +subtropical foliage, by night a deeper gloom than elsewhere on the +veranda, and at all times a better show of privacy. + +The engine roared as Summerlad's car swung down the drive, then changed +its tune to a thick drone as it took the boulevard, heading away for +Beverly Hills. Still Lucinda rested as she was, absently observing the +play of street lights on leaves whose stir was all but imperceptible in +the softly flowing air. + +Impossible to understand herself, to read her own heart, make up her +mind.... + +A thin trickle of sound violated the mid-evening hush, a broken and +gusty beating of stifled sobs that for a time she heard without +attention, then of a sudden identified. + +Windows of guest-rooms looked out on the veranda, but Lucinda had made +sure these were closed and lightless before permitting Summerlad's +wooing to become ardent. The semi-round room on the corner, however, had +French windows let in at an angle which she could not see. After a +moment she moved quietly to investigate, and discovered that one of +these was open, that the sobbing had its source in a shapeless heap upon +the floor in the darkness beyond. + +Entering and kneeling, Lucinda touched gently the shoulder of the +stricken woman. "Please!" she begged. "Can I do anything?" + +In a convulsive tremor the woman choked off her sobs and lifted her +face to stare vacantly. Enough light seeped in from the street to reveal +the features of Nelly Marquis. + +Her voice broke huskily on the hush: "Who are you?" + +"Miss Lee--Linda Lee. Can't I do something----?" + +With startling fury the girl struck aside Lucinda's hands and at the +same time flung herself back and away. + +"No!" she cried thickly. "No, no, no! Not you! Go away--please go!" + +"I only wanted to help you, if I could," Lucinda explained, getting to +her feet. "If you're unhappy--I'm so sorry----" + +The movement must have been misinterpreted, for the girl sprang up like +a threatened animal. + +"I don't want your help!" she stormed throatily. "I don't want anything +to do with you--only to be left alone!" She flung herself at Lucinda as +if to thrust her out by force. "Go! go! go!" she screamed. Then the +window slammed. + +"Poor thing!" Lucinda told herself--"she must have heard...." + + + + +XXIV + + +There was at this time little room in Lucinda's inner life for other +people's troubles, she was much too agreeably engrossed in doting on +this radiant new avatar of Linda Lee, victress in a form of duel of +which Summerlad was reputed a master who had never known defeat. Rumours +current of his success with women had found her credulous and lenient; +mortal vanity saw to that. It feeds on strange foods, vanity, it waxes +fat on inconsistencies. Think as well as you will of yourself, you shall +not find unacceptable the belief that one well loved by many has been +laid low by love of you alone.... And indeed a great part of that +indecision at which Lucinda in those days played so daintily was due to +the knowledge, unformulated in her consciousness but none the less +exercising constant influence on her moods, that she was less in love +with Lynn than in love with being loved by Lynn Summerlad the idolized. + +In many ways admirable, a fine animal who kept himself always +exquisitely fit, intelligent enough to share or seem to share her every +taste and prejudice, Lynn had laid a spell upon her mind no less than on +her senses. The minor faults of which she had earlier been aware, the +little things he sometimes did or said that jarred, he had amended. Or +she was no longer competent to perceive them.... + +So she put away all care on account of the strange woman whose +unhappiness had excited her quick compassion, and let fancy have its +fling at the dissipation of thinking how blessed was her lot, how +supremely distinguished as fortune's favorite she was who had +everything, youth, beauty, health and riches, and to whom all things +good were granted, love, friends, admiration and envy of the general, +and--never to be misprized--a life, in its present phase, of +vicissitudes highly diverting. + +And if she knew seasons when memories twinged like an old wound slow to +mend beneath its scar, she found a certain casuistry to console regrets +and compound with conscience, holding herself spiritually, as in +material circumstances, a free agent, free to listen to any man, if she +would, and if she would to love him. The phantom fiction of a legal +bond, all that was left of her married life, she could do away at will, +at little cost in inconvenience.... + +That morning, as every morning now, she woke with a smile responsive to +the smiling promise of the day; and when she had lazily girded on her +armour against fault-finding eyes, called for her car and sallied forth +to while away yet another day of idleness. + +Her rooms were so situate, at the end of one wing of the hotel and on +the lower floor, that to reach the main entrance she had to pass the +corner-room now occupied by Nelly Marquis; and malicious luck would have +it that the two should meet. + +The Marquis girl had been out and was returning with a small packet +gripped in a shabbily gloved hand. A well-made woman with a graceful +carriage, her face held elements of beauty of a wild, sweet sort, but +dimmed and wasted by despondency and impaired health. Today the dark +rings under her eyes were deeper, the eyes themselves more desperate +than when their look had first appealed to Lucinda's sympathies. And +seeing her so, Lucinda with a solicitous cry--"Why, Miss +Marquis!"--paused and extended an impulsive hand. + +The girl swerved away from the hand, shrinking to the wall, her scant +natural colour ebbing till the rouge was livid on cheeks and lips, while +her eyes grew hard and hot. + +"Well!" she said sullenly--"what do you want?" + +Confounded by this proof of a hostility as pertinacious as it was +perverse, Lucinda faltered: "But--you are ill----" + +"Well: and if I am, what's that to you?" The words uttered in a level +tone nevertheless seemed to force explosively past the tremulous, waxen +lips. "Oh, don't worry your head about me; think about yourself. Don't +forget you can be contaminated by a creature like me, don't forget"--she +accomplished a singularly true reproduction of Summerlad's tone--"I'm +'really not the sort you can afford to get mixed up with'!" + +"I'm so sorry you heard, Miss Marquis. Of course neither of us had any +idea you were----" + +"Eavesdropping! why don't you say it? I'm not ashamed." + +"But are you fair to me? I meant you no harm, I didn't say--what you +resent--you know." + +The girl gave a grimace of pure hate. "No," she snarled--"_you_ didn't +say anything unkind, you were too busy posing as Lady Bountiful to pass +uncharitable remarks! But he--he said enough--enough for me. Oh, I'm not +saying he didn't tell the truth! I'm 'a bad lot,' all right--a rotten +bad lot, if you want to know--and I'll be worse before I'm better. So +you watch out and keep away from me--d'you hear? I want and warn you to +keep away from me. I don't want your pity or your charity or any of your +holier-than-thou butting in--all I want's just to be let alone. Any time +I change my mind, I'll send you an engraved notice.... I trust I make +myself clear, Miss Lee!" + +"Yes, thank you," said Lucinda coolly--"quite"--and went her way. + +Insolence so patently hysterical could neither hurt nor harden her +heart. She consigned the affront to the limbo of the insignificant, and +had put all thought of it away when, fifteen minutes later, her car +brought her to the Lontaine bungalow. + +Here Lucinda had to rout Fanny out of bed and make her dress, against +her protestations that she'd been on a party the night before, with +Harry and some people, so needed rest and kind words more than exercise +and open air. + +The reflection cast a shadow as transitory as a flying cloud's upon the +bright tranquillity of Lucinda's temper, that Fanny, by her own frank +account, had been going in for parties rather heavily of late, and it +wasn't doing her any good. Not that she showed ill effects more than in +a feverish look that really enhanced her blonde prettiness. But with +Fanny's insatiable appetite for the sort of thing that she called +fun.... + +After all, that was Fanny's concern, and Harry's. One had confidence in +their ultimate good sense, in their knowing where to draw the line, when +to call a halt. + +From the Lontaine bungalow the two proceeded to the Zinn Studios, having +nothing better to do and thinking to pick up Harry there and run him +down to the Alexandria for luncheon. But the shabbily furnished little +office assigned to Linda Lee Inc. was empty, the blue-and-white car was +missing from the yard, and nobody had any information concerning +Lontaine's whereabouts or probable return. + +This was nothing unusual, Lontaine was always on the wing, blowing to +and fro between Los Angeles and the studio; but his absence left the +young women at loose ends until Fanny suggested that they look up Lynn, +find out what he was doing, and make him stop it. + +Summerlad's company was busy doing nothing at all on one of the enclosed +stages, contentedly lounging in and about a bizarre ball-room set and +waiting for something to happen; the occupation which, Lucinda by this +time had come to know, earns the motion-picture actor about ninety per +cent. of his wages; the other ten being paid him for actual acting. +Neither Lynn nor Joseph Jacques, his director, was in evidence, but the +cameraman said the two of them had retired to the director's office for +a conference. + +To the office Lucinda and Fanny accordingly repaired and--their knock +being answered by a morose growl--there discovered Summerlad, in +elaborate evening clothes, tilted back in a desk-chair, a thoughtful +scowl on his handsome, painted face, with Jacques, a mild-mannered, +slender young cinema sultan in riding-breeches and boots, sitting on the +desk itself and moodily drumming its side with his heels. These got upon +their feet in such confusion that Fanny was moved wickedly to enquire +whether Lucinda or herself had been the subject of their confabulations. +"And," she further stipulated, sternly, "what you were saying about +whichever of us. I never saw two people look more guilty of scandal." + +"It wasn't scandal," Jacques insisted with an air of too transparent +virtue. "We had been talking about Miss Lee, though." + +"Wondering if you'd care to be an angel to us, Linda." + +"Look out, Linda," Fanny warned, "when a man begs a woman to be an angel +to him, he's generally working her up to do something she oughtn't." + +"What is it?" Lucinda enquired, laughing at Summerlad's dashed +expression. + +"I'm not sure you ought to, at that," he replied--"in your position, +that is. But it'd be sure angelic of you." + +"Help us out of the worst sort of a hole, Miss Lee," Jacques added. "I +wish you would." + +"But what is it?" + +"Oh, nothing at all!" Summerlad assured her with a laugh that decried +the very idea--"all we want you to do is forget you're a star, or going +to be, and play a little part with me in this picture we're doing now." + +"But how can I? I'd love to--you know that, Lynn--but we've no way of +knowing when Mr. Nolan will be ready." + +"That's just it, Miss Lee. It isn't any part at all, so to speak, we'll +only need you three or four days; what Mr. Summerlad's afraid of is, +you'll think it beneath your dignity." + +"Is it such an undignified part?" + +"Well, you'd have to play second fiddle to Alice Drake." + +Miss Drake was Summerlad's leading woman pro tem. Lucinda made a +laughing face. + +"Is that all? Going on the fuss you make, I thought you'd at least want +me to play a Sennett Bathing Beauty. I see no reason in the world why I +should balk at playing second to as good an actress as Miss Drake." + +"Well, not only that, but the part isn't big enough for you, Linda--only +a bit, you know, so little it's scarcely worth mentioning." + +"Then who will know or care who acts in it? I'd perfectly love to do it +for you, if you think I can." + +"Knew she would!" Jacques crowed. "What'd I tell you? A thoroughbred's a +thoroughbred every time!" + +"You are a brick, Linda, and no mistake. You've no idea what a load +you've taken off our minds. You see, this part, while nothing to speak +of in itself, is awfully important to the picture in one way; it +absolutely demands somebody who's got everything you've got." + +"If we stick in anybody that hasn't," Jacques interpolated, "the whole +works will postolutely go ker-flooey." + +"We did the best we could," Summerlad pursued, "had Gloria Glory +engaged; but this morning, when she was to report for work, she sent +round word she had ptomaine poisoning and was being taken to a +hospital." + +"Gloria Glory?" Fanny put in. "Why, I saw her down at Sunset last night. +And the only thing the matter with her then was _not_ ptomaine +poisoning." + +"Too much party," Jacques interpreted. "I had the hunch, all right. +Gloria sure do crook a mean elbow when she gets it unlimbered." + +"Then you'll do it, Linda?" + +"I'll love doing it. What do you want me to wear?" + +"You'll do!" Summerlad chuckled. "Only a natural-born picture actress +would ask what to wear before wanting to know what the part was. You +begin tomorrow if you can get your costume ready, and you'll only want +one, a riding habit." + +"Cross-saddle costume, Miss Lee," Jacques explained. "White breeches and +a pair of swell boots--you know--like the society dames wear when they +go hoss-backing in Central Park, New York, if you've ever seen 'em." + +"Yes," said Lucinda soberly--"once or twice." + +"Have you got a riding costume, Linda?" + +"No; but I daresay I can pick one up in Los Angeles this afternoon." + +"Do that, will you, Miss Lee, if you can? And be on the lot at eight +tomorrow, made up, please. It's a forty-mile run to the location, and we +want to get there early's we can so's to get all set to shoot when the +light's right." + +Actor and director pranced grateful attendance on the two women as they +returned to their motor-car; and when it had vanished down the drive, +Summerlad fell upon Jacques and shook him fervently by the hand. + +"You're a true friend, Joe!" he declared in mock-emotional accents. +"I'll never forget what you've done for me this day." + +"Worked out pretty, didn't it?" the director grinned. "What d'you know +about them dames walking in on us, just when we'd got it all doped? But +you always were a fool for luck, Lynn, s'far's the skirts are +concerned--you old hyena!" + +"I am this flop, anyway," Summerlad mused with a far-away look. "Those +white riding-breeches were a regular inspiration, Joe: if she finds a +pair before night, I miss my guess." + +"Well, it don't do to ride your luck too hard. You've got all afternoon +with the coast clear--maybe! Get your make-up off and beat it quick." + + + + +XXV + + +As it turned out, however, Lucinda experienced no great difficulty in +fitting herself acceptably with a ready-made costume of white linen for +cross-saddle riding, and light tan boots of soft leather. + +The prospect of at last doing real work before a camera, after her long +wait since falling in with Lontaine's scheme, inspired a quiet elation. +She had already been elaborately tested and re-tested, of course, by the +cameraman under contract with Linda Lee Inc.; she had ceased to feel +self-conscious in the fierce white light of the Kliegs, and was familiar +almost to satiety with the sensation, at first so nightmarish, of +sitting in a darkened chamber and watching herself move to and fro upon +a lighted screen. This last, however, had given Lucinda confidence in +the photographic value of her good looks; and she had furthermore +learned, through measuring her unproved abilities by those of +established screen actresses daily displayed to the millions, not to be +apprehensive of scoring an utter failure when her time came to entertain +with the mobile shadow of her self audiences that had paid to be amused. + +So she felt assured of doing well enough in her work with Summerlad. And +if her mood was serious, when she alighted at the hotel and gave a +bellboy her purchases, it was because she was thinking of nothing but +her immediate purpose, which was to try on her costume all complete, +with hat, boots, gloves and riding-crop, before a mirror, partly to make +sure every detail was as it should be, but mostly to satisfy herself +that she would look as fetching as she felt she must. + +It wasn't till she found herself in the corridor leading to her suite +that Lucinda remembered Nelly Marquis; she hadn't given the girl two +thoughts since morning, and in all likelihood wouldn't have given her +another had she not met the bellboy returning from delivering the +parcels to her maid, and paused to tip him in front of the door to the +corner room. Then, as he thanked her and passed on, she noticed that the +door was slightly ajar, the room beyond dark with early dusk, and +finally, where the light from the corridor struck in across the +threshold, a white hand at rest upon the floor, a woman's hand, palm up, +the fingers slightly contracted, absolutely still. A startling thing to +see.... + +For a few seconds Lucinda stood entranced with premonitions of horror. +Then she moved to the door and rapped on it gently. There was no +response, the hand didn't stir. She called guardedly: "Miss +Marquis!"--and when nobody answered laid hold of the knob. The door met +a soft obstacle when less than half-open, and would yield no farther. +The light now disclosed an arm bare to the elbow. With a shiver Lucinda +stepped in and groped along the wall till her fingers found and turned +the switch illuminating the central chandelier. + +Nelly Marquis lay supine, breathing if at all so lightly that the +movement of her bosom, beneath the ragged lace of a dingy pink silk +négligé, was imperceptible. Her lids, half lowered, showed only the +whites of rolled up eyes, her lips were parted and discoloured, her +painted pallor was more ghastly even than it had been in the morning. On +the evidence of her body's posture in relation to the partly opened +door, she had been taken suddenly ill, had rushed to call for +assistance, and had fallen in the act of turning the knob. + +Lucinda shut the door, knelt, touched the girl's wrist, and found it icy +cold. But her bosom was warm, the heart in it faintly but indisputably +fluttering. + +In relief and pity, she essayed to take the girl up in her arms and +carry her to the bed, but found the dead weight too great. + +Casting round at random for something in the nature of a restorative, +smelling salts or the like, she saw nothing that would serve, at first, +only a disarray of garments and other belongings characteristic of +natures in which care for appearances and personal neatness has become +atrophied through one cause or another--if it ever existed. But she +noticed absently that one of the windows stood wide to the veranda, and +went to close it and draw the shade before pursuing her search. + +Then, in the bathroom, she found a bottle of aggressive toilet water and +a pint flask of whiskey, half emptied. + +Alternately moistening the pale lips with the whiskey and bathing the +brows and temples with the pungent water, she observed for the first +time a reddish bruise under the left eye, the mark of a blow, possibly +sustained in falling. But there was nothing nearby that the girl could +have struck to inflict such a hurt except the door-knob, and if she had +struck this with such force she must have slammed the door. + +It was puzzling.... + +Her ministrations eventually began to take effect. The bleached lips +quivered, closed, then opened and closed several times. The woman's +lashes trembled and curtained her eyes. Lucinda went to the bathroom for +water. When she returned with half a glassful liberally laced with +whiskey, Nelly Marquis was conscious; but her eyes, with pupils +inordinately expanded, remained witless until she had drained the glass +with convulsive gulps and Lucinda had set it aside. + +"Do you think you're strong enough now to get to bed, if I help?" + +The girl nodded: "... _try_," she whispered. Using all her strength, +Lucinda succeeded in getting Nelly Marquis on her feet. About this time +the clouded faculties began to clear. Clinging to Lucinda's arm, Nelly +started as if in a spasm of fear, darted swift glances of terror round +the room, then turned a look of perplexity to Lucinda. + +"Where is he?" the whisper demanded. "Has he--has he gone?" + +"There is no one else here, nothing to be afraid of. Come: let me help +you to bed." + +Recognition dawned as she spoke, with a movement of feeble fury the girl +threw Lucinda's arm away, but deprived of its support staggered to the +foot of the bed, to which she clung, quaking. + +"You!" she cried--"what you doing here?" + +"The door was open, I saw you lying senseless on the floor. I couldn't +go on and leave you like that. You'd have done as much for me." + +"Oh! would I? A lot you know!" Her knees seemed about to buckle; +will-power alone kept Nelly Marquis from sinking; yet she persisted: "I +suppose I ought to thank you. Well: much obliged, I'm sure. Is that +enough?" + +"Quite enough. I've no wish to annoy you. Only, let me suggest, you need +a doctor. May I ask the office to call one?" + +"When I want a doctor, I'll call him myself. Good night." + +"I'm sorry," said Lucinda simply. + +With no choice other than to go, she went. But the vision she carried +away, of Nelly Marquis glaring at her with eyes malevolent, her frail +body vibrating so that it shook the bed, must have haunted Lucinda's +conscience all evening long had she let the affair drop then and there. + +Returning to her room, she telephoned the office and asked for the hotel +physician. The clerk reported that the doctor was out, but promised to +advise him of her call as soon as he came in. + +Upwards of an hour later a knock ushered in a quiet young man with +weary, understanding eyes, who attended gravely to what Lucinda had to +tell him. + +"She seems to have taken such an inexplicable dislike to me," Lucinda +wound up, "I'm sure she won't see you if she knows you come through me. +But the girl is really ill and needs help. So, I thought, perhaps you +might find someone else in the hotel who knows her and could get her to +consent to see you." + +"I fancy I know her well enough myself to excuse a friendly call," the +physician answered. "She's an old patient of mine, though she hasn't +been in Hollywood for some time, I believe." + +"Then you must know what's the matter with her...." + +"Yes, I know.... But it would be unprofessional to tell you, of course, +Miss Lee." + +"Then tell me this much: that you can help her." + +"I'm not sure of that. Not unless she's willing. To do her any real +good, I'd have to have her under observation for some weeks. And cases +like hers are peculiar, peculiarly strong-headed.... However, I'll see +if I can do anything with her now, and let you know." + +Three minutes after he had left, he knocked again. + +"Too late, Miss Lee," he reported. "Nelly Marquis checked out about a +quarter of an hour ago, they tell me at the desk--called for an auto and +left no address." + + + + +XXVI + + +The indigene of Southern California has long since ceased to regard with +much interest the publicly practised tribal customs of those clans which +herd upon the motion-picture reservation. He no longer thinks he's +seeing life when he comes upon troops of fairy policemen rapturously +chasing their trails by broad daylight, or woebegone gentlemen with too +much trousers popping out of manholes in public thoroughfares, or +painfully unconscious sweethearts in broad-minded evening dress at high +noon fondling each other in front of, say, the Hollywood Hotel. He no +more knows a thrill when motor-loads of revellers in giddy costume and +with sanguine noses blow by his unromantic bungalow at breakneck speed, +preceded or followed by other cars filled with bored proletaires in +workaday clothes, among them one embracing affectionately the slim young +limbs of a camera tripod. And if he should chance to observe his +next-door neighbour lamming the everlasting daylights out of his wife on +the front lawn, he would make sure there was no camera within range +before telephoning for the police. + +A month of Hollywood had so accustomed Lucinda to such sights that she +became a part of them, at least in as far as involved coursing through +the streets in full make-up, without any sense of making herself unduly +conspicuous. + +She even forgot to think it strange that she, Lucinda Druce, should not +resent being made love to unprofessionally, that is to say without an +eye to the camera, by a man with rouge on cheeks and lips and eyelashes +beaded with mascaro. + +If the feeling that she had cast her lines in strange places was quick +to wear off, in those three days of work with the Summerlad company, the +fun of it wasn't. Lucinda threw herself into the detail of every hour +with tremendous zest, and liked it all as she seldom had liked anything +before. + +To rise hours before the time at which use had habited her to waking, +rout the drowsiness from her flesh with a cold plunge, dress hastily in +her becoming white costume, snatch a bite of breakfast and dash out into +the cool glow of morning sunlight to rendezvous at the studio; to pick +up Lynn and Fanny for company on a cross-country race to a wild canyon +of the Sierra Madre; to change to horseback when the going grew perilous +for motor travel, and ride five miles farther up a trail that now ran +level with the rushing waters of a mountain stream, now climbed dizzily +above it on rocky ledges barely wide enough to afford foothold for one +horse at a time, ending in a lovely wilderness spot which Jacques had +selected because, he said, it hadn't been "shot to death"; to idle, chat +and giggle with Lynn, Fanny and Alice Drake during the long delays +devoted by Jacques to making up his mind what he wanted the company to +do in preference to the action indicated in the continuity which he was +politely presumed to be producing; to lunch al fresco, grouped round a +blanket on which a decidedly rude and hearty picnic meal was spread; to +frolic through a few minutes of make-believe while the camera clicked +and Jacques bawled directions through a megaphone; then to drive back in +the evening lull, with lights breaking out in lilac dusk like fireflies +in a tinted mist; to get home so weary that she could hardly keep awake +long enough to wolf down the dinner for which she was ravening, then to +fling herself into the warm, all-obliterating haven of bed; and all the +while to be falling more and more madly in love but still practising +delectable, self-tantalizing self-denial: this wasn't work in any sense, +but play, sheer play of a most gorgeous sort and of which surely one +could never tire. + +If this were all there was to motion-picture acting, then Lucinda could +not wonder that, as she was one day informed by a crusty veteran of the +colony: "Bums may turn revivalists, and lawyers honest, but there ain't +no known cure for a lens lizard." + +In the name of all things reasonable! why sigh to be cured of a vocation +at once so profitable and so enthralling? + +There was another side to the business, of course, there had to be. One +knew it couldn't be all beer and skittles, one heard dark hints of the +uglier side, one even caught glimpses of it and its workings now and +then, as in the instance of Nelly Marquis; but awareness of it had no +perceptible effect upon the spirits of those with whom Lucinda found +herself associated for the time being. Some of the younger members of +the acting division seemed to take life a thought seriously--"life" +meaning, as a rule, themselves--but the more experienced, and the men of +the technical groups, the directors, cameramen, and their assistants, +the property men and jacks-of-all-trades, went about their work with +jests ever on their lips. Lucinda heard few orders given or acknowledged +other than in the semi-jocular vein known as "kidding." Even Jacques, +whose office clothed him with a certain dignity, by which he was +intermittently depressed, seemed in his most earnest moments to find it +difficult to express himself in terms of becoming gravity. The common +attitude summed up to this: that making pictures was all a huge lark and +(strictly between those engaged in it) a darned good joke on the people +who paid the bills. + +As for the part she was supposed to play in this picture of Summerlad's, +Lucinda never managed to secure an intelligible exposition of its nature +or its relation to the plot. Both Summerlad and Jacques seemed strangely +vague in their own minds concerning it, and Alice Drake frankly +confessed she hadn't read the 'script and hadn't the faintest notion +what the picture was about. She did what Jacques told her to do, and did +it very well, and so long as there were no complaints and her weekly +cheque turned up on time, she didn't care (she said) a thin red hoot +about the story. Neither was this an uncommon attitude, she averred; not +infrequently directors imposed it upon the actors and actresses working +under them. There was George Loane Tucker, who had directed _The Miracle +Man_; Miss Drake had worked for him and could testify concerning his +methods. He never told any of the cast what the story was, only what he +wanted them to wear and do and how and when to do it; that was all. He +had even invented a secret system of numbering the "takes," so that he +alone could properly assemble the thousand or so separate scenes and +close-ups which go to make up the average motion-picture when +photography on it is finished, scenes which are never by any chance +photographed in consecutive order. Nor was Tucker the only one.... + +Later on, in the projection-rooms of the Zinn Studios, Lucinda saw the +"rushes" of the scenes in which she had played; "rushes" being the first +positive prints made from the uncut negative: "takes" running anywhere +from twice to a hundred times the length of the scene to be finally +incorporated into the finished picture and disclosed to the public. She +was well content with the way she had done what little had been given +her to do, but was left in the dark as to what it was all about. And in +the final cutting and editing, that sequence of scenes dropped out of +the film altogether. So that nobody ever knew, except possibly Summerlad +and Jacques.... + +To the best of her observation her rôle was that of an involuntary vamp. +Not vampire: vamp. No other term will serve so well. Originally a +derisive diminutive, the usage of the studios has endowed this +monosyllable with a significance all its own, not readily definable. A +vamp no longer means of necessity a vampire, a scarlet-mouthed +seductress of strong men's souls. A vamp may be a far more socially +possible person that that, in fact any attractive woman who comports +herself toward another woman's man consistently with the common +amenities of civilized intercourse. + +As an involuntary vamp, then, Miss Lee was to meet Mr. Summerlad under +romantic circumstances and innocently wean him from strict fidelity to +the charms of his betrothed (or it may have been his wife) Miss Drake. +Of this situation Miss Drake was in due course to become cognizant. What +was to happen after that between Miss Drake and Mr. Summerlad was no +concern of the involuntary vamp's. Furthermore, she never learned. + +The said romantic circumstances proved sufficiently thrilling to bring +about an early wedding in most films. Miss Lee was run away with by her +horse while taking an early morning canter in mountains conveniently +adjacent to her family's suburban villa. Mr. Summerlad, similarly +engaged in health-giving equestrianism, happened along at the right time +to observe her peril, pursue, and snatch her bodily from her saddle to +his arms at the very instant when her mount was plunging headlong over a +precipice. After which he escorted her to her home, and on the way the +two indulged in such normal love-making as was only to be expected when +the facts of the case were taken into consideration. + +Jacques used up all of one day and two-thirds of the next staging and +shooting the runaway and the rescue scenes, in none of which either +Lucinda or Summerlad figured in person. Lucinda, it is true, was +photographed from several angles, riding along the mountainside trail at +a point where it was broad enough for her horse, with safety to its +rider, to shy and start to run away. The animal was an unusually +intelligent, perfectly trained and docile trick-horse that, given the +right signals, would perform a number of feats such as shying, running +away, stopping short, falling dead under its rider. And Lucinda was a +good horsewoman, though not good enough for such rough and really +dangerous riding as would be required after the start of the runaway. A +double was therefore provided for her, a tough and wiry young person of +about her height and weight who made her living by risking her life in +just such ways, and who, with Lucinda's white coat, hat and boots added +to her own white riding-breeches, passed well enough for Lucinda in +"distance shots." + +A double was likewise provided for Summerlad, though he was a superb +rider and vigorously asserted his right to take what chances he pleased +with his own neck. But Jacques explained it wasn't Summerlad's neck he +cared about, it was finishing a picture in which eighty thousand dollars +had already been sunk and for whose completion Summerlad's services +would be required for four more weeks. Thereafter he could break his +neck as often and in as many places as he liked, for all of Jacques. + +So Summerlad held his peace and his place at Lucinda's side, well out of +harm's way, while Jacques went ahead and directed the rescue. + +Runaway, pursuit and rescue were all staged on a ledge-like trail three +hundred feet above the boulder-strewn bed of the brawling stream, and +were photographed simultaneously by three cameras, from the river-bed +shooting upwards, from the opposite side of the canyon on a level with +the trail, and from the trail itself but at a distance great enough to +prevent the fact that doubles were used from becoming evident when the +pictures were projected. + +It was all honestly hazardous and ticklish work, rendered doubly and +trebly so by the fact that each part of the action had to be replayed +over and over again to satisfy Jacques, an old hand at "stunt stuff" and +a painstaking one. + +Lucinda's heart, as she looked on, was in her mouth more often than not. +It made no difference that it was all played at a far slower tempo than +would appear when it was screened; the projection-machine flashes the +pictures across the screen at a faster rate than that at which they are +taken; consequently it is only necessary to crank the camera at slower +than normal speed to attain an effect of terrific speed in projection. +Fast or slow, it was risky enough in all conscience; and Lucinda was +more than glad when the last repetition had been shot and Jacques gave +orders to shift to a location near the mouth of the canyon. + +For those scenes of sentiment which Lucinda and Summerlad were to play +in person, Jacques wanted the contrast of richer and more abundant +vegetation, and the location he selected brought the party at length to +a point below that at which the automobiles had been forced to stop. + +Here Lucinda and Summerlad were photographed time and again, in distance +shots, medium shots, and close-ups, riding side by side, registering the +dawn of a more intimate interest each in the other, dismounting to rest +in a sweet sylvan glade by the side of the stream, and finally in each +other's arms, with Miss Drake riding up to surprise them as they kissed. + +Whether by intention or because such scenes are a commonplace of +picture-making, Lucinda could not say, but she had not been in any way +prepared for the fact that she was to be kissed by Summerlad; whereas +she had been flirting with him decorously but dangerously for the best +part of three days. Now suddenly, toward the close of the third, she was +instructed to permit his embrace, submit to his kiss, and kiss him in +response. + +She made no demur, for that would have seemed silly, but did her best to +ape the matter-of-course manner of all hands, and went through it with +all the stoicism, when the camera wasn't trained on her, that was +compatible with the emotions she must show when it was. + +But her heart was thumping furiously when she felt Summerlad's arms for +the first time enfold her; and when, murmuring terms of endearment +appropriate to both the parts the man was playing, he put his lips to +hers, she knew, both despite and because of the tumult of her senses, +that she was lost. Control of the situation between them passed in that +instant from her hands to his. + +Released at length, she looked round, dazed and breathless, to find +that, during the business of the kiss, a party of uninvited onlookers +had been added to their professional audience. + +A motor-car had slipped up on the group and stopped, and one of its two +passengers had alighted and drawn near to watch. + +This was Bellamy. + + + + +XXVII + + +Momentarily stunned eyes saw the face of Bellamy only as a swimming blur +of flesh-colour shaded by a smile of hateful mockery. Then, not unlike +rays of the sun escaping from complete eclipse, Lucinda's wits struggled +from out a dark penumbra of dismay to make new terms with the world--or +try to, under the handicap of panicy conviction that it was all up now +with Linda Lee. + +Such was her first thought.... In another minute or two, as soon as she +was able to acknowledge what she might not much longer ignore, Bellamy's +attitude of patient but persevering attention, everybody present must +learn that she had no right title to the style by which she had palmed +herself off on Hollywood; by nightfall the studios would be agog over +the news that Linda Lee was no less a personage than Mrs. Bellamy Druce. + +She was curiously disturbed less because of the circumstances in which +her husband had found her out than on account of the menace he presented +to the plans she had of late begun to nurse so tenderly. All at once +Lucinda discovered how passionately her heart had become implicated in +this adventure, how deeply the ambition had struck its roots into her +being to win by native ability unaided to those starry eminences whereon +the great ones of the cinema sojourned. To hear the inevitable verdict +read upon her career before it was fairly launched, "Another +screen-struck society woman!" were an affront to decent self-esteem by +the side of which it seemed a trivial matter that Bellamy, no more her +husband but by grace of the flimsiest of civil fictions, had caught her +in the act of kissing another man. + +Notwithstanding, her cheeks were hot, she experienced infinite vexation +of the knowledge; and--all her efforts to recover hindered by a silence +damnably eloquent of general sensitiveness to a piquant and intriguing +moment--she was shaken by gusts of impotent irritation in whose grasp +she could almost without a qualm have murdered Bellamy where he stood, +if only to quench that graceless grin of his, and the more readily since +he, on his part, seeing her reduced to temporary incompetence, chose to +treat her with the most exemplary and exasperating magnanimity. + +Hat in hand, the other proffered in sublime effrontery, smiling his +winningest smile, Bel strode blithely into the forbidden ground of the +camera lines; while his gay salutation fell upon ears incredulous. + +"How d'you do, Miss Lee. Don't say you've forgotten me so soon! Druce, +you know, Bellamy Druce----" + +"Don't be ridiculous, Bel!" + +"Can't blame me for wondering--can you?--the way you stare, as if I were +a ghost." + +"So you are," Lucinda retorted, shocked into gasping coherence by this +impudence. "I can't imagine a greater surprise...." + +"I believe you. But think of mine--I mean, of course, my astonishment." + +Bel would have her hand, there was no refusing him that open sign of +friendship; for an instant Lucinda let it rest limply in his grasp, +appreciating there was nothing she could do now but take his cues as +they fell, and treat the rencontre as one of the most welcome she had +ever experienced.... + +"But wherever did you bob up from, Bel?" + +"From the East, naturally--last night's train. The Alexandria told me +where you'd moved, the Hollywood directed me to your studio, somebody +there said you might be found out here--'working on location,' think he +called it. So took a chance--and here I am. Hope you don't mind...." + +"Mind? Why should I?" + +"Couldn't be sure I wasn't violating Hollywood etiquette. Never saw a +movie in the making before, you know. Most entertaining. Congratulate +you and Mr. Summerlad on the way you played your little scene just now. +Only for the camera over there, I'd have sworn you both meant it." + +"Don't put too much trust in the camera, Mr. Druce," Summerlad +interposed blandly. "Rumour to the contrary notwithstanding, the blame' +thing has been known to lie." + +"H'are you, Mr. Summerlad?" Bellamy met his impudence with irresistible +audacity. "So we meet again. Sure we would some day. Well: pleasanter +circumstances than last time, what?" + +"Conditions are what one makes them, out here in California. I hope +you'll find the climate healthier than Chicago's." + +"Trust me for that," Bellamy retorted in entire good-humour. "But, I +say"--he glanced in feigned apprehension toward the camera--"not +obstructing traffic, am I?" + +"No fear, or Jacques would've bawled you out long ago." + +"'Sright," Jacques averred, coming forward to be introduced. "All +through for today, folks," he called back. "Le's go!" + +Breaking into small knots and straggling off to the waiting motor-cars, +the company prepared for its journey home, while cameras and properties +were packed up and the horses herded away toward their overnight +quarters in Azusa. + +Slender, fair, insouciant, looking a precocious little girl in her +extravagantly brief skirts, but with all the wisdom of Eve a-glimmer in +her wide eyes, Fanny sauntered up and permitted Bellamy to be presented. + +"My chaperon," Lucinda explained with the false vivacity of overtaut +nerves--"the straight-laced conservator of les convenances." + +"I hope very truly," Bel asserted, bowing over Fanny's hand--"you never +need one less charming or more complaisant." + +Fanny giggled, enjoying the contretemps hugely and determined it +shouldn't lose savour for want of ambiguous seasoning. + +"As for complaisance, the camera covers a multitude of indiscretions. +That aside"--her glance coupled Lucinda and Summerlad in delicately +malicious innuendo--"taking one consideration with another, a chaperon's +lot is not a vapid one." + +"I'm sure of that," Bellamy agreed with a straight face. "Not only that, +but if you've any time at all to spare for your job, Mrs. Lontaine, the +percentage of impaired eyesight among native sons must be high." + +"Appreciation is such a beautiful thing!" Fanny purred. "Dear man! I do +hope you'll be lingering in our midst a long, long time." + +"No such luck for me. A few days at most. I only ran out to go over some +matters with my man of business out here." + +"The square-headed body with the blue gimlet eyes?" Fanny enquired, +openly appraising the person who had accompanied Bellamy to this +meeting, but who remained in the car with stony gaze riveted on nothing +in particular--"who looks like a private detective in a five-reel +re-hash of the eternal triangle?" + +"The same." + +"You have so many interests in California, you need a man on the spot to +look after them?" + +"Not many but, such as they are, of prime importance to me," Bellamy +corrected with meaning. + +"How romantic!" Fanny sighed, with a look so provocative that Bellamy's +mouth twitched involuntarily and he hoped fervently that Lucinda wasn't +looking. + +He needn't have worried. Lucinda was too thoroughly occupied with her +own reactions to the several more agitating aspects of this predicament +to have any thoughts to spare for frivolous by-issues. + +Not only that, but in pace with the growth of her interest in Summerlad, +the sense of detachment from all actual relationship to Bellamy had come +to be so absolute it could never have occurred to her to be anything but +entertained by the notion of a reciprocal interest springing up between +Fanny Lontaine and her husband. Fanny knew her way about, in the by-ways +of flirtation was as sure of foot as any chamois on its native crags. As +for Bellamy, in Lucinda's sight he was no longer property of hers, he +was free to follow the list of his whim, free as the wind, as free as +herself.... + +But the bare conception of anything of the sort was far from her mind +just then, too many graver considerations were making imperative +demands. To begin with, she was at one and the same time grateful to +Bellamy for being so decent about her assumed identity and in a raging +temper with him for having dared to follow her across the Continent, in +sequel to the even more intolerable insolence of setting detectives to +spy upon her. No more than in Fanny's mind was there question in +Lucinda's as to the real calling of that "man of business" whom Bellamy +had left in his car. But she earnestly wanted to know how long and how +closely that one had been her shadow, and what he had reported +concerning the interests professional and social which had been engaging +her. + +More than this, Lucinda was at a loss to think how to deal with Bel, now +he was here. Patently on his good behaviour, taking care of himself, not +drinking too much; more like the man she had married for love so long +ago; showing so vast an improvement over the Bellamy of later years +that his unpretending presence alone somehow was enough to diminish the +stature of every man present and place even Summerlad on the +defensive--Lynn Summerlad, the crowned exquisite of the +screen!--obviously the Bel of today was not to be reckoned with as +readily as one had reckoned with the drink-stupid, conscience-racked Bel +of yesterday. + +Disturbed by the sound of a voice addressing her in a tone pitched to +pass unheard by Bellamy, she lifted perplexed eyes to Summerlad's face. + +"You're dining with me tonight. Don't forget." + +"I don't know ..." Lucinda doubted. "Ought I?" + +"Why on earth not? Surely you won't let _him_ influence you?" + +"I don't know what's best. It might be better to see him tonight and get +it over with." + +"Don't be foolish. Besides, I'm telling you, not asking you. I'll call +for you as soon as I can get home, change, and run back to the +Hollywood." + +She liked and resented this dictation, and showed both emotions in a +semi-petulant smile which she intended as a preface to a retort that was +never uttered. For Bellamy interrupted, and immediately she was glad of +Summerlad's insistence and forgave him. + +"Anxious to see you, Linda, of course, and have a talk, some time when +you're not professionally engaged. Tonight be agreeable?" + +"Sorry, Bel, but I'm booked for tonight." + +"Tomorrow, then?" + +"But tomorrow night Cindy has a date with us," Fanny objected. + +"I'm out of luck. Never mind: I know Linda won't keep me in suspense +forever." + +"No: you may call on me the next night, Bel." + +"That will be Friday. At the Hollywood, of course? Many thanks. And now +I mustn't keep you, it's a long ride back and you must be quite tired +out with your long day's work, the emotional strain and everything." + +Bellamy was punctiliously gallant about helping Lucinda and Fanny into +their car, then returned to his own, wagging a cavalier farewell to +Summerlad as the latter sped away with Jacques in the orange-and-black +juggernaut. + +When they had been some time under way Fanny broke in upon Lucinda's +meditations with an ecstatic murmur: "Priceless!" + +Lucinda came to with a frown. "I'm glad you think so," she said shortly. + +"Don't be upstage. You know it's priceless. Why didn't you tell me your +Bel was such a lamb?" + +"He's not my Bel any more, and I don't consider him a lamb." + +"Then I presume you've no objection to my vamping him?" + +"None whatever, if it amuses you, dear. But why waste your powder on +such small game? Any pretty piece can vamp Bel. I'm not sure she need +even be pretty." + +"Only for your sake, darling. I don't fancy the brute, thanks." + +"For my sake?" + +"Don't you see through his little game? He's out here to persuade you +he's a changed man, a reformed character, and beg you to take him back +on probation." + +"Then he's far stupider than I imagined." + +"Whereas if he falls for my girlish wiles, I'll have shown him up in all +his deceitfulness." + +"Don't put yourself out on my account." Lucinda curled a lip. "I +wouldn't take Bel back no matter how absolute his reformation." + +Fanny wanted to ask more questions but, heeding the counsel of +discretion, contented herself with a little private sigh. Going on her +tone, Lucinda quite meant what she had just said. Good news for Harry, +whose plans would be seriously embarrassed if there were any real +reason to fear the defection of Lucinda through reconciliation with her +husband. For of course, if she took Druce on again, it would mean an end +to the still young history of Linda Lee: Druce never would consent to +let his wife continue in the picture business. + +"All the same, if you don't mind, I think I'll practise on Bellamy." + +"Oh, I don't mind. But Harry might." + +"Oh, Harry!" Fanny had a laugh of light scorn. "For all Harry +cares----!" + +But Lucinda was inattentive; she had lapsed swiftly into an abstraction +which had little or nothing to do with the unseasonable reappearance of +Bellamy or the prospect of a wearing time with him before he could be +finally discouraged. Whatever proposals Bel might wish to make, the +answer to them all stood immutably decreed by Lucinda's heart. + +It was not with matters of such certainty that she was concerned, but +with the problematical issue of the Summerlad affair, an issue whose +imminence was to be measured now by hours. Nothing that had happened +since had served to erase the impression of that first kiss, nothing +conceivable could seem half so momentous. The presence of the camera had +meant nothing, they had kissed in earnest; mute, her lips had confessed +too much. It remained only to be determined whether or not Summerlad had +understood their message. If he had, Lucinda well knew, she was a lost +woman. + +She was possessed with a species of rapturous alarm.... + + + + +XXVIII + + +In sequel Lucinda knew two days made up of emotions singularly +stratified. This notwithstanding the fact (of which she needed to remind +herself with provoking frequency) that she had put Bel out of her life +for good and all, he was less than nothing to her now and, in the simple +nature of things, seeing she was pledged to another, never could be +more--more, at least, than the trial his pertinacity was rendering him +at present. + +Most of the time, of course, all of it spent with Lynn or in dreaming of +him, she was merely but comprehensibly a young woman in love and glad of +it; pleased with herself, pleased with her lover, delighting in the +sweet secrecy with which it were seemly for the while to screen their +love. + +Nevertheless, dark hours alternated in apprehension of what she was +resolved must be her final talk with Bel. But how successful dared she +hope to be in the business of making Bel agree even to that? Lucinda +found it by no means easy to compose an attitude which she could depend +upon to dishearten Bel decisively, without going to the length of +telling him point-blank that she was in love with another man and meant +to marry him as soon as her professional commitments would leave her +free to go through the mill of Reno. And to know Bellamy as she did was +to have a good warrant for mistrusting lest, far from reeling down to +defeat under the impact of that revelation, he might be moved merely to +make fun of it. It would be just like Bel to refuse to believe that +Lucinda Druce née Harrington meant to marry a movie actor. + +"Go ahead, Linda, by all means divorce me if your heart's set on +it"--one could almost hear him say it--"but don't tell me you're doing +it just to marry a man who paints his nose for a living." + +Somehow one got scant comfort of the retort obvious, that if Lynn did +paint his nose he at least did it with nothing more harmful than paint. + +At all costs, then, she must avoid the risk of telling Bel what she +intended, and keep the tone of the impending scene in tune with the +dignity which she had thus far been successful in maintaining, be firm +but cool, and give him clearly to understand it was hopeless his +attempting to make whole again that sacred vessel which his impious +hands had shattered. + +Maintained upon such a plane that scene must have been both beautiful +and conclusive. And no doubt it would have been so but for one +circumstance: Bel not only failed to call on Lucinda at the time +appointed but failed even to send word of apology or explanation. An +affront whose realization transmuted nobility of spirit into resentment +most humanly rancorous. + +Lucinda had sacrificed the evening to sense of duty; a true sacrifice, +for Lynn was leaving early next morning to spend a fortnight with his +company in an Oregon logging camp. So this would have been their last +evening together for fourteen livelong days, if Lucinda hadn't promised +it to Bellamy, and if Summerlad hadn't mournfully agreed (measurably to +Lucinda's disappointment in him) that she could not afford to dishonour +her promise. Surely their secret happiness was enough to compensate for +that much self-denial, especially when it meant the last of Bellamy.... + +Losing patience after hours of waiting, Lucinda called the Alexandria on +the telephone, and was informed that Mr. Druce had "checked out" early +in the morning, saying nothing of an intention to return. + +Mystified even more than angry, Lucinda went to bed, but lay wakeful a +long time trying to fathom the enigma of such conduct in one whose need +of her had brought him all the way across America to beg that very +audience which had been granted only to be coolly ignored. The readiest +explanation, likewise at first blush the likeliest, was none the less at +odds with the premeditation to be read in Bel's leaving his hotel before +noon, which wasn't the action of a man whom drink had made forgetful, +but rather that of one who repented his haste in suing for something +which sober second-thought had satisfied him he didn't really want. + +How funny, if so! How very human! + +Lucinda contributed her first smile since nightfall to the darkness of +her bedchamber. + +But having smiled, she frowned involuntarily.... + +No note came from Bellamy the next morning, and nothing transpired in +the course of the next several weeks to afford any clue to the riddle; +with the upshot that Lucinda thought about her husband a great deal more +than she wanted to or had at any time since leaving Chicago. Curiosity +being piqued no less than vanity, though she kept assuring herself it +was a matter of indifference to her what Bel did or didn't nowadays, +invariably the consideration followed that, all the same, it was +strange, it wasn't like Bel to treat any woman so rudely. + +She would, in those days, have been glad and grateful for some interest +so absorbing as to relegate this vexing question to the realm of the +immaterial, where rightly it belonged. But, with Summerlad away, nothing +much happened with enervating regularity, the most interesting hours +Lucinda knew were those spent in her rooms waiting for Lynn to call up +on the long distance telephone. This he did every evening, and though +she was thus daily provided with exhilarating moments, those that +followed always seemed desperately the duller. The truth was, lacking +the sense of danger, of flirting with fire, that was intrinsic in their +love-making, lacking the sense of doing something that she oughtn't, +calmly flouting the rigid code of her caste and having nothing to pay, +Lucinda was beginning to find her environment a trifle tiresome. Say +what one would, there was a certain cloying sameness about it all. + +Somebody once said in her hearing that there wasn't any weather in +Southern California but only climate. And it was true that at times the +wonder and beauty of everlasting sunlight seemed a poor offset to its +monotony; so that Lucinda would sometimes find herself grown a little +weary of the sky's dense, inexpressive, day-long blue; and even its +nightly extravagance of stars now and again impressed her as being too +persistently spectacular, an ostentation on the part of Nature as +tasteless as many jewels plastered on a woman's pretty bosom. One rather +wanted to recommend the chiffon of clouds.... + +Then, too, one grew acquainted with certain, definite limitations +restricting the amount of amusement to be had of taking active or +passive part in the simple, rowdy pleasures of the motion-picture +peerage. When one had several times attended the festivities these +staged in the public resorts most in favour or in their private homes, +one was apt to feel moderately surfeited with jazz of all sorts, mental +and moral as well as musical, and a society made up in the main of men +who thought it too much trouble to dress and women who as a matter of +habit airily consummated the contradiction of being at one and the same +time under and over-dressed. And once the novelty of learning to speak a +strange tongue had worn off, no great amount of intellectual nourishment +was to be extracted of studio shop-talk, which commonly was concerned in +the ratio of one to ten with the business of making motion-pictures and +with the private, broadly speaking, lives of the people who were making +them, lives seldom held worth the discussing when their conduct was +decorous. + +Though personal liberty of action and freedom of speech be part of the +inalienable heritage of the American people, it was the sum of +Lucinda's observation that in the studios both were practised to the +point of abandon. She considered herself the most liberal-minded of +women, the life she had led till now had left her few illusions, she had +even been known to enunciate an aphorism in the sense that hypocrisy is +a lubricant essential to the mechanism of society: here, however, she +remarked, such lubrication was so generally dispensed with that +oftentimes the bearings screeched to Heaven. + +But Heaven made no sign, and the Hollywood of active and retired +tradespeople, to which the studios had brought prosperity beyond its +maddest dreams, stuffed its ears and made believe there was nothing to +hear. + +As for the studios, busy, complacent, and well-content to be spared the +troublesome necessity of pretending to be better than they were, they +forgot (if, indeed, they ever stopped to think) that they did not +constitute the whole of the community, and chuckled openly over a saying +that ran their rounds that season, the mot of one of their own wits: + +"Are you married? Or do you live in Hollywood?" + + + + +XXIX + + +Lucinda had by now become sufficiently conversant with the ways of +directors to hear without much surprise--if with a little sinking of her +lonely heart--the news which Summerlad had to communicate on the tenth +day of his absence, when he telephoned that Jacques was threatening to +find a fortnight too little for the work that had taken the company away +from Los Angeles. + +And the next day, when she paid the studio the perfunctory call of +routine--to learn, as usual, that Barry Nolan had as yet sent no word +concerning the date when he expected to begin directing for Linda Lee +Inc.--Lucinda saw, as she left her car in front of the administration +building, the owner of the premises lounging against one of the fluted +columns of the portico and mumbling an unlighted cigar, and got from him +a moody nod instead of the beaming salutation he had taught her to +expect. + +Himself a monstrously homely man, short, stout and swart, Zinn had an +alert eye for feminine good looks, which had never before neglected to +give Lucinda to understand that it was on her and humid with +approbation. + +By birth a Russian Jew, offspring of immigrants from Odessa, Isadore +Zinn had worked his way into the producing business, as the saying ran, +through its backdoor; that is to say, from the exhibitors' side. +Indefatigable industry and appetite for hardship coupled with quenchless +greed and a complete absence of scruples and moral sense, had promoted +him from the office of usher in a "nickelodeon" of the cinema's early +days successively to be the proprietor of the enterprise, organizer of +a chain of motion-picture theatres, and president of a league of +exhibitors, which last had eventually pooled its resources and gone into +the business of producing as well as that of showing pictures. The money +of this league had built what were today the Zinn Studios; just how this +property had come to pass into Zinn's sole possession was a matter of +secret history concerning which there were many rumours, all unsavory. +Zinn was reputed by his loving employees to set no more store by a +dollar than by an eye-tooth or an only child. + +On leaving, half an hour later, Lucinda found the man in the same spot +and pose. Apparently he had not moved a muscle in that interval. She +paused to ask why, and was frankly told. + +"I'm figuring on killing a director, Miss Lee, and wondering if maybe I +couldn't get away with it. I could all right, if you only could believe +all you hear. You ask any of them fellers in there"--Zinn jerked his +head toward the building behind him--"takes my good money and calls me +Mister Zinn--and they'll tell you I get away with murder every day or +worse." He sighed dismally. "If they was any truth in that, I'd be a +happy kike and a lot of directors' wives wouldn't have nothing on their +minds no more, only their hair. The way I am today, the first one I'd +take a load off her intellect would be Mrs. Jacques." + +"I didn't know Mr. Jacques was married." + +"Maybe he ain't right now, it's hard to tell. You take actors and +directors, they're all the same, you never know when they ain't married +or how long they been that way. The way it seems to me, they get married +off and on just to see what difference it will make if any. 'Most +everybody you know's got a loose wife or husband kicking around +somewhere this side the Cajon Pass. The only way you can keep track of +them is don't try." + +"It must be frightfully embarrassing at times...." + +"Ah, they don't mind! I had one little feller working for me, playing +leads in two-reel comedies, his director was his first wife's second +husband, and the little lady played opposite him was his second wife +once removed. They got along fine s'long's they was on the lot, but +outside the studio they wouldn't speak, only bark when they passed." + +"But you haven't told me what Mr. Jacques has been doing...." + +"Oh, him--! I got a wire from him just now, says he's going to have to +keep the Summerlad outfit up in that logging camp maybe another couple +weeks. Joe could of shot all the scenes he had to shoot up there in a +week if he'd of went at it the right way; so I give him two weeks, and +now he wants four. And I don't dare give him the razz for fear he'll +make it six weeks or quit." + +"But if you aren't satisfied, surely you can find another director." + +"Sure I can. And the first thing _he'll_ do is run all the rushes in the +projection-room and tell me they're rotten and got to be retook the way +he sees it. And then he'll rewrite the continuity and, just to show me +what a low piker Jacques was, he'll stick in a lot of new stuff that'll +cost maybe another hundred thousand dollars." + +"I don't understand," Lucinda objected. "Why should Mr. Jacques +deliberately waste time on a production?" + +"He's getting his two thousand a week, ain't he? And if he makes this +picture cost less than the last one Summerlad done, how's he going to +keep his tail up with the other dogs, next time the hooch hounds meets +down to Santa Monica? Not only that, if he should ever get a rep for +making pictures quick and cheap, the only jobs he'll be offered will +mean honest-to-God work." + +"But, Mr. Zinn: if that's the usual director's attitude toward his job, +I should think you would do as we're doing with Mr. Nolan, pay each a +fixed sum for every production he makes." + +Zinn drew down the corners of his mouth in sour pity for Lucinda's +innocence. "Twenty-five thousand a picture's what Nolan's going to drag +down, ain't it? When a director gets that class, he's doing you a favour +to make pictures for you, to start off with; and then he spreads himself +to spend more coin more ways than any other director ever thought of, +just to show you he's the big-money boy. A director don't think big +means anything without a dollar-mark parked in front of it; and the +producer's the poor sap that puts up the dollar-mark every time. They's +only one way a producer can beat a director, the way it is today, and +that's quit the fillum business cold." + +"I presume that's what you'll do, if the directors persist in making it +impossible for you to make any money." + +A twinkle kindled in the beady eyes, a rougishly confidential grin +formed on the fleshy features. "Now, listen, Miss Lee: I never told you +I wasn't making money, did I? It's the jack directors waste on me I'm +kicking about. Any time things get so bad you can't give one of them +megaphone nurses his head and still get your production cost back and +something over, I got it all framed so I can ease out and never be +missed." + +And when Lucinda had obliged by voicing a polite doubt that such a thing +as this could ever come to pass, Zinn concluded with grim humour: "I got +everything all set to sell the studio to the county for an insane +asylum; then nobody in Hollywood won't never know the difference." + +Running true to the form thus forecast, Jacques kept the Summerlad +company away so long that its return found the first Linda Lee +production in full swing, with Barry Nolan in command, Lucinda playing +the supple puppet of his whim from sun to sun, Fanny demurely walking +through the feminine part of second importance, and Lontaine functioning +at the peak of his capacity as executive genius of the organization and +showing the strain of it all in his prominent blue eyes. + +Why it should be so hard on him nobody seemed to know and Lontaine was +too busy to explain; while Lucinda, in the prepossession of her anxiety +to give a good account of herself before the camera, carelessly accepted +that prodigious display of activity, that mien of unremitting +abstraction, as phenomena doubtless common to men of affairs, and never +paused to wonder why Lontaine need be so fretted and fretful when +everything was now in the hands of Nolan and his assistants, who did +pretty much as they pleased anyway, as a rule consulting Lontaine if at +all only after acting on their own initiative and leaving to his office +merely the routine of financial matters. + +Nevertheless Lontaine was ever the first of the Linda Lee forces to show +up at the studio in the morning, the last to leave it at night, and +between whiles kept incessantly on the go: trotting from his desk to the +stage to give Nolan the benefit of advice which was invariably attended +to with much patience and disregarded with more promptitude as soon as +its source turned his back; to the laboratory to run a wise eye over +negative newly developed as it came dripping from the vats to be +stretched to dry upon huge revolving drums; to the studio of the +technical director, to badger that competent and long-suffering +gentleman about sets and their dressing; to Zinn's sanctum overlooking +the "lot," where that old-timer sat spying out on the comings and goings +of his employees and spinning his endless schemes of avarice, but ever +ready to lend an ear and give cunning counsel to a tenant who paid his +rent on the nail; to the projection-rooms to view the rushes; back to +the stage to flatter Lucinda, felicitate Nolan, and buttonhole +subordinate players for earnest conferences apart concerning their +performances--this last a habit which, since it afforded the actors a +chance to talk about themselves, earned Lontaine the loving gratitude of +all hands, barring the directorial staff whose job it was to undo all +that he did, were it well done or ill, for the sake of morale and to +preserve unimpaired the precious prestige of Barry Nolan. + +At other times members of the cast loafing about the lot while they +waited to be called to work on the stage, would observe the president of +Linda Lee Inc., at the window of his tiny office in the administration +building, brooding portentously over documents of legal aspect, or with +fine flourishes of the fountain-pen affixing his hand to those cheques +which, issuing forth in a steady stream, kept the treasury always at low +ebb no matter how often or how generously Lucinda might replenish it. + +Neither did the silver-and-blue car know overmuch rest. In view of the +man's ubiquity in the studio, it was surprising how often Lontaine was +to be seen speeding down Sunset Boulevard, bound for the business centre +of Los Angeles, to other studios for mysterious conferences with local +somebodies who had no known interest in the destinies of Linda Lee Inc., +or to objectives whose nature remained a close secret between Lontaine, +his chauffeur, and his God. + +To all these picturesque symptoms of hustle and bounce, so little in +character with the Briton of tradition, his wife played silent but +attentive audience; though oftentimes her pretty eyes would light up +with an unspoken comment too pungent to be wasted and, discreetly +questing a sympathetic confidant would find it without fail in Barry +Nolan, who learned to watch for that look whenever one of Lontaine's +antics made a more than everyday appeal to his sense of humour. + +Irish both by descent and profession, Nolan had at least that sense +conspicuously developed. What others he possessed of which as much might +be asserted, was a question which came to occupy many of Lucinda's spare +moments. She was not at all disposed to be hypercritical, in the +beginning, she had yet to cultivate conceit in her abilities as an +actress, she knew that she knew little more than nothing about the +manufacture of motion-pictures; and Summerlad had so highly recommended +Nolan she inclined to suspect there must be something radically wrong +with her judgment. With all this, she couldn't pretend to account for +Nolan's high place in the hierarchy of the cinema, unless a sprightly +and affectionate disposition, a fetching grin, infectious verve, +impudence without end, and a distinctly indicated vein of genius at +crap-shooting, summed up the essential qualifications of a director who +pretended to earn a wage of twenty-five thousand dollars per production. +Certainly nothing that Nolan was contributing to this present picture, +in the way of action, business, sense of dramatic proportion and feeling +for pictorial values, appealed as in any way inspired--except +occasionally by a retentive memory. + +True that common usage in methods of production, working together with +such special circumstances as Lucinda's inexperience and the absence of +any fixed plan of plot development other than in the omniscience of +Barry Nolan, made it anything but easy to judge the man fairly by the +record of his work from day to day. + +In the continuity which Nolan concocted to supplant that prepared by +Zinn's staff writer--as in every proper continuity--each scene had been +placed in its right sequence, where anybody uninstructed in the way of a +director with a picture might reasonably look to see it appear in the +completed photoplay. But as soon as the typist had transcribed Nolan's +dictation, the new continuity was turned over to his assistants to be +dismembered and rebuilt with its scenes arranged as they were to be +photographed, by groups, without respect to chronological sequence. + +Obviously it would be stupid (as Lucinda was quick to appreciate) to +take the scenes as laid out in the continuity; for example, to +photograph Scene 1 in a studio set, transport the company ten miles to +photograph Scene 2 on, say, an ocean beach, and jump back to the studio +to take Scene 3 on the same set as used for Scene 1. Consequently all +scenes indicated for each particular set were shot seriatim; after which +the set would be promptly demolished, to clear the stage for the +erection of another. + +It resulted from this that only an intelligence comprehending the whole +plan and scope of both story and continuity could have kept track of the +scenes as photographed and rated each rightly at its proportional value. +Even in the ranks of studio veterans, minds of such force and grasp are +few and far to seek. The Linda Lee company hadn't been at work two days +before Lucinda began to feel in relation to the story like one lost in a +fog, helplessly dependent upon the guiding hand of Barry Nolan, and none +too well satisfied that he knew his way about as well as he pretended to +in that beclouded labyrinth. + +Neither was confidence in his infallibility encouraged by a habit to +which he, like most directors, proved lamentably prone, of improvising +improvements on the story as he went along. All of a sudden, while +directing a scene, Nolan was wont to break out in a profuse inspiration, +and incontinently some well-remembered bit of business or episode from +an old stage success would be interjected into or substituted for +incidents really germane to the original plot. That this practice as +often as not produced results in conflict with the fundamental mechanics +of the story, if it missed throwing them out of kilter entirely, seemed +to be a consideration of minor consequence. + +Thus Nolan laboured long and passionately to persuade Lucinda it would +benefit the story to engraft on it a scene wherein she would figure as a +lonely prisoner in a garret, menaced by hordes of hungry rats. This +regardless of the fact that there was no garret in the original story, +nor any room for one, and no reason why the young person portrayed by +Lucinda should be imprisoned in one, but solely because Nolan happened +to fancy a resemblance between her and an actress whom he had several +years before directed with great success in a garret scene with rats ad +lib. + +That the rats didn't work their way into the picture eventually, whether +Lucinda wanted them or not, was mainly due to Nolan's misfortune in +failing to think of them before his star began to show symptoms of what +he called the swelled-head; that is to say before, having worked several +weeks under his direction, Lucinda began to suspect that Nolan wasn't +really sole custodian of the sacred mystery of motion-picture making, +and to assert herself modestly as one whose views ought to have some +weight with a director whose pay came out of her own pocket. + +Nor is she to this day ready to believe that Nolan, left to himself, +would not ultimately have overborne all opposition and had his willful +way with the rat episode. + +But it was neither because of this instance, nor because of other +arbitrary changes that Nolan made in the story, that Lucinda first +learned to mistrust his ability, but because of the appalling ignorance +which he betrayed concerning what she believed should be matters of +general knowledge, such as rudimentary principles of social usage. + +Since the story they were concerned with had to do with people of +fashionable New York transacting the business of life in their homes and +public rendezvous, Lucinda thought it important that their manners +should conform to approved convention; but Nolan was so little learned +in such matters, and his impatience with them was so wholehearted, that +she presently abandoned all effort to correct him, and in a fatalistic +spirit endeavoured to comfort her misgivings with his customary +rejoinder to advice in any form: "Ah, what's it matter? Ninety per cent. +of your audiences are solid bone from the neck up, and the rest wouldn't +think they'd got their money's worth unless they found something to beef +about in a picture. Why worry about little things like that? Life's too +short, and we're wasting time!" + +So Lucinda schooled herself to suffer in silence when she saw men of +alleged gentle breeding offer women their left arms to escort them from +the drawing to the dining rooms of Fifth avenue or when two bickered in +public as to which should escort to her home a woman married to a third, +and when Nolan posed a pair of lawless lovers in the foyer of a +restaurant and instructed them to register unutterable emotion by +holding hands, in the view of hundreds, and swelling their tormented +bosoms until (as Fanny described it) they resembled more than anything +else a brace of pouter pigeons shaking the shimmy. + +She held her peace even when Nolan directed a father and his son, both +presumptive adepts in the social life of New York, to pause on meeting, +when each was decently turned out in morning-coat and top hat, strike +attitudes of awed admiration, solemnly wheel each other round by the +shoulders and, wagging dumbfoundered heads over the sight of so much +sartorial splendour, exclaim--in subtitles to be inserted in the +film--"Some boy!" "Some Dad!" + +And when a woman in a scene with Lucinda parted from her, uttering an +injunction put in her mouth by Nolan, "Don't forget, dearie--tea at the +Ritz at one o'clock," Lucinda, conceiving this to be a slip of the +tongue, said nothing. But when later she viewed in the projection-room +that sequence of scenes roughly assembled, with what are termed "scratch +titles," in place, and read the words as quoted, and on making enquiry +learned that they had been copied verbatim from Mr. Nolan's continuity, +she ventured to remonstrate. + +"But, Mr. Nolan, tea is a function for four o'clock or later all the +world over." + +"That's so, Miss Lee? Well, what d'you know about that? Guess I must've +been thinking about luncheon." + +"But your subtitle introducing the restaurant sequence later on says +'Tea at the Ritz.'" + +"That's right. I remember now, I meant tea, not luncheon. It's that way +in the book." + +"But in the restaurant scenes the tables are covered with cloths and the +waiters are serving all sorts of dishes, course meals." + +"What's the matter with that?" + +"Why, nothing is served for tea but tea itself and toast and perhaps +little pastries." + +Nolan grinned sheepishly and scratched his head. "I guess we're a +terrible lot of roughnecks out here on the Coast, Miss Lee--not onto +fine points like that. But it's all right: we'll change the subtitles to +read luncheon instead of tea." + +"But you've just shown me lunching at another restaurant. It isn't +reasonable to make me eat two luncheons in one day." + +"That's easy. We'll make the subtitle read: 'Luncheon at the Ritz the +next day.'" + +"I hate to keep on objecting, Mr. Nolan, but the situation depends on +these people meeting at tea the very day they lunched together." + +"Well, if we can't fix it with a subtitle, we'll have to change the +situation, then. We can't go back and shoot those scenes all over again, +it'd cost too darn much; and anyway we haven't got time." + +Having kept the Linda Lee organization awaiting his convenience for five +weeks after the date upon which he had agreed to begin directing for it, +Nolan was now with the utmost sang-froid trying to jam through in one +month an undertaking for which he would, going his normal gait, require +all of two; partly because he was being paid by the job instead of by +the week, in part because his services for the next picture had not been +bespoken and he was flirting with a bid from the East, an offer +contingent upon his being able to leave Los Angeles not later than a set +date, finally and not in the least part for another reason altogether, a +peculiarly private one. + +He wasn't happy in his present circumstances, his vanity was deeply +wounded, and the wound was not likely to heal so long as he must +continue in the humiliating position to which he had been reduced by +Lucinda's insusceptibility to his charms of person. Nolan had all along +looked forward to this engagement with considerable animation, because +Lucinda was a type new to him and he counted on learning about women +from her, too. The trouble was, he hadn't in the least suspected that +she was to prove not only new but unique in his experience. He knew what +it was to be resisted, and didn't mind that so much, finding it at worst +flattering. Once or twice since becoming a director he had even met with +the appearance of indifference, and had had the fun of showing it up for +what it really was. But this was the first time in many years that any +woman with whom he had been brought into professional contact had proved +not so much indifferent to him as unconscious that he boasted any +attractions calling for even such negative emotion. Nolan needed some +time to appreciate that this unprecedented and outrageous thing could +really be, and when he did he was hurt to his soul's marrow. By nature +buoyant, he found himself growing morose; by reputation the +best-tempered of directors, he heard himself snapping at his +subordinates like the veriest martinet of them all. Worse yet, Lucinda +seemed not even to reckon him a genius at his calling. An unheard-of +state of affairs and one intolerable to a man of his kidney. He wanted +more than he had ever wanted anything to be quit of her for good and all +and at the earliest possible moment. + +For the indignities which he felt had thus been put upon him in a +fashion wholly uncalled-for there was, of course, reparation proffered +in Fanny Lontaine's indisputable awareness of him. And even as Lucinda, +Fanny too was clearly "class." On the other hand, she had a husband, +undeniably an ass, puffed up out of all reason with self-importance, but +still and for all that a husband. Besides, having set his heart on a +star, Nolan conceived it to be inconsistent with his dignity to content +himself with a satellite. So he sulked and could not be comforted. + +Necessarily the picture suffered through the languishing of his +interest; and Nolan, foreseeing the professional and public verdict, did +his best to forestall it by privately letting it be known he'd been a +dumb-bell to tackle the job of making an actress out of a rank amateur, +only for the jack involved he would never have tried it. And then the +story they'd asked him to do--! One of these society things, you know: +no punch, no speed, no drama, nothing but five reels of stalling, +clothes and close-ups, padding for a lot of lines; a regular illustrated +dialogue. What could you do with a story like that, anyway? + +More openly, in the course of time, as he grew acutely self-conscious of +inability to cope with what he chose to deny, the dramatic possibilities +intrinsic in the story of a father who falls in love with the woman +loved by his own son, a woman whom he has sworn to expose as unworthy to +be his son's wife, Nolan spoke of the production in the studio as "this +piece of cheese." + +His name ranked high on the roster of America's foremost photoplay +directors. Whenever one of the Los Angeles cinema houses booked a +picture of his making the bill-boards of the town heralded in +twenty-four sheet posters the coming of "A Barry Nolan Production"; +frequently the lettering of this line over-shadowed that in which the +name of the star was displayed, invariably it dwarfed the name of the +story. + +After witnessing several of these offerings, Lucinda began to wonder +why.... + + + + +XXX + + +But that distrust of Barry Nolan's competency which troubled Lucinda's +mind almost from the very outset of their association had yet to +crystallize on the Saturday when Summerlad was expected home; and her +disposition toward the director was rendered only the more amiable when, +toward noon, he informed her that he wouldn't need her again till Monday +morning. + +Nevertheless it threatened to prove a long afternoon to an impatient +woman, and Lucinda, wanting company to help her while it away, promptly +petitioned for Fanny's release as well. + +Fanny, however, was busily employed, as she had been ever since early +morning, waiting for Nolan to put her through a scheduled five-minute +scene which would round out her full day's work. But Nolan graciously +promised to set her free in another hour, and then--to get rid of +Lucinda's presence, which instinct was already beginning to warn him was +silently skeptical of his claims--artfully suggested that she might like +to review the rushes of yesterday's camera-work. + +Assuming that she would find the projection-room empty, Lucinda made her +way to it without bothering to remove her make-up, but on opening the +door saw a fan-like beam of turbid light wavering athwart its darkness, +and would have withdrawn, had not Zinn's thick and genial accents hailed +her from the rear of the long, black-walled, tunnel-like chamber. + +"Come right on in, Miss Lee. We'll be through in a minute. Just running +some of the fillum come through from Joe Jacques yesterday. Maybe you'd +like to see it. 'Sgreat stuff that boy Summerlad's putting over this +time." + +Murmuring thanks, Lucinda groped her way--bending low, that her head +might not block the light--to one of the arm-chairs beneath the slotted +wall which shut off the projection-machines in their fire-proof housing. + +When her vision had accommodated itself to the gloom, she made out +several figures in other chairs, sitting quietly behind ruddy noses of +cigars and cigarettes. At a table to one side the glow of a closely +shaded lamp disclosed an apparently amputated hand hanging with pencil +poised above a pad, ready to note down anything the traffic of the +screen might suggest to Zinn. The latter was conversing in undertones +with somebody in the adjoining chair, and the rumble of their voices was +punctuated now and again by a chuckle which affected Lucinda with a +shiver of uncertain recollection. But she couldn't be sure, in that mirk +she could by no means make out the features of Zinn's companion or even +the shape of his head, and the surmise seemed too absurd.... + +She was none the less perturbed to a degree that hindered just +appreciation of the admirable work of Lynn Summerlad, whose shadow, clad +in the rude garments of a lumberjack, was performing feats of skill and +daring against a background of logging-camp scenery; and thanks to her +misgivings, as much as to the custom of taking and retaking again and +again even scenes of minor importance, had grown well weary of watching +Lynn bound frantically from log to log of a churning river to rescue +Alice Drake from what seemed to be desperately real danger in the +break-up of a log jam, when abruptly the shining rectangle of the screen +turned blank, the beam of clouded light was blotted out, and a dim bulb +set in the black ceiling was lighted to guide the spectators to the +door. + +Then, with a fluttering heart, Lucinda identified her husband in Zinn's +companion; and anger welling in her bosom affected her with momentary +suffocation, so that she was put to it to reply when Zinn, leering +hideously, presented Bellamy. + +"Shake hands with Mr. Druce, Miss Lee: new tenant of mine, going to work +here same as you, just signed a lease for space to make his first +production." + +"What!" + +At that monosyllable of dismayed protest, Lucinda saw Zinn's little eyes +of a pig grow wide with surprise; which emotion, however, might have +been due quite as much to what Bellamy was saying. + +"But I am fortunate, Mr. Zinn, in already having the honour of Miss +Lee's acquaintance." Bellamy took possession of her hand. "How do you +do, Linda? So happy to see you again--looking more radiant than ever, +too!" + +"Is that so? You two know each other! Whyn't you tell me?" + +"Wasn't sure it was this Miss Lee I knew until I saw her." + +"Well, well! Ain't that nice! You ought to get along together fine, both +working in the same studio and everything." + +Lucinda found her voice all at once, but hardly her self-possession. "It +isn't--it can't be true! Bel: it isn't true you're----!" + +"Afraid it is, Linda." Bel's smile was lightly mocking. "The picture +business has got me in its toils at last. Only needed that trip out here +to decide me. Now I'm in it up to my ears. Something to do, you know." + +"But not--not as an actor?" + +"Bless your heart, no! All kinds of a nincompoop but that. No: I'm +coming in on the producing side, forming a little company and starting +in a modest way, as you see, on leased premises, with the most +economical overhead I can figure. If I make good--well, I understand Mr. +Zinn is willing to sell his studio, and I'll be wanting one all my very +own." + +"Any time you want to talk business, Mr. Druce, you know the way to my +office. Don't stand on ceremony, and don't let nobody kid you I'm into a +conference and can't be disturbed by anybody who wants to buy me out of +this Bedlam: just walk right in, slap the cheque-book down on my desk, +and unlimber the old fountain-pen; you'll find me willing to listen to +reason. Well: got to get along, folks. They're going to run some of Miss +Lee's rushes now. Maybe you'd like to look at them, if she don't mind." + +"I hope very truly she won't," Bellamy said, smiling into Lucinda's +eyes. + +Lucinda uttered a faint-hearted negative: no, she wouldn't mind. No +other way out till they were alone.... But her heart was hot with +resentment of the way that Bel was forever forcing situations upon her +in which she must accept him on his own terms. + +Immediately the door had closed behind Zinn, however, Bel's manner +changed, his show of assurance gave place to diffidence or its fair +semblance. + +"I'm sorry, Linda--I really don't mean to be a pest----" + +"Then why are you here? Why _won't_ you keep out of my way?" + +"Give me half a chance, I think I can make you understand----" + +"You had that chance weeks ago, and deliberately refused it. Do you +imagine I will give you another opportunity to affront me as you did?" + +"But surely you got my note----" + +"What note?" + +"The note I sent to the Hollywood, explaining I was called East on two +hours' notice, but would return as soon as I could; begging you to +consider our interview merely postponed----" + +"If you sent any such note, I could hardly have failed to receive it." + +"But Linda! I did send it, an hour before I left, by special +delivery--'pon my word I did!" + +"Possibly," Lucinda suggested with laboured scorn, "you misaddressed it, +forgetting which of your numerous feminine acquaintances you were +writing to." + +"I addressed it," Bel insisted stoutly, "to Mrs. Bellamy Druce." + +"If so, that explains it. They know me at the hotel only as Linda Lee." + +"How was I to know that?" + +"Your sources of information concerning me seem to be fairly busy and +accurate." + +"I'm sorry if you've been annoyed"--Lucinda cut in a short laugh of +derision--"no, really I am! But I had to----" + +"Wait!" Lucinda had become aware of a head framed in the little window +of the projection-booth and regarding them with a smile of friendly +interest. "Not now--later." + +"All ready, Miss Lee," said the operator, unabashed--"if you are, I +mean." + +"Yes, thank you, quite ready." As she settled back into her chair and +Bellamy placed himself by her side she added in a guarded tone: "As soon +as I've looked these scenes over, we can go to my dressing-room...." + +The ceiling light winked out, stuttering rays thrashed through the dark +to paint in black and white those winsome gestures which Lucinda had +described before the camera. But her interest in her pictured self for +once had lapsed, vanity itself was for the time being wholly in +abeyance, she watched without seeing the play of light and shadow, and +when it faded from the screen could not have said what she had seen. + +Weird, to sit there in the dark with the man beside her who had once +filled all her heart that was now filled with longing for another.... + +When the screen once more shone blank and the ceiling light flashed on, +Bel was smiling cheerfully. + +"No wonder you fell for the screen so hard, Linda: you're exquisite, and +no mistake. If you stick at it, never fear; it won't be long before +you'll be wiping the eyes of the best of them." + +"Thank you," she said stiffly--"but I don't think I want that. I only +want a life I can live and hold my self-respect." + +"And you come to Hollywood to find it?" + +She flushed darkly and with an angry movement got up. "Please come." + +Her maid was waiting in the dressing-room, but Lucinda sent the woman to +explain to Mrs. Lontaine that they might be a few minutes delayed, and +told her not to come back till sent for. Alone with Bellamy, she showed +him a face on fire with challenge. + +"You said you wanted to explain, Bel; you won't get another chance." + +He nodded soberly. "Quite realize that. But this once will do, can say +all I want to in three minutes. Then you're free to call it quits for +good, if you like." + +That posed her rudely. Did he mean--could it be possible he meant he had +become reconciled to the rift in their relations? Had the arrow she had +loosed into the dark, that night when Bel had broken his appointment +with her, flown straight to the mark? Was Bel really "cured?" He had +that look; there was deference without abasement in his bearing, if +regret now and then tinged his tone it conveyed no hint of repining. By +every sign he was doing very well without her. + +"Can you doubt that's what I'll 'like,' Bel? Or what must I do, more +than I've already done, to prove I ask nothing better than to call it +quits for good with you?" + +"Oh, you've done all that was needed, thanks. I'm convinced--have been +for some weeks, if you want to know--in fact, from the moment when I +found out you'd lost your head over a movie actor." + +"Indeed?" Lucinda mastered an impulse to bite her lip. "And have you +anything to say about that?" + +"Not a blessed thing. That's your affair." + +"Pity you didn't know in time to spare you the trip." + +"I'm not sure, Linda. Knowing you as I did, I don't think I'd have +believed anything I didn't see with my own eyes----" + +"Anything so greatly to my discredit, of course!" + +"Easy, Linda! I didn't say that. You know best what you want--that's +something nobody else can ever tell one. I'm not criticizing, I'm merely +explaining." + +"And very good of you, I'm sure." + +But Lucinda had not been able to utter the taunt without a tremor. + +Bellamy gave his head a stubborn shake and stepped nearer. "Please don't +be angry because of anything stupid I may say. You see, you +misunderstand me: I came out here that first time dead-set to win you +back at any cost, still madly in love with you, absolutely unable to +conceive of a life that didn't pivot on you, Linda. I was prepared to +give you any pledges you could possibly ask----" + +"Did you flatter yourself any pledge you could give would mean anything +to me, when you'd broken your word so often?" + +"I hoped I could make you understand what a blow your leaving me had +been, how it had brought me to my senses at last, jolted me up on the +water-wagon, where I've been ever since--I haven't had a suspicion of a +drink, Linda, since that night you ran away--and made me see what an +unspeakable rotter I'd been, fooling around with women as I had. That's +another thing I cut out like a shot. I haven't looked sideways at +another woman since...." + +"Not even after discovering I'd fallen in love with another man?" + +"Not even after that. Somehow casual women don't mean anything to me any +more--I mean, casual flirtations. They're too damn stupid--silly waste +of time. I guess I had to be squiffy as I used to be most of the time, +not to be bored by them. Oh! I'm not saying I shan't ever fall in love +again, just as you have; but when I do, it will be the real thing, +Linda--not the simple cussedness that makes a child play with a gun +because he knows it's loaded." + +"This is all very interesting, I'm sure. But after all, it doesn't +explain--now, does it?" + +"It explains why I followed you out here the first trip, why I had to +see you in another man's arms, kissing him, and then hear all the +small-town gossip about you two before I'd believe...." + +"There is gossip, then?" + +"What do you think? According to all reports, you've been going it, +rather, you and this chap Summerlad--'stepping out together,' as they +say in Hollywood." + +Lucinda affected a shrug of indifference: Bel mustn't guess she cared +what people said. + +"But I am still waiting to hear why you've come out this time; what it +means when you hire quarters here in the studio where I am working +daily, and pretend you're going into the producing business. You may be +able to make Zinn believe that tale; at least, he won't ask embarrassing +questions so long as you put money in his pocket; but you can hardly +expect me--!" + +"You're wrong there, Linda. I'm just as much in earnest about becoming a +producer of good motion-pictures as you are about becoming a star. I got +a little look into the game that fascinated me, in those two days while +I was killing time, waiting for the night you'd set for our talk. You +ought to be able to understand: you were fascinated yourself at first +sight." + +"But you--! Bellamy Druce dabbling in the motion-picture business!" + +"Well, what price Mrs. Bellamy Druce in the same galley?" + +"No, Bel: frankly, I don't believe you. You're here with some wild idea +you can influence me to do what you wish--whatever that is, since you +say you've given up wanting me to come back to you." + +"Oh, as to that--absolutely!" + +"Then why must you set up your shop here, where we can't help running +into each other half a dozen times a day?" + +"Because there isn't another inch of stage to be hired in all Los +Angeles today. I've had a man looking round for me ever since my first +visit, he's tried every place. The only thing I could do to avoid +renting from Zinn was to build, and that meant a longer wait than I +wanted. Ask anybody who knows the local studio situation, if you doubt +what I say." + +"So you didn't come out this time with any idea of seeing me at all, +Bel?" + +"Of course, I did. I had to see you. Things couldn't rest as they were, +especially after you'd taken up with this Summerlad. I'm assuming you're +serious in that quarter, of course." + +"And what has that to do--?" + +"Just this: I don't like it. As I say, if you want to run around with a +movie actor, that's your affair; but so long as you remain my wife, it's +my affair, too. Don't forget it's my name you're trailing through the +muck of this sink-hole of scandal." + +She flamed at him--"_Bel!_"--but he wouldn't heed. + +"You don't suppose you're going to get away with the Linda Lee thing +much longer, do you? If all these people don't know it's an assumed name +now, they jolly soon will. How do you suppose I found out you were up to +this game? No: not through detectives, but simply by calling on your +friend, Ben Culp, the man who first put this picture bee in your bonnet. +Nelly Guest gave me that cue, and I thought Culp might know something +helpful. Well: he did, when I called he had on his desk a trade paper +that carried a report of the incorporation of Linda Lee Inc. Did you +imagine anybody would need more than that name, coupled with Lontaine's +as president of the company? Culp himself was the first to tumble to +it.... And that's what I'm here to ask you. If you're going through, if +you're bent on leading the life you have been leading ever since you +fell in with these people, be good enough to keep my wife's name out of +it! Get your divorce and get it soon. That's all I have to ask of you." + +Lucinda replied with a slow inclination of her head. + +"What you want is my dearest wish," she said. "Depend on it, Bel, I +shan't waste a day, I'll take the first train I can catch for Reno, +after finishing this picture." + +"That's simply splendid of you!" Bellamy declared heartily. "Anything I +can do to help along, of course--just let me know." + +"I'll be glad if you'll go now," Lucinda told him. "I think I've had +about all I can stand for one day." + +"Then good bye, my dear--a thousand thanks!" + + + + +XXXI + + +Lucinda told Fanny that, when the dressing-room door had shut Bellamy +out, she "didn't know whether to laugh or to cry"; though it's true that +the laugh, if any, being admittedly on herself, she was the more moved +to weep. And for some minutes she stood in thought, with a curiously +uncertain expression, a look that, trembling between a smile and a +frown, faithfully reflected a mind that couldn't readily choose between +relief and chagrin. In the end throwing herself into a chair, she hid +her face in her hands and shook with mirth which she really wasn't able +to control, all the while aware that, but for the assurance of Lynn's +love to cushion the shock to self-esteem, tears instead must have been +her portion. + +After all, one couldn't deny that it had been a facer, that complete +snub Bel had administered to her expectations with his cool +relinquishment of all pretense of claim upon her, barring that which was +his beyond dispute, his right to demand the speediest feasible +dissolution of their bonds. + +"And you really think divorce is what he's after?" Fanny doubted darkly, +having duly turned the matter over in her mind. + +"I'm sure you'd think so, if you had heard him." + +"I don't know.... Of course, he was your property long enough, you ought +to know his wretched little ways. But I wouldn't trust any man to mean +what he says to a woman under such circumstances." + +"Fanny! how long is it since you set up to be such a cynic?" + +"As long as I've been an honest married woman, darling. I think the +first thing a woman with her wits about her learns, once she begins to +convalesce from that foolish bride feeling, is that men are just as +treacherous as we are in affairs of the heart, so-called. Anyway, if +your Bellamy were mine, he'd wait a long time for me to give him his +freedom, precisely as long as he insisted on sticking round and making +me uncomfortable.... The most outrageous proceeding I ever heard of!" + +"I don't see through Bel, myself," Lucinda admitted. "You'd think it +would be the last thing he'd do. Of course--I'll speak to Harry about it +tonight--we can't stay, we'll have to move as soon as we finish this +picture." + +"We're lucky to be as well along as we are, in that case. Barry Nolan +said today he expected to finish up in two weeks more." + +"Then there's no time to be wasted. Your husband will have to begin +looking for new studio accommodations right away; though I haven't the +least idea where we'll find them, if Bel told the truth." + +"It's barely possible he did, of course. And then it's equally possible +that he's taking advantage of the demand exceeding the supply to force +you out of the business, assuming you'll quit Zinn's even if it involves +suspending production, rather than be made miserable by seeing him every +day. In which case, of course, he'll have some other scheme ready to +make it difficult if not impossible for you to resume." + +"Heavens! what a wild-eyed theory, Fanny!" + +"Any more wild-eyed, pray, than the facts in the case?--than what +Bellamy has done in leasing space in the same studio with a woman whom +he has every reason for wishing to avoid, if one can believe a word he +says! Cindy: don't tell me you believe Bellamy Druce ever left New York, +his home and his friends, to come out here and muck about Hollywood +because he likes it, or because he's discontented with having been no +better than a drone all his life long and wants to redeem himself by +doing something worth-while? If _that's_ his motive, in Heaven's name! +what made him pick out the motion-picture business?" + +"It is funny," Lucinda confessed. "I don't pretend to understand...." + +No more did she. But the seeds of suspicion that conversation planted +took root readily and flowered into a dark jungle of strange, involuted +fancies in which fears ran wild until Lynn Summerlad came home to charm +them all asleep. Lucinda only needed to see him, indeed, to forget her +troubles altogether and become once more the voluntary thrall of a +species of intoxication as potent to her senses as a drug. + +The Lontaines had arranged a supper party at Santa Monica in Summerlad's +honour for that night, but considerately had neglected to preface it +with dinner. So the lovers had the hours till eleven to themselves. At +seven Summerlad called, finding his way unannounced to Lucinda's +sitting-room. She went to his arms with a cry of joy, buried her face on +his shoulder, clung to him as if she would never let him go. + +"I've missed you so, Lynn, I've missed you so!" + +He seemed startled and unmistakably affected by the artlessness of this +confession, and held her close, comforting her with all the time-old and +tested responses of the lovers' litany, with a tenderness in his voice +more deep and true than he had ever sounded in the most impassioned +moments of his wooing. + +"But, my dearest girl! you're trembling. What is it? Tell me...." + +"It's so wonderful to have you back, Lynn. Don't ever leave me for so +long again." + +"You tempt me to," he laughed indulgently. "I think you've learned to +love me better while I've been away than you did in all the while that I +was here!" + +She answered with an odd little laugh of love and deprecation: "I really +think I have...." + +They dined at Marcelle's, not the happiest selection for their first few +hours together, for the place was thronged with picture-folk, as it is +always of a Saturday, and acquaintances were continually running over to +their table to tell Summerlad how glad they were to see him back. +Practically the only moments they had alone were when they danced; so +they made excuse to leave early, that they might drive to Santa Monica +by the most round-about way. + +Nothing was wanting to endue that drive with every illusion of a dream. +Spring was so well advanced that the night air, windless, was as warm as +it would ever be in Summer. There was again a moon, as on that first +night when Summerlad had driven Lucinda and the Lontaines home from +dinner at his bungalow and on the way had turned aside to show Lucinda +from that high place in the hills all the provinces of her new kingdom +mapped out beneath her. Summerlad's car, its superb motor in perfect +tune, made light of speed laws on lonely roads far from the +main-travelled ways that link the towns. On the back seat, snuggled into +the hollow of Summerlad's arm, Lucinda rested a long time in contented +silence, watching the molten magic of the night fling itself at their +faces, dissolve, blend into rushing shadows, and sweep behind, to music +of cloven air like fairy laughter. How could she ever have been so +stupid as to harbour a thought disloyal to this land of dim enchantment? + +"It is too perfect," she murmured at length, "too sweet to last. It +can't last, I know it can't!" + +"Why not? So long as we love, what's to prevent all beauty lasting?" + +"Life. I mean"--it took all her courage to speak of what she had till +then purposely kept back--"Bellamy." + +Summerlad's arm tightened protectingly around her. "What about him? Has +he come back? Been annoying you any way? Tell me about it." + +She told him her version of that noon-hour meeting at the studio, +Summerlad swearing softly beneath his breath as he listened. + +"So you see, my dear--as I said--it can't last. We can't continue to +work together in the same studio, with Bel spying on us, or able to do +so any time he happens to want to. I'll have to move--you can't, of +course, because your contract is with Zinn himself. And I imagine--in +fact, I'm sure--the best thing for us both is for me to leave Los +Angeles altogether for at least six months." + +"Go away from Los Angeles? From me! Linda, you can't mean it." + +"Only to make it possible to be nearer to you when I come back, dear. I +mean, I must go to Reno, where I should have gone in the first place. If +I had, these impossible conditions Bel has brought about could never +have been." + +"Oh, damn your husband!" + +"I don't know: he's making things awkward for us, truly, but perhaps in +the end we'll be grateful to him. If it weren't for Bel, it's quite +likely I'd keep on putting off my divorce rather than be separated from +you for so long. But after all, what are six months, when they earn us +the right to spend all our lives together afterwards?" + +Lynn made no answer, other than to hold her more tightly. She twisted +round to look up into his face. The moonlight showed it set in a +scowling cast. + +"What's the matter, Lynn? Don't you think as I do about Reno?" + +"Of course," the man muttered. "But I don't fancy your being away from +me so long. Six months! Anything can happen in six months." + +The car was swinging into the streets of Santa Monica. Lucinda gave him +her lips. + +"Let's forget it for tonight. Kiss me again while there's time." + +The restaurant to which the Lontaines had bidden them was the one in +those times most favoured by the froth of the picture colony for its +weekly night of carnival; an immense pavilion by the sea, but too small +by half for the crowds that besieged it toward midnight every Saturday, +pathetically keen to rub shoulders with celebrity in its hours of +relaxation from arduous labours before the camera. When Lucinda and +Summerlad arrived the velvet rope across the entrance was holding back a +throng ten deep, a singularly patient and indefatigable lot, its faces +all turned in hope toward the lights beyond, eager to catch the eye of +the proprietor, though informed by sad experience that the reward would +be what it always was for those who had failed to make reservations, a +coldly indifferent shake of the head and nothing more. Through this +fringe prayers and elbows opened a sullen way till Summerlad's unusual +height won recognition from within, and he passed through with Lucinda +to a place where pandemonium set to jazz ruled under light restraint. + +Round the four walls and encroaching upon the cramped floor for dancing, +tables were so closely ranked that passage between them was generally +impracticable. It seemed little short of miraculous that so many people +could be crowded even into that huge hall, incredible that they should +care to be. Yet everybody of any consequence in the studios was there, +and everybody knew everybody else and called him by his first +name--preferably at the top of his lungs. Much fraternizing went on +between the tables, much interchange of the bottles of which at least +one was smuggled in by each male patron as a point of honour, against +the perfunctory prohibition of the management posted in staring letters +at the entrance. An insane orchestra dominated the din by fits and +starts, playing snatches of fox-trots and one-steps just long enough at +a time to permit a couple to make half the round of the dance floor at +the meditative gait imposed by the mob massed upon it, then stopping to +let a leather-lunged ballyhoo bullyrag the dancers into contributing +their cash as a bribe for further measures. When the musicians rested +and the floor was cleared, impromptu exhibitions of foolery were staged +by slapstick clowns and applauded with shrieks and cat-calls. The women +present, mostly young--for the camera has little use for years beyond +the earliest stages of maturity--exhibited themselves in every degree of +undress short of downright déshabille. Masculine Hollywood as a rule +thriftily saves its evening clothes for service under the Kliegs. + +Lontaine's party, a large one, comprising the most influential members +of the colony with whom he and Summerlad were on agreeable terms, had +been long enough in session already to have become individually exalted +and collectively hilarious. Summerlad it took to its bosom with shouts +of acclaim, and he seemed to find it easy to catch the spirit of the +gathering. But Lucinda sat with it and yet apart from it, a little +mused. She could not drink enough to be in tune with her company, and +would not if she could. A sense of frustration oppressed her. Before her +dreaming eyes the pageant passed again of hills and fields asleep in +sweet glamour of moonlight, breathing pastoral fragrance upon the night. +She had been happy half an hour since. Here in this heady atmosphere of +perfumed flesh, tobacco reek and pungent alcohol, the idyl of her +evening grew faint and fled. While the man she loved had no regrets. + +In a moment of disconcerting lucidity she saw him as a strange man, +flushed with drink and blown with license, looking on other women with a +satyr's appraising eyes, bandying ribald wheezes with the lips she had +so lately kissed. And she winced and drew away, recalling that abandon +of affection with which she had given herself to his embrace at the +hotel, feeling of a sudden soiled and shop-worn as from common handling. + +A strange man, a man she had known but a few brief weeks! + +Covertly watching him, she saw Summerlad in the middle of a passage of +persiflage start and fall silent, his lips in an instant wiped bare of +speech. And following the line of his stare, she espied, at some +distance, at a table near the edge of the dance-floor, Bellamy sitting +with a woman. + +He saw her but made no sign more than to intensify his meaning smile, +and immediately returned courteous attention to his companion. + +At this last Lucinda stared in doubt for several seconds, she was so +changed. But finery that shrieked of money spent without stint or taste +could hardly disguise the wild and ragged loveliness of Nelly Marquis. + + + + +XXXII + + +In a freak of unaccountable reluctance to believe it was really the +Marquis girl, Lucinda looked a second time. More than a month had passed +since that brief, distressing chapter of their acquaintance, which +Lucinda had put out of mind so completely that her efforts to recall the +features of the other conjured up only a foggy impression of a shabby, +haggard, haunted shadow, by turns wistful and feebly defiant, that bore +what might be no more than chance likeness to this figure of flaunting +extravagance at Bellamy's table. + +A question forming on her lips, Lucinda turned back to Summerlad, but +surprised the tail of his eye veering hastily away, and fancied a shade +of over-elaboration in the easy, incurious air he was quick to resume; +as if he wished her to believe he either hadn't noticed those two or +else saw no significance in their association on terms apparently so +intimate and mutually diverting. + +So she held her tongue for a while, till the comforting suggestion +offered that Lynn in all probability had but sought to spare her +feelings.... + +She stole another glance across the room. By every indication Bellamy +found his company most entertaining; he was paying her sallies a tribute +of smiling attention which she as evidently found both grateful and +inspiring. It was plain that she had had enough to drink and something +more; but on that question she held strong views of her own, and while +Lucinda was looking drained her highball glass and with an air +peremptory and arch planted it in front of Bellamy to be replenished; a +service which he rendered with the aid of a pocket flask--adding to his +own glass, however, water only. + +Not that _that_ necessarily meant anything. Bellamy knew the chances +were that Lucinda was watching him. Still, one had to admit he was +showing none of those too familiar symptoms; in that gathering, where +the cold sober were few and far between, Bel looked conspicuously so. +Was he, then, to be believed when he insisted he had finally foresworn +alcohol in remorse for having driven Lucinda to leave him? One +wondered.... + +Summerlad was eyeing her with a quizzical air. Lucinda managed half a +smile. + +"Having a good time, Linda?" + +"I can't complain." A slight movement of shoulders rounded out the +innuendo. + +Summerlad made a mouth of concern. "Tired, dear? Want to go home?" + +"Afraid Fanny and Harry wouldn't like it...." + +Was one unfair in reading disappointment where Lynn wished solicitude +only to be read? + +"How about another little drink?" Lucinda shook her head decidedly. +"Well, then: what say we dance?" + +She surveyed the crowded floor dubiously. "It's an awful crush, I'm +afraid...." Nevertheless she got up and threaded the jostling tables +with Lynn at her heels: anything for respite from the racket the +Lontaines and their crew were kicking up. + +Odd, how those two, so quiet and well-behaved when she had first met +them in New York, had let go in this demoralizing atmosphere of what +Fanny had rechristened the loose and windy West. Odd, but in a way quite +British. The Anglo-Saxon temperament inclines to lose its head once the +shackles of home-grown public opinion are stricken off. Long ago a wise +man pointed out that there wouldn't be any night life in Paris worth +mentioning if it weren't for strict enforcement of the early closing law +in London.... + +It was an awful crush. Few better dancers than Lynn Summerlad ever trod +a ball-room floor, but even he was put to it to steer a safe course in +that welter. It was, after all, not much of an improvement on sitting +still and trying to appear unaware of Bellamy and that weird Marquis +creature. Lucinda felt sure, now, she had not been mistaken about the +girl, but concluded to ask Lynn anyway; and her lips were parting with +this intention when she heard a hiss of breath indrawn and looked up to +see Lynn's face disfigured by a spasm of pain. In the same instant he +stopped short, in the next he groaned between set teeth. + +"Have to get out of this, I'm afraid," he grunted. "My foot--somebody +with a hoof like a sledge-hammer landed on it just now. That wouldn't +matter, only the confounded thing got caught between a couple of logs +while we were doing that river stuff. The swelling went down several +days ago, and to tell the truth I'd forgotten about it.... But this +reminds me plenty!" + +He had an affecting limp on the way back to their table, where he +delayed long enough to tell his story and receive commiserations, then +announced that, though desolated to leave such a promising young party, +he would have to get home and out of his shoes before he could hope to +know another instant's ease. If the Lontaines wouldn't mind seeing that +Lucinda got back to the Hollywood all right.... + +The Lontaines were ready enough to undertake that responsibility, but +Lucinda wouldn't hear of staying on. Lynn's chauffeur could as well as +not take her to the Hollywood after dropping Lynn in Beverly Hills.... +She was glad enough of the excuse, of course, but she did resent, what +she couldn't help covertly looking for on the way out, the sardonic +glint in Bel's eyes. + +Really, Bel's effrontery seemed to know no limit. To protest at noon +that "casual women" meant nothing to him any more, and at midnight to +make public parade of his interest in a demi-rep! On top of that, to +give his wife that odious look of understanding when she passed him +with Summerlad, a look implying privity to some indecorous secret +involving them! + +Simmering indignation rendered her demeanour unsympathetic, perhaps, +while Lynn was being made as comfortable as might be in his car, with +the shoe removed from his poor hurt foot and the latter extended on one +of the forward seats. And for some minutes after they had got under way +she maintained, in the face of inquisitive sidelong glances, a silence +which Lynn seemed loath to break. But in time it began to wear upon his +nerves. + +"Cross, sweetheart?" he enquired gently. "I'm sorry you let me drag you +away----" + +"It isn't that," Lucinda replied, almost brusquely. "I wasn't enjoying +myself, anyway--wanted to leave almost as soon as we arrived." + +"Then what is it?" + +She asked evasively: "How's your foot?" + +"Much better, thanks. Guess I must've dislocated one of the smaller +bones, in that logging stunt. It doesn't feel just right. I'll get an +osteopath in tomorrow morning and see what he makes of it." + +"It really was hurt while we were dancing, then?" + +"What do you think? That I'd make a fuss like that and spoil my party +just for fun?" + +"I thought possibly you were pretending on my account." + +"You mean, because your husband was there." + +"So you did see him, after all." + +"Yes--but rather hoped you hadn't." + +"He wasn't alone, Lynn." + +"I noticed that, too." + +"It was Miss Marquis, wasn't it?" + +"Yes, Linda--afraid it was." + +"Afraid----?" + +"Your amiable husband's in for an interesting life, if that young woman +has got her claws into him." + +"Lynn: where do you suppose the girl has been all this time, since that +night she left the hotel?" + +"Good Lord! how should I know?" + +"People don't drop out of sight like that in Hollywood. One keeps +meeting them if they're in Town, one can't help it--there are so few +places to go. It seems funny she should disappear so completely for--how +long is it? four weeks? five?--and then turn up in Bel's company." + +"It is funny," Summerlad agreed in a tone that rang true. + +"I'm only wondering where he fell in with her." + +"Well," Lynn submitted: "I daresay if you were to ask him...." + +"Or if you were to ask her!" + +But immediately Lucinda repented her resentment of what she had hastily +taken to be an attempt to becloud impatience with ill-timed levity. For +Lynn treated her to the reproof of a sulky silence, in which he +persisted till she felt constrained, in self-justification, to adopt the +very tone that had vexed her. + +"Or don't you think that would be a good idea, Lynn?" + +The man shifted in his corner till he sat half-facing her, his manner +seriously defensive. + +"Look here, Linda! I've known a long time you suspected there was +something between this Marquis girl and me--or had been----" + +"Wait a minute, Lynn: I may be stupid, women in love usually are, they +say; but that thought never crossed my mind before the moment when, back +there in the restaurant, I saw you didn't want me to know you'd seen +her." + +"Then it must have been my conscience, I guess." Lynn fumbled for and +found her hand beneath the rug that covered their knees. "You see----" + +"Oh, I see!" Lucinda snapped, and drew her hand away. + +"No, you don't----" + +"But I do, Lynn: and I'm quite reasonable about it. Only, I presume, I +needed this to make me understand the kind of man I'd given my heart +to." + +"That's unfair. You know perfectly, nine times out of ten the man isn't +to blame. Besides----" + +"Say, rather, I have wit enough to know the causes underlying every form +of human relationship are obscure past comprehending.... It isn't a +question with me of blame or excuse, it's just a feeling that's suddenly +come over me, a thought come home I've been refusing to think ever since +we fell in love, Lynn, that I've committed my life to the care of a man +who can never be wholly mine, whom I must always share with his memories +of other sweethearts." + +"Well, but what about _my_ feelings? Do you suppose it makes me happy to +be all the time reminded that Bellamy Druce----?" + +"Please, dear, don't. Forgive me--I couldn't help it. Besides, there's +this to be said: if I did love another man before I met you, he was the +only one; while you have known so many loves like--like this Marquis +girl--not, you know, not quite----" + +"Oh, I get you!" Summerlad laughed harshly. "You don't have to be more +plain-spoken. And I can't deny you've got some excuse. On the other +hand, if you love me, you must love me for what I am, not as I might +have been if I'd stuck to pounding the ivories in Winona's leading +nickelodeon." + +"Pounding the ivories?" + +"Playing piano in a moving-picture theatre in a Wisconsin village." + +"I thought you told us, one night, you'd never done any work before +going into pictures?" + +"Wouldn't call that work," Summerlad explained in haste and not too +convincingly. "Work is something that puts real money in the old pay +envelope. I'd be ashamed to tell you what the nickelodeon handed me +Saturday nights. But it was just a sort of a lark for me. The regular +orchestra was an old schoolmate of mine and when he went on his vacation +I doubled for him, you see. Of course my folks kicked like steers about +my taking a common job like that, but I thought it was fun; and watching +the screen for music cues put it into my head I could show 'em something +if I ever got a chance in pictures...." Here Summerlad was troubled by +a dim reminiscence of some statement with which this account, likewise, +failed to jibe, and sheered back to his former thread of argument. +"Anyway, you're all wrong about Nelly Marquis. She's one that didn't +happen, if you've got to know the truth." + +"Oh!" Lucinda commented without emotion--"didn't she?" + +"Along with a hundred others I get the credit for----" + +"I daresay, by Hollywood standards, 'credit' is the right word." + +"Oh, hang it all, Linda! you _must_ understand. A man in my line.... Oh, +you know how it is.... There'll always be women ready to make fools of +themselves over any man who manages to get a certain degree of +prominence. And an actor has got to keep in the public eye. Men are just +as bad, for that matter; they'll run in circles around an actress, +simply because she's on the stage, who can't hold a candle for looks or +good disposition to the little girl who lives two doors away on their +home street. I met Nelly Marquis shortly after I'd made my first real +dent in pictures. She'd come out here to try her luck, after some +experience on the legitimate stage. She was so hard hit I used to be +afraid to leave the house until I'd sent out scouts to make sure the +coast was clear. I've always thought that trouble of hers was more than +half responsible for her mania about me." + +"What trouble?" + +"Dope. She's a hop nut. Coke--cocaine's her big bet. That's what her +friend the doctor boggled about telling you--must've been the trouble, +that time you found her stretched out: an overdose. I didn't like to +tell you because--well, frankly, I didn't want you to think I knew so +much about the girl." + +"Oh, what a pity!" + +"I can't hold myself responsible----" + +"But why should you?" + +"I mean, I don't believe it was simply disappointment drove her to +it.... Hang it! I can't seem to help talking like an ass tonight. What +I'm trying to say is this: Nelly took to the dope after I'd met her, but +only, I believe, because she got in with the wrong crowd. That's easy in +Hollywood. It's hard to tell till you are in with them. And there's an +awful lot of that sort of thing goes on more or less quietly out here. +They lead one another on. When they've tried everything else they take a +chance on the hop to see if there's really anything in it; and then +they're gone. They drift into little cliques and have parties, ether +parties and that sort of thing, you know, where they choose one by lot +to stay off the stuff and watch the others to make sure nobody strangles +to death while they lie around him in a circle----" + +Lucinda lifted her hands to her ears. "Please, Lynn, please! I don't +want to hear any more. It's too dreadful!" + +"I'm sorry. I only wanted you to understand why I felt I had to warn you +against Nelly. She's unfortunate, God knows, but she's dangerous, too. +They all are, once the stuff gets a hold on them, there's nothing they +won't do, no lie they won't tell...." + +"And this is what goes on in this earthly paradise!" + +"It isn't California, it isn't Hollywood, it's human nature, one sort of +human nature. You'll find the same thing going on in every big city; +read the newspaper accounts of the campaign against the drug traffic. +Only, out here we know more about it, because the studios make it more +or less one big village, and it's hard to keep anything quiet, talk will +get about...." + +They were drawing near the cross-road that led to Summerlad's bungalow. +He bent forward and spoke to the driver, and the car held on toward +Hollywood. + +"I'm taking you home first, Linda. My foot isn't troubling me now to +speak of, and.... Well: talking about how rapidly gossip spreads made me +think it would be better you shouldn't be seen driving up to my place +with me at this time of night." + +With a stabbing pain of loneliness and penitence, Lucinda perceived that +she had only Lynn's love and consideration to rely upon for salvation +from the gins and pitfalls of this outré world in which she lived, +self-outlawed from her kind. No one else cared, not another soul in all +Los Angeles would lift a hand in her behalf save at the dictates of +self-interest. + +And in a sudden passion she turned and clung to him again, begging +forgiveness for her suspicions and complaints. And Summerlad soothed +her, patting gently the head that rested on his shoulder, smiling over +it confidentially at the smiling midnight moon. + + + + +XXXIII + + +Lucinda dated from that Saturday the dawn of a fortnight when everything +went wrong for her with such regularity that, in the end, the burden of +its crosses grew too sore, the woman had been something more than merely +mortal whose stores of fortitude and forbearance had not run low. + +Naturally she blamed Bellamy.... + +In a way he asked for this, giving her too little chance to forget that +the sunlight had been kind before his shadow fell again athwart her +eyes. Now when skies were overcast and the wind had a tooth, Bel figured +in the picture as a sort of stormy petrel, forever to be seen wheeling +somewhere within the vague of the horizon. + +Fare where she would on diversion bent, Lucinda seemed fated always to +encounter Bel, and too often in the company of the Marquis girl; while +at the studio it didn't matter much which way she turned, she could +hardly avoid the sight of her husband buzzing about on the business of +his new enterprise, and apparently finding it all great fun. + +To one who recalled the dilettante Bellamy of New York days, there was +matter enough for amazement in the gusto he had lately discovered for +work that nothing required him to do, in the amount of real energy, +enterprise and executive ability which he was contributing to this new +amusement. For Lucinda refused to take seriously his infatuation with +the motion-picture business; it wasn't real, she insisted to herself, it +wouldn't last, he was putting it on just to plague her.... + +None the less he went to work with a will, and took little more than a +week to assemble a producing unit, engage a company of players, and +cause camera-work to be begun under the direction of one who, observed +occasionally and from a distance, conveyed a refreshing impression of +quiet authority. + +Inasmuch as special sets could hardly have been designed and erected on +such short notice, most of the company's first activities were staged +away from the studio, "on location," and Lucinda knew nothing of them +save through hearsay. Gossip had it, however, that Bellamy was employing +no star to carry his initial production, but was rather making a +"special"--the term which the motion-picture trade reads to mean a +picture basing its claims solely on the strength of its story as +interpreted by a well-balanced cast. Glimpses of Nelly Marquis in +make-up, now and then, warranted the assumption that she had been given +a part in the picture. + +But their paths seldom crossed, notwithstanding that they were using the +same studio, and when it did the young woman somehow always happened to +be possessed by an abstraction too profound to permit of her seeing +Lucinda. + +Bel, on the other hand, was already ready with a smile and a friendly +hail--"The top of the morning to you, Miss Lee! 'Tis hopeful I am the +work, God bless it! is doing well"--or some similar absurdity; but never +a hint that there had ever been any terms between them other than the +most formal. + +Gratitude for this much consideration rendered it no more easy to +respond in the same spirit. Lucinda had never known anything more +baffling than the absence of any justifiable grounds for objecting to +Bel's presence in the studio. For if it were her privilege to seek to +become a star of the cinema, it was equally his to launch out as a +producer.... + +The daily disappointment that waited on efforts to find other quarters +aggravated her sense of hardship. Lucinda learned to listen impatiently +for the expressions of despair which unfailingly wound up Lontaine's +reports: "If we've got to clear out of this--I don't know, Linda--I'm +afraid it means either buy or build." She began to be afraid it did. +Studio accommodations were reported never to have been so much in demand +on the Coast. Every available stage was doing double duty, two companies +crowding their activities wherever possible into a space formerly +reserved for one. Neither knew they any rest by night, when belated +souls would see the great roofs of glass livid with the incandescence of +Cooper-Hewitt tubes, burning like vast green opals against the dense +blue-black of early morning skies. + +The tidal wave of the cinema craze that in those years swept the world +was rearing its golden crest to its giddiest height; and the people of +the studios rode in glee where the aureate spindrift blew, reckless of +the law that every wave that lifts must fall, too drunk with money, +altitude and speed to know that already, beneath their very feet, the +crest was curving in upon itself, the fanged rocks were waiting. + +Zinn, wily campaigner that he was by instinct and training, shrewd +reader of signs and portents illegible to the general, foresaw the +coming débâcle and--when he had made every provision against being +overwhelmed in it--assumed in private the prophet's mantle. + +"Been a good game while it lasted," he observed to Lucinda one day, "but +it's on its way now, all right. I was reading a piece in the paper last +night, all about how California seen three big booms, that time when +they discovered gold, next a real estate speculation craze, and now the +movin'-pictures. The first two blew up, same as this will before long. I +guess I and you are lucky fools to of got a look in while the going was +good." + +"Lucky?" Lucinda questioned dubiously. + +A grin of indescribable irony glimmered on the swarthy, shrewd features. +"Something to tell the kiddies about when they gather around your knee, +Miss Lee: 'What Grandma done and seen in the wild old days in +Hollywood.'" + +"I don't know about that. And what makes you think times will ever be +different?" + +"Take it from me, little lady, things can't hold up much longer the way +they been in pictures. Nobody with a brain in his bean would look for +it. Trouble is, nobody like that would take the fillum business serious +when it was learning to walk. Now it's wearing long pants and driving +its own machine, it's no use expecting it to listen to what brains got +to tell it. All the same, if it don't--good _night_! + +"Ah, I see what's going on all the time! Audiences sick of punk pictures +and putting up a howl for better, producers combing the world for +authors, artists, dramatists, all the people what have got the stuff +pictures need to make 'em good--and the old guard back here dug in and +ready to die before they'll surrender the trenches to anybody that knows +more'n they do. And why wouldn't they? It's meat and drink and gasoline +to them to keep things going like they are. Where'd be the sense in them +giving the glad hand to the guy who's got it in him to do them out of a +nice soft job? + +"Take authors, now. We're having a big run on authors just't present. +The producer figures anybody who's got brains enough to write a novel +that won't wobble if a person gives it a hard look, ought to have brains +enough to do as good with a picture story. But does he get a chanst? +Don't make me laugh. The poor simps come out here on every train with +their eyes shining, full of joy and pep on account of what the producers +promised they was going to let 'em do in pictures. And every train takes +'em back. What's the answer? + +"The answer gen'ly's a bird in ridin'-breeches and a property high-brow, +calls himself director-general or something gaudy like that--same bird's +been making the pictures the producers want to make better. He gives +Friend Author the glad smile and a hard look and starts right in telling +him all what he can't do in pictures. Author wants to know how come. +'Because I say you can't, and I know everything they is to know about +pictures.' Author asks producer what about it. Producer says, says he: +'If my director-general says you can't, stands to reason you can't. Say: +how do you get this way? I brought you out here to learn you to make +pictures, not for you to learn my director-general.' Author sees the +point and fades back East. Director-general tells producer: 'Too bad +about that poor fish, but he didn't savvy the picture angle, and I +couldn't make him see it nohow.' + +"Or take another case. Producer buys a big story, like, now...." + +"_Paradise Lost_," Lucinda suggested mischievously. + +"Who wrote it?" + +"John Milton." + +"Never heard of him. Make a good picture?" + +"I'm afraid it would be difficult. But it's a big story." + +"All right. Producer hands this, now, _Paradise Lost_ to his scenario +editor. She reads it, turns pale around the gills, sends out an +emergency call for the director-general, says to him, says she: 'Listen, +sweetheart, this'll be a knock-out if it ever gets on the screen the way +it's wrote. The guy what wrote this knew pictures before they was +invented.' Director-general says: 'Gosh! that won't never do, or first +thing you know we'll have this boob Milton on the lot telling us our +business. Stew up the continuity to suit yourself, pet, and leave the +rest to me.' Fin'ly _Paradise Lost_ gets on the screen as 'A Cyril de +Menthe Production entitled Sex Against Sex, by Queenie Hoozis, featuring +Hope Honeybunch with bathroom fixtures by Joseph Urban and telephones +hidden by Sherlock Holmes, suggested by a magazine story by J. Milton.' +If it gets by, Queenie and Cyril cop the credit. If it falls down they +tell the producer they done their best, but he'd ought to of known +better, it ain't no use trying to make pictures only from stories framed +special for the screen by somebody who cut their eye-teeth on a strip of +celluloid--like Queenie. Every time anything like that happens the +fillum business takes a long stride forward--towards the end of its +rope." + +"Still, I don't quite see----" + +"It comes down to this, Miss Lee: nothing short of an earthquake's ever +going to jar the Queenies and Cyrils loose from their jobs and give +brains a chanst to horn in." + +"But if you see all this so clearly, Mr. Zinn, why don't you start the +indicated reforms yourself?" + +"Who, me? Naw, naw, little lady; quit your kidding. I don't know enough. +Me try to sit in with sure-enough brains? Say! I seen the way you looked +when I wanted to know who wrote _Paradise Lost_. No: Isadore Zinn +belongs in with the rest of the bunch that's been good enough up to +about now but's got to be junked before pictures will get a chanst to be +any better'n they ought to be. Oh, I ain't got no kick coming; I've made +mine and put it away where nothing real mean's ever going to happen to +it; and when the sky falls on Hollywood it'll find me some other place, +playing pinochle and absolutely innocent of the entire fillum business." + +"You don't seriously believe that will ever happen." + +"It'll happen just as quick's Wall Street wakes up to the way it's been +gypped--and it's moaning and tossing in its sleep right now. Wall Street +put up its good money because pictures made half-way on the level earned +more and earned it quicker'n any other investment they could find. Wall +Street didn't worry none about what graft was being gotten away with as +long's they thought they was going to get their money back and a hundred +per cent. profit every so often. But that was yesterday, when audiences +would shell out cheerful and sit through anything because pictures +moved. Today they're still lining up at the box-office, but only because +they can't believe the day won't never come when they'll maybe see +something worth their time and coin. Tomorrow they'll be saying, 'Show +me!' before they'll dig up as much's a thin dime. And that's when Wall +Street's due to tumble to it, they's only one way for it to save its +investments in the fillum game, and that is take hold of it and run it +like a honest-to-goodness business. And when that happens, when the +fancy salaries get pared down to the quick, and the good graft's all +gone, and there ain't no way no more for the assistant property-man to +charge the upkeep of his lady-friend's limousine to overhead, and the +director what wants money to build ancient Rome with and burn it down +for a showy interlude to a society comedy will only get the hearty +laugh--why, along about that time a terrible lot of people are going to +find out California's a cold, hard place, spite of the climate and all, +and a heap of highly hand-painted automobiles is going to be dumped on +the used-car market in Los Angeles." + +Some disturbing mental echo of this screed one day inspired Lucinda to +devote several painful hours to totting up her bank account, a duty +which she had been religiously forgetting for months, and whose +performance brought to light the fact that she had already given Harry +Lontaine cheques to his order in the sum of two-hundred and ten thousand +dollars, to be cashed by him and deposited to the credit of Linda Lee +Inc. + +If she felt slightly dashed by this discovery, it was less because of +the money involved--for she had from the first been prepared to pay more +dearly for her whistle than Lontaine had declared it would cost--than +because the end was not yet, the first picture remained unfinished, many +heavy payments on account of it were still to be met, and her private +extravagances, added to the financing of Linda Lee Inc., had left little +worth mentioning of the money which Harford Willis, at her requisition, +had paid into her drawing account in New York. + +It was now necessary to write Willis and ask him to find her more +money; and that involved, as a matter of simple courtesy to that old +friend and a devoted steward of her interests, explanations which she +would much rather not make just yet. + +But her only other course was to consult Lontaine in the faint hope that +out of the sums entrusted to him there might be enough left in the +company's treasury to see it through the present production. And this +she hesitated to do because of an intuitive feeling that he would take +this as directly challenging his competency to handle her money if not +his good faith. Lontaine was such a sensitive soul.... However, he +spared her the pain of deciding to do nothing, for the next time they +met he blandly advised Lucinda that the company could do with another +twenty thousand as soon as she could find time to draw the cheque; and +on learning that it would have to wait a few days, or until she could +hear from Willis, seemed considerably discountenanced; or else fancy +misled her. + +As for that, it might have been merely her fancy that Lontaine +thenceforward betrayed a disposition to keep out of her way, and when he +couldn't was at pains to iron out the wrinkles in his temper before +venturing to respond to her always friendly advances; that perceptible +hesitation prefaced the utterances Lontaine addressed to her, constraint +had crept into their relations, till then so easy and cordial, and added +opacity was to be remarked in the stare of those introspective blue +eyes. + +Since it was unthinkable that she should be long embarrassed, for want +of ready money, or that Lontaine should believe she could be, Lucinda +couldn't imagine why he should show such signals of a mind perturbed, +and could only do her best to dwell upon the matter not at all. Heaven +knew she had other worries a-plenty to cope with! + +It was annoying, for example, to feel that one was expected to feign +blindness to what was going on under one's very nose, namely Fanny's +essays in the ancient and vulgar art of vamping, with Bel in the rôle +of voluntary victim--or a vastly better actor than he had ever before +shown himself to be. Nor did the quite transparent naivete of Fanny's +methods, as Lucinda viewed them, cause patience to be any the less a +labored virtue. If you asked Lucinda, Hollywood had added no finish to +Fanny's cosmopolitan technique of flirtation, but rather the reverse; in +this respect, as in too many others, Fanny seemed to have taken on a +shade too much the colour of her environment. One looked and made +allowances for the crudely obvious in women educated by directors to +believe that certain elementary gestures (for which see any screen) were +surely efficacious with men of every class alike. But Fanny knew better +than to make herself grotesque. + +Such, however, was the one word that seemed to suit the way she went +with Bellamy. And when one had watched her practise and repeat without +end the trick of the upward, sham-timid glance of eyes demurely wise, +accompanied by the provocative pout of aggressively kissable life, the +look that said openly: I think you're rather nice and I know I am; so +why are we wasting time?--and had seen it work an apparently invariable +effect upon one who called himself a man of the world, who should long +since have graduated from the social kindergartens where such tactics +are vogue--well, one simply longed to cuff his ears and tell him to quit +being such a silly fool. It gave one furiously to repent having +relinquished the right to bestow upon Bel gratuitous advice for his own +good. + +Wherefore it came to pass that, as a general thing, whenever Fanny was +wanted for a scene and was not to be found in the neighbourhood of the +set, she would ultimately be discovered somewhere on the lot, more often +than not in the most public corner of it, industriously rehearsing her +wiles for the debatable benefit of Bellamy. + +And this the man who had declared that his besetting sin had lost all +savour for him since it had done its part to alienate his wife! + +Lucinda nevertheless assured herself that she didn't so much mind Bel's +inconsistency--for what were his protestations to her today?--or even +Fanny's commonplace coquetries; it was the surreptitious airs with which +Fanny sought to envelop these goings-on, the reticence which she +persisted in observing in respect of their effect, that made their joint +stupidity maddening. For never since that afternoon when Bel had caught +Lucinda in the act of kissing Summerlad before a camera, and Fanny had +playfully announced her intention of vamping him to a fare-ye-well, had +she chosen to mention his name in any relation to herself. In the local +vernacular which she had been so quick to pick up, Fanny seemed to think +she was getting away with something. + +Lucinda resisted the temptation to disillusion her friend mostly because +of a faint-hearted hope that Fanny might at any moment redeem herself +with a scornful report of Bel's gullibility, but in part because of +doubt whether Bel were being taken in as completely as he appeared to +be. It was just possible that this old hand at philandering was simply +playing Fanny's game to find out what she meant by it. Certainly he +showed no propensity to favouritism. The path of his amourette with the +Marquis girl ran parallel to that which he pursued with Fanny, perhaps +ran faster, but strangely proved not half so tiresome to the spectator. +In spite of all that Summerlad had said of her, Lucinda entertained an +honest admiration for the Marquis as she was today, considered her +physically quite a fascinating creature, which she unquestionably was in +this revised phase, and found what Bel saw in her far more easy to +understand than what he saw in Fanny. This was something partly to be +accounted for by the circumstance that Lucinda saw comparatively so +little of Miss Marquis, saw her so seldom save at a distance and when +she was on her dignity--when, as Summerlad had it, she had slapped on +thick the make-up of a lady. That it was in good measure make-up merely +Lucinda had memories to testify. For all that, she saw the girl +comporting herself toward Bellamy with a manner which she thought Fanny +might have copied to good profit. But when she confided as much to +Summerlad she found him darkly suspicious of Nelly's present good +behaviour. + +"Don't worry," he advised: "That young woman will surprise you yet. +She's being nice now and enjoying the novelty. Chances are she took the +cure, that time she disappeared. But it never lasts. Once the old hop +gets its hooks into anybody it never lets go, really. It may seem to be +licked for a while, but it's only waiting for a moment of weakness. Wait +till Nelly gets bored playing up to the gentlemanly attentions of your +friend, Mr. Druce, wait till she wants him to do something he doesn't +want to. Just wait. If you admire fireworks, believe me, Linda, your +waiting won't be wasted." + +Having said which, Summerlad made haste to change the subject. But +Lucinda had already learned that any reference to Nelly Marquis was +calculated to make him restive. A circumstance in itself not the least +irksome of the many which she counted as afflictions. She needed badly a +congenial confidant, and Lynn was newly become anything but that, had, +indeed, never seemed quite the same since the first night of his return. +Another black mark to add to Bellamy's score. For Lynn was inevitably +and pardonably disgusted with the situation at the studio, where he +couldn't turn around without running into either the Marquis girl or the +husband of the woman he loved. Then much of the old delight in sharing +working-quarters had been lost through their tacit agreement that, under +these changed conditions, a trifle more reserve wouldn't come amiss when +they met under the public eye. But now, even when they were alone, the +old-time spontaneity was missing, and, Lucinda was sure, through no +fault of hers. It was in Lynn that she thought to detect a strange new +absence of ease, what she could almost have termed a hang-dog air, a +furtive fashion of watching her, if he thought she wasn't aware, that +was swift to change, as soon as he found she was, to a species of feeble +bravado distastefully reminiscent of Bel when Bel had been drinking just +enough to feel it and not enough to have become callous; an air of +having done something he oughtn't and living in instant dread of being +found out. + +Lynn had such an air with her, that is, if Lucinda were not +self-deceived, if she didn't imagine it all, if it were anything but an +hallucination conjured up by a mind morbidly conscious of Bel's shadow +in the offing, the shadow of that relationship which, while unresolved, +must ever rest between the lover and the wife. + + + + +XXXIV + + +But these peculiar tribulations rankled neither severally nor even in +their sum more distressfully than did the trouble at the studio, where +daily the tension of ill-feeling between actress and director grew more +taut, as Lucinda's earlier misgivings ripened into articulate +dissatisfaction with Nolan's methods and their fruits, and as that +sensitive artistic soul reacted deplorably, in terms of begrudged +civility at best, and at other times of stubborn Celtic oppugnancy. + +Dilatory tactics in directing had become too fast a habit with Nolan to +be broken at will, and had forced him to forego his chance at that +attractive job in the East. For which, of course, he would never forgive +Lucinda. And he was otherwise so fed up with the feeling that he was +unappreciated, that he had taken to fuming nastily over every set-back +which put off the final "take" by so much as an hour, and indeed was +more than once only restrained from "walking off the lot and leaving the +picture flat" by the consideration that he had as yet been able to +wheedle out of Lontaine a mere niggardly half of his contract fee in +advance. + +Aware of what was in the air, the supporting players held their +collective breath against that explosion which all felt was due at any +moment to hoist them into the same element and leave them there, belike, +in indefinite suspense. Individually they went with a nice if naïve +diplomacy in all their dealings with Miss Lee and Mr. Nolan +individually; for who could foresay whose hands would hold the symbols +of power when the dust had settled? But the sympathies of the producing +staffs, to a man, Lucinda was sensible, were with Nolan; and though +this nettled her at times, she consoled herself with the reflection that +it was after all only natural, since the best directors, that is to say +those with the most artful and resourceful press-agents, hand-pick their +lieutenants as a general custom and carry them along as they lightly +flit from berth to berth. And she derived a little comfort from the +belief that the cameraman was on her side. + +Cameramen, being highly trained specialists in an exacting art, are more +often than not men of independent minds, iconoclastic in their attitude +toward the directors with whom they work. Iturbide was of this tribe. He +knew his trade, not Nolan or any other could instruct him in it. If he +reckoned the light not right for any take, that scene would wait though +Nolan raved and the heavens quaked. In the choice of the right angle for +any shot his judgment was final, even Nolan learned in time not to +dispute it. And he accomplished his will with a singular economy of +words and emotion, the more remarkable in view of the mercurial temper +with which tradition accredits the race from whom he sprang. He was +Mexican, a tall and rangey body, with eyes as beautiful as a woman's, +and much to the silken courtesy of the Spanish whose blood he shared. +"No, Mr. Nolan," he would announce in a strongly accented and resonant +voice, shaking his head sorrowfully after setting up his camera and +assaying the light by peering through a strip of negative film exposed +behind the lens--"no, I no take--light no good. Tomorrow we take, maybe +light better then." And while Nolan, who as like as not had voluptuously +kept a regiment of extra people waiting all day to work in this the last +hour of the afternoon--while Nolan spluttered and swore and offered to +go down on his knees if prayers would move Iturbide to change his mind, +the cameraman would be placidly superintending the demounting of his +camera, and pocketing the darling lens whose care he never would trust +to hands other than his own. And that scene would not be taken until +the next day--not then, if the light were not exactly to Iturbide's +liking. Which was one among a number of reasons why his photography was +credited with having saved many a picture otherwise without virtue. + +Scrupulous always to avoid giving unprovoked offense, in the series of +skirmishes which made the final two weeks of Nolan's engagement +memorable, Iturbide played the part of benevolent neutral; but if +Lucinda were not mistaken in her reading of his eyes, the best of his +benevolence was reserved for her. + +Historically--and setting aside minor clashes of opinion as mere affairs +of outposts--the private war progressed to its conclusion in three +stages, which for convenience may be named the Battle of the Supper Club +Set, the Affair of the Comedy Feet, and the Last Stand in the +Living-Room Doorway. + +In the novel from which the picture in production took its name and +little else, most of the plot development was worked out in a +fashionable supper club, where Lucinda in the character of a +professional dancer, figured nightly as what for some reason New York +that stays up nights knows by the name of "hostess." The rooms of the +club as described bore close resemblance to the premises for years +tenanted by the Club de Vingt in East Fifty-eighth street, to whose +general plan, however, fanciful embellishments had been added in an +effort to make it a frame worthy of the dancer's charms. + +Over the lay-out, or scheme, for this set, Lucinda had spent many hours +and much thought--before Nolan found time to give the production any +attention whatever--in consultation with Harry Lontaine and Mr. Coakley, +the talented young man who served the Zinn Studios in the capacity of +general technical director: an office which as organized by the +motion-picture trade, comprehends those--among others--of architect, +landscape-gardener, scene, house, sign and artist-painter, interior +decorator, and amateur of the art of every era, from the Eolithic to +that of East Aurora. And in the end Lucinda had turned to her work +before the camera well-satisfied that Mr. Coakley knew what to do and +how to do it, and would assemble an excellently suitable room if left to +exercise his own good taste and ingenuity. + +The most pretentious bit of building required by the production, the +supper club was the last to be erected, and wasn't ready till the +beginning of the fourth week of Nolan's reign; as Lucinda learned it +was, one evening, when the assistant-director circulated a call for the +entire company to work on it the next day. + +Accordingly, Lucinda and Fanny strolled over to the main stage, where, +behind a flimsy fence of sides--frames of wood and paint-smeared canvas +held up by struts--the precincts of the supper-club basked in the +cynical glare of Cooper-Hewitts overhead. + +Inside the barricade, Lucinda halted with a cry of shocked remonstrance. + +In the middle of the floor, upon which she was to give the solo dance +which she had been weeks rehearsing under a veteran professional, Nolan +stood vivaciously lining out tomorrow's proposed campaign for the +benefit of a group composed of his first assistant, Mr. Wells, Iturbide +and the second cameraman, and Mr. Coakley. + +There was nothing else to break the full force of the blow which fate +had prepared for Lucinda's expectations. + +Of the gay, exquisite scheme upon which she and Coakley had agreed, +guided by the novel, there wasn't a sign. The main masses of woodwork +were here all a dull, blank black. The panels, which were to have framed +baskets of fruit and garlands of flowers, in low poly-chrome +relief-work, had yielded place to paintings in the style of French +posters, of women in antic postures and clothed only enough to accent +their nakedness. The little tables that lined the walls were dressed +with cloths checquered staringly in red and white. The imbecile geometry +of the Cubists had patterned all the draperies and upholstery materials +in weird juxtapositions of colour apparently intended to give away the +grisly cosmic secret that there was something rotten in the solar +spectrum. And at the far end of the room there was.... Lucinda looked +twice to make sure her eyes did not deceive her. But, no; there it was: +a bar, a veritable zinc of the common Parisian cabaret. + +And while she gaped aghast, hysterically torn by a desire to scream with +lunatic laughter and an impulse to weep and dance with rage, Nolan spied +her and, deserting his audience, tripped briskly over, beaming happily. + +"Well, Miss Lee! how about it, eh? A little slice off the top of the +real Bohemia, I'll tell the world. And wait till you see how she +screens. O bay-bee! but this glad young set's gonna photograph like a +million dollars." + +Lucinda choked down the anger with which her lips were tremulous. For an +instant she stared hopelessly at Nolan, comprehending that this vile +parody of the design she had approved was due wholly to his arbitrary +action in contradicting the plans without reference to her wishes. And +she could have cried with disappointment and vexation. As a matter of +simple fact, her eyes did fill in that bitter moment when she was made +poignantly aware of how high her hopes had been and how heartlessly +frustrated, and how helpless she was to express a tithe of her +indignation without jeopardizing the good of the picture. + +If she spoke her mind it were inconceivable that Nolan should consent to +continue as director. And grave and well-grounded as was her +dissatisfaction with him, Lucinda was not yet ready to believe it would +benefit the picture to have it finished by another intelligence than +that under whose guidance it had been so ill-begun. + +And it is by this that the potential artistic stature of Linda Lee is to +be reckoned, that in this the young beginning of her career she had +already learned, what many who walk with the great ones of the screen +have never learned and are incapable of learning, to think of her work +before herself, to esteem her rôle as something less than the story +which gave it excuse for being, to hold the welfare of the picture as a +picture more important than her own. + +While still she faltered, fearing to speak her mind, Coakley came up +with the others. To him she turned reproachfully. + +"Oh, Mr. Coakley! _why_ did you do this?" + +Before Coakley could reply Nolan cut in irritably: "Do what? What's the +matter now?" + +"I'm asking Mr. Coakley why he didn't carry out the design we agreed on +for the supper club." + +Coakley grinned and scratched an ear. "Mr. Nolan's ideas, Miss Lee," he +drawled uncomfortably. + +"Mr. Nolan ordered this change?" + +Nolan brusquely interposed: "Of course, I did. What's wrong with the +set?" + +"And you didn't consult me, Mr. Coakley?" + +"I supposed you knew, Miss Lee." + +"Say, listen here!" Nolan snapped--"what's the grand idea? I said I was +responsible for this set, didn't I? I gave Coakley's lay-out the +once-over, saw it wouldn't do, and told him what I wanted. And why +wouldn't I? Look't what we got. Not much like that glorified tea-room +you were satisfied with, is it?" + +"No, Mr. Nolan--not much. I grant you that." + +"Well, then, what's the big objection?" + +"Simply that the set is out of harmony with the rest of the picture----" + +"Out of harmony! Why, it's going to _make_ the picture! You ask Harry +Iturbide here. He'll tell you, when that set's flashed on the screen +it's going to knock your eye out." + +"I'm sure he will," Lucinda agreed, smiling at the cameraman. + +"Well, Harry?" Nolan insisted--"what about it? Who's got the rights of +this argument?" + +"Miss Lee," the cameraman said, sententious. + +"Miss Lee has! Say: how do you make that out?" + +"You don't want to make your background too prominent, Mr. Nolan," +Iturbide explained patiently. "This set is going to stick out in front +of the actors. You won't be able to see what they're doing against a +checker-board like that." + +"Ah, you give me a pain!" Nolan retorted crushingly. "That background's +all right--going to photograph like a million dollars, I tell you." + +"But, Mr. Nolan," Lucinda resumed with more confidence: "don't you see +that the set is completely out of key with the atmosphere of the story? +It isn't in the least like the supper club the author described." + +"Bet your sweet life it isn't! Look here: I read that story, and I know +all about it, and I can show you where the author was all wrong with his +idea of the kind of a joint _Nelly_ was running----" + +"It wasn't what you call a 'joint,' to begin with, Mr. Nolan." + +"That's just the very point I'm trying to make. If it isn't a joint +you're dancing in, where's _Richards_ get off with his kicking about you +not being good enough to marry his son? It's got to be a joint, or there +won't be any sense in the way he fusses when he finds out you and _Dick_ +are stepping out together. If that place in the book wasn't a joint, I'm +a kike!" Nolan paused in triumph to let his argument sink in. "Now"--he +brandished a hand at the set--"this _is_ a joint, and a regular one, if +you want to know. Some class to this. I doped it all out myself. Take +those tablecloths, now: that's the identical kind they were using in +Montmartre last time I was in New York. And those panels on the walls--I +got the idea for them from Reisenweber's Paradise Room, only these are +sportier. And that black woodwork and all.... Why, we've taken the best +points of all the classiest joints in New York and lumped them into one +set, and improved on them at that. Now when this poor fish of a +_Richards_ sees his son dancing with you in a joint like this, he'll +have some excuse for claiming you ain't all you might be." + +"The trouble is," Lucinda replied gravely--"I mean, from your viewpoint +the trouble will be--_Richards_ will never see _Dick_ dancing with me in +this set." + +"What's the reason he won't?" + +Lucinda smiled slightly, shook her head slightly, slightly shrugged. In +the course of Nolan's harangue it had been revealed to her that no +greater calamity could possibly be visited upon the picture than to +permit its essential colour of good taste to be vitiated by the +introduction of this purely atrocious set. It would be like asking the +public to believe that people accustomed to sup and dance in the Crystal +Room at the Ritz had transferred their favour to the roughest cabaret in +the purlieus of Longacre Square. + +"What's the reason he won't?" Nolan repeated, raising his voice angrily. + +"Because I won't work on this set, Mr. Nolan--until it is restored to +the design I approved." + +"But--my Gawd!--you can't do that, Miss Lee--you can't hold up this +production like that. Why, it'll take weeks----" + +"How long will it take, please, Mr. Coakley?" + +"Well, I don't know, Miss Lee--I might be able to rush it through for +you in a week or ten days." + +"There!" Nolan obtruded an excited smirk and weaving hands between +Lucinda and the technical director. "You hear what Coakley says. Ten +days! You can't hold up this production ten days, Miss Lee." + +"I can," Lucinda corrected coldly, "and will, no matter how long it +takes to make this set resemble a place self-respecting people would +patronize." + +"But--listen here!--you can't go to work and upset all my plans at the +last moment, like this. Company called for half-past eight--fifty extra +people hired for four days' work--orchestra from the Alexandria and +all--the best caterer in Los Angeles engaged to serve the eats--! You +can't throw me down like this----" + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Nolan. You should have consulted me before ordering such +changes on your own responsibility----" + +"Look here: am I directing this picture, or ain't I?" + +"I'll answer that question when you answer mine: Am I paying for this +production or are you? And if I am, are you the only one whose wishes +are to be considered?" + +"Listen, now, Miss Lee." Nolan made a frantic effort to be calm and +urbane. He swallowed hard. "Listen: I don't want to have any trouble +with you, but you're making it all-fired hard for me. I've been in this +business ever since there was a studio in Hollywood, I've directed +hundreds of productions, hundreds of 'em, I ought to know my +business----" + +"It was on that assumption precisely that you were hired," Lucinda +reminded him sweetly. + +"But ever since I been working with you, I've felt--you've made me +feel--damn it! you've been watching me and thinking sarcastic things +about the way I do----" + +"Did you never before suspect you were psychic, Mr. Nolan?" + +"And now you openly criticize my judgment about this set and say you +won't work on it----" + +"You understand me exactly," Lucinda assented. + +"You mean that?" + +She nodded. + +"Well, that--settles--it!" Nolan flung both hands above his head and +waggled them insanely. "That _settles_ it! I'm through--I'm +finished--done! I'm out! I quit!" + +He hesitated a single instant, searching Lucinda's face to see it blench +at this awful threat; and in disappointment whirled on a heel and barged +out of the set so blindly that he blundered into one of the frames and +knocked it flat. + +Lucinda nodded quietly to the technical man. + +"Please make the changes as soon as you can, Mr. Coakley. It's all +right: don't apologize any more. I quite understand it wasn't your +fault." + +The president of Linda Lee Inc. wasn't in his office, neither was his +car in the parking yard; but Nolan evidently knew where to find him, for +Lucinda had not been twenty minutes in her rooms at the Hollywood when +Lontaine's knuckles rattled on the door. His agitation, when she +admitted him, was intense, almost pitiable. One gathered that he +considered a tiff between star and director a catastrophe second only to +national censorship of pictures. He stammered painfully over his account +of Nolan's ultimatum, which had been accompanied by a demand for the +balance of his pay in full and at once. + +"I presume you haven't heard from your lawyer yet, Linda ..." + +"He hasn't had time to get my letter." + +"I don't suppose--you couldn't wire him now? It would give us a +frightful black eye if Nolan were able to say we couldn't pay him." + +"But he's had twelve thousand or so already. Why should he get the +balance of his fee if he refuses to earn it?" + +"But he claims you as good as fired him----" + +"No doubt he would." Lucinda corrected to the last letter that +misstatement of fact.... "So you see, the truth is, Mr. Nolan fired +himself in a pet because I refused to let him ruin the supper club +sequences. Now if he wants the rest of his twenty-five thousand, he'll +have to hire himself on again." + +And eventually despairing of a change of heart in Lucinda, Lontaine took +himself off to test his powers of moral or other suasion on Nolan; and +at intervals during the evening called up to report progress, or rather +that absence of progress which rewarded his best endeavours. Hope died +hard in him, however; and some time after midnight the telephone routed +Lucinda out of her bed to receive a somewhat disconnected communiqué to +the effect that Lontaine's cunning as a diplomat had at length wrung +from Nolan a promise to return to work the next day. + +Strains of jazz which filtered over the wire, a singing background for +the muzzy accents which retailed this glorious news, led Lucinda to +infer that Lontaine was calling from Santa Monica, and to suspect that +Nolan's capitulation had been to some extent at least due to the +humanizing, at times, influences of the stuff the genial bootlegger +vends; but perhaps no more than to the intoxicating kindness of Fanny's +eyes.... + +To her taste the Affair of the Comedy Feet was something more farcical, +though Nolan did take it in a depressing spirit of deadly seriousness. + +In fact, one of the heaviest handicaps under which this young man +laboured in his progress through life was a tendency to take frivolous +matters, including himself, a shade over-seriously; a fault he shared +with so many of his fellows of the studios that Zinn one day was moved +to comment on its cause, not without psychological insight. + +"One of the big troubles with the fillum business," he observed sagely, +"is the way it's made a lot of people rich what wasn't never meant to be +that way. And take it from me, pictures ain't never going to be right, +really, until most of that bunch gets out of the business or gets over +their surprise. + +"Independence," he mused, "is one of the dangerousest weapons a person +can put in the hands of an ignorant guy." + +Next to himself and his amours, the thing Barry Nolan took most +seriously was Comedy, so much so that he clothed the word with the +capital even in his private meditations, and devoted a good part of his +professional life to perspiring efforts to interject Comedy into the +pictures he directed, especially those in whose composition Comedy, as +he conceived it, had no business to find place. + +Thus with the picture upon which his genius was at present engaged. Over +the unfolding of its story the Comic Spirit did indeed preside, but +manifested only in the rustle of its satiric wings, in a whisper of wit +ever and anon animating the speech of its creatures; never in the +head-on collision of two actors trying to pass through one doorway in +opposite directions, never in the capers of a cross-eyed comedian dogged +to his undoing by a pack of wild pies. So that Nolan felt it devolved +upon him to save the picture by distorting situations integral in its +plot and by devising others for interpolation, to the end that Comedy, +the Comedy of the cinema, of physical mishaps and deformities, might mow +and bow upon the screen its bid for guffaws. + +If the results he gained were often lamentable, Lucinda ceased to offer +comment when her first diffident strictures had been ungraciously +overruled. It would be time enough to fight for a decision, she +reflected, when the picture was ultimately cut to length and assembled; +in which process much of this deplorable stuff would be sure to go by +the board, for very lack of space. + +Piqued to find her so unresponsive, Nolan issued secret orders that his +most ambitious comic flights were not to be shown Lucinda with the other +rushes, and confined further efforts in the vein to scenes in which she +took no part. + +And it was thus that the Comedy Feet crept up on her unawares. + +Some time subsequent to the Battle of the Supper Club Set, when his +equanimity seemed to have been completely restored, Nolan acquainted +Lucinda with the details of an utterly unique method of screen +introduction which he had invented, all out of his own head, with a view +to lending distinction to her début. + +By this device the public was first to make her acquaintance through the +medium of a close-up framing two pair of dancing feet, _Nelly's_ (that +is to say, Lucinda's) and her professional partner's. Then, as these +rested, the partner's feet were to be eliminated, and the close-up, +after lingering one fond, reluctant moment on Lucinda's ankles, was to +travel up her person until it hovered upon her head and shoulders. + +If not strikingly novel, the business seemed simple and innocuous enough +to Lucinda, and she posed for it according to instructions and without +misgiving. + +But when, the next day, she sat with Nolan in the projection-room, +reviewing the rushes, this is what the screen revealed to her astounded +eyes: + +She saw first a stripling fashionable, an admirer of hers in the story, +stroll down a section of sidewalk in the Los Angeles shopping district +(which Nolan asserted was "Fifth Avenue to a T") enter a florist's shop, +select roses, and scribble a card to accompany them, while the florist +summoned an errand boy, a repulsive white slug of a child, eight or nine +years of age, heavy with unwholesome fat and wearing an habitual look of +hopeless vacuity, whom Lucinda had several times noticed, not without +wonder, as he loitered drearily about the stage. + +As she now saw him, the boy had been heartlessly shoe-horned into the +brass-bound livery of a page, and wore upon his feet a brace of leathern +wrecks which even the broad charity of a Charlie Chaplin would have +hesitated to call shoes. + +Waiting for the card to be written, this bleached sausage of a child +restlessly shuffled his tragic feet, and again and again wiped them on +each other. To make sure that nothing of the fine Comedy of the business +would be overlooked, the feet were isolated in an heroic close-up. + +She saw the boy take the box of roses and leave the shop to deliver +them. As he emerged to the street the fiendish camera pounced upon his +feet and again held them up to derision in a close-up wherein they +resembled more than anything else abnormal vegetable growths uncannily +animate. Nor was this enough. With the savage elemental humour of a +Yahoo the camera hounded those fungoid feet as they clumped and dragged +and faltered along the sidewalk, their monstrosity painfully stressed by +contrast with the trim legs and dainty feet of feminine passers-by, the +decently shod feet of men. + +When unstinted quantities of film had been squandered in this delectable +pursuit, the Comedy Feet were shown performing a side-splitting stumble +over the threshold to the supper club establishment. + +The close-up of Lucinda's feet with her dancing partner's was then +disclosed; and the camera shifted its intimate attentions to another +pair of feet disgracefully clad, which were discovered in the act of +pressing the pedals of a piano and appeared to belong to a low comedy +stage mother whom Nolan had foisted upon Lucinda in his version of the +continuity. These last the camera followed as they left the piano and +shuffled across the floor to meet the feet of the errand-boy, then as +they crossed to halt near the feet of Lucinda. + +Followed the ascent of the close-up to frame on Lucinda's face as she +smiled down at her armful of roses. + +The film ran out then, darkness fell, the ceiling light came on, and +Nolan, who had the chair immediately in front of Lucinda's, twisted +round with a bright, expectant grin to study her face for the glow of +glad appreciation which he felt his ingenuity had earned. + +She managed a wan little smile for him, but her eyes held still a look +of bewilderment too deep to be readily erased, too despairing to be +misread. Nolan flushed, but wasn't ready to admit defeat. + +"I'll tell the world," he declared defiantly, "the screen never seen an +introduction like that before!" + +Anxious to avoid a repetition of their former squabble, Lucinda sought +vainly for some equivocal phrase that would content the man's +stupendous vanity. But, inconceivably inane as it sounds, the business +of the Comedy Feet has been here set forth without the faintest colour +of exaggeration; and her wits were numb from the impact of its wanton +stupidity. + +"Well!" Nolan sneered in an effort to reassert his authority--"I can see +it didn't make a whale of a hit with you, Miss Lee, but believe me, the +audiences will eat that stuff up, simply eat it up!" + +"Don't you think," Lucinda ventured--"perhaps it's a little long, Mr. +Nolan?" + +"Oh, maybe a little trimming here and there won't do any harm. But it +can't come down a whole lot without hurting the Comedy effect." + +"But--I don't like to seem hypercritical--but that's what's troubling +me. You see, it doesn't seem terribly amusing to me." + +Nolan's eyes snapped, but as yet he had his temper under fair control. + +"I'd like to know why not," he replied with more civility than the bare +words as quoted can convey. + +"If you'll be patient with me, I'll try to explain. It seems to me in a +story of this sort, about real people struggling with real emotions, +whatever comedy is introduced ought to be in character or consistent +with the general tone of the picture." + +"Well?" Nolan drawled wearily. + +"Well--assuming there's really something funny about that child's +pitiful feet--it's utterly at odds with probability to place him, +dressed as he is, in the shop of a Fifth avenue florist. No such +establishment would dream of employing such a caricature of an errand +boy.... Don't you see?" + +"No," Nolan replied with an offensive echo of her inflection--"no, I +don't _see_. It's Comedy, audiences are always howling for Comedy, and +if anything on God's green earth can save this rotten picture it'll be +the Comedy I'm sticking into it." + +"Then I'm afraid it's hopeless." + +"But I'll tell you what I do see." Nolan leaned over the back of his +chair and grinned mirthlessly into Lucinda's face. "I see what I've seen +all along, and that is there's no pleasing you, Miss Lee! Ever since I +started on this picture you've had the old harpoon out for everything I +did, and this, what you're saying today about this introduction I +invented for you, is all of a piece with the way you've been acting all +along." + +"But, please, Mr. Nolan!"--Lucinda was trying her best to be +temperate--"surely this isn't a reasonable attitude to take, surely you +can make allowances for honest difference of opinion." + +"Ah, it ain't your fault!" Nolan jerked angrily out of his chair and +turned to the door, but delayed long enough to deliver a valedictory: +"And I'm a sap to let anybody that knows as little about pictures get my +goat like you do. Have it your own way--chuck the whole sequence out, if +you don't like this introduction I framed special for you. It's your +picture, I should worry what the piece of junk looks like when you're +through with it. But I tell you one thing: If that introduction don't +stand, my name can't go on the picture as its director. And that's flat, +my lady!" + +And before Lucinda could take advantage of this wide invitation to a +withering retort, the door slammed on Nolan's impassioned exit. + + + + +XXXV + + +The day of the Last Stand in the Living-Room Doorway began auspiciously +enough with receipt of a night-letter from Harford Willis stating that +money matters had been arranged in conformance with Lucinda's wishes, +and adding that Willis hoped before long to give himself the pleasure of +calling on her in person; the business of another client was requiring +his supervision in San Francisco, on the way out he could readily stop +over in Los Angeles for a day or two, he was leaving New York the day he +telegraphed. + +Not a little to her own wonder, Lucinda found herself pleasantly excited +by the thought that she was to see this old friend so soon again. Had +his telegram come a week or so earlier, she must have been quite as much +annoyed, have deemed its implicit promise of meddling in her affairs an +inexcusable impertinence. But a week or so ago, at least up to the time +of Bellamy's reappearance, she had been comparatively serene, smug with +self-contentment because of the semblance of success which had thus far +attended the rather off-hand measures she had adopted in dealing with +the larger issues of her life. Now, however, she knew no more peace of +mind, in the last fortnight the pressure of perplexities had grown so +heavy that she found herself eagerly looking forward to the arrival of +one in whom she could confide, of whom she could ask counsel, without +fearing to hear self-interest sound in his responses. + +Harford Willis might disapprove the roads she chose to go, but so long +as she kept within certain bounds, which she herself would never dream +of overstepping, he wouldn't censure; and if she found the going rough +in the ways of wilfulness, his sympathy would none the less be constant, +he'd never say, "I told you so;" and never would he be guilty of +advising any course of action to the end that he himself might profit. +Take him for what he was, there was nobody like him, nobody else whom +she could so trust ... not even Lynn.... + +Not even Lynn! A bitter thought to have to think, but a true, and one it +were not the part of wisdom to ignore, that she couldn't look to the man +she loved with all her heart, and who loved her well in his way, she +knew, for sympathy in her trials and for unselfish advice, as she could +to another in whose consideration she was merely a pretty, headstrong +girl whom he had known since she was little, the daughter of an old +friend. + +For the truth was (idle to deny it longer or hope against hope that one +might be mistaken) Lynn was changed, had ceased to be the light-hearted +and irresponsible but tender lover of the days before Bellamy had come +back to play skeleton at their feast, of late had grown irritable in a +fashion new to Lucinda's knowledge of him, somewhat sulky and suspicious +of temper, impatient of Lucinda's troubles when she wanted condolence +and soothing, and over-ready to remind her he had troubles of his own. + +She wasn't disposed to quarrel with him on that account, she was too +fair-minded to deny him his grievances or the right to nurse them. +Surely the situation in which Lynn now newly found himself was one to +play the deuce with the sunniest of dispositions--to be an accepted +lover and have a husband continually if with pretended playfulness +snapping at one's heels, or else circling watchfully in the not too +remote distance and showing his teeth, every time one looked his way, in +a grin as malicious as it was brilliant. + +Then there was that trouble with Lynn's foot, something that had turned +out, rather to Lucinda's astonishment, to be a real injury, no +make-believe feigned for an occasion. At the studio second-hand accounts +came to her, of how Summerlad's foot had slipped, while he was doing +"river stuff," and had been severely pinched between two logs. It hadn't +seemed much of a hurt at the time, and Summerlad had made light of it, +just as today he made light of it; but it had been slow to mend, and +even now, though he usually managed to get through his work for the +camera without registering the injury, there were days when he walked +with a noticeable limp, when inability to get about with comfort +interfered seriously with the amusements he had been accustomed to share +with Lucinda. + +So she wasn't seeing so much of him as aforetime, and when she did, what +with natural preoccupation in their respective afflictions, to say +nothing of the greater annoyance that afflicted them in common, the old +unconstraint was grievously missed. + +But nothing in this life lasts (Lucinda insisted on iterating, in a +temper doggedly philosophic) and even as that earlier time of ecstasies +had passed, this time of trial would pass, the day would come when, her +picture finished, she would be free to leave the studio and forget +Bellamy's existence, go on to Reno and get her freedom, when Lynn would +be hers alone and they two could look back at this time and laugh to +think how it had galled them. + +Busy with such reflections, and with the pleasing prospect of soon +having a willing audience for her complaints, Lucinda made nothing of +the fact that Lontaine showed the whites of his eyes and shied back like +a skittish cob from the telegram which she submitted to his inspection, +and was even not much tranquillized by the cheque which, at the same +time, she gave him for the replenishment of the company's coffers. And +in her most amiable temper she hurried from his office to her +dressing-room, into the newest, prettiest and most becoming dance frock +she had ever owned, who had owned so many, and then out to the stage. + +The company was waiting, the cameras were waiting, Nolan with an air of +noblest patience was waiting. All of which was quite needless, for there +was other work in abundance that could have been attended to, there were +scenes in the same sequence in which she didn't appear and which might +easily have been rehearsed if not photographed even though Lucinda was a +bit tardy. But that wouldn't have suited Nolan's little book: having +told Lucinda when he would want her at a fixed hour, he was determined +that nothing should go forward till she showed up. That wasn't the Nolan +method in dealing with women, to let them play fast and loose with his +mandates and pretend it didn't matter. Was he not Barry Nolan, +well-known for his success in taming temperamental actresses? A +reputation honestly earned and of which he proposed that Lucinda should +now be reminded in no uncertain accents. And if one had ventured to +question his policy, he would have pointed out that company morale was +bound to suffer if the director neglected to "go to the mat with" his +star every so often. The success of every human undertaking depended on +undisputed authority vesting in one and only one directing head--in +moving-pictures, the director's. A lesson every star needed to be taught +upon occasion. You had to keep hammering it into the poor dumb-bells, or +they got the swelled head--and then where were you? + +In point of sober fact, Nolan was enjoying himself tremendously, though +to have admitted as much, even to his private conscience, would have +spoiled the fun entirely. He couldn't possibly have been having such a +good time if he hadn't been in such a vile temper. + +Up to the moment of Lucinda's appearance, he had been whiling away the +Wait by delivering a monologue of spontaneous generation, a discourse +having for its subject the habits of stars in general and of self-made +feminine stars in especial, studiously impersonal in phrasing but +mordant of wit, and delivered with an air of gentle and melancholy +detachment which took no perceptible account of the snickerings of his +henchmen and the ill-hidden smiles of actors who, in the absence of +Lucinda, were hazarding no guesses as to which side their bread was +buttered on. + +As Lucinda drew near, Nolan hoisted himself out of the basket-chair in +which he had been lounging, with something more than a suggestion of +limbs cramped by prolonged inactivity, and bowed politely, too politely. + +But Lucinda was feeling much too kindly minded toward all the world, +that morning, to resent his nonsense, though by no means unaware of its +cause and aim. And with every intention of keeping the peace she +returned a brief but good-natured nod and smile. + +"Sorry if I've kept you waiting, Mr. Nolan, but I had some business with +Mr. Lontaine we couldn't put off." + +"No matter at all, Miss Lee, I assure you--no matter a-tall! My time is +yours, the company's time is yours, all the time there _is_ is yours, to +use or waste, just as you think best." + +Lucinda couldn't very well let offensiveness so pointed pass without +comment. She stopped, turned squarely to face Nolan, with a keen smile, +looked him deliberately up and down, a movement of shoulders summing up +clearly enough the substance of her impressions. + +"Thank you for telling me," she said sweetly. "And now _that_ is +understood, suppose we try to make up for the time I've wasted, if +possible, by getting to work at once...." + +The only retort that occurred to Nolan as at all appropriate he felt +instinctively to be inadequate in point of elegance; so he judiciously +refrained from uttering it. And anyhow, the day was young yet, his hour +would come. + +"Fair enough," he agreed with a passable display of good spirit. "Le's +go to it, then." He approached the set on which two cameras stood +trained at close range, with Klieg lights focussed. "Now, Miss Lee, I'll +just line in what I want of you this scene." + +The set was a simple angle, where two walls met in an apartment hallway, +with a door that opened inward from a living-room set beyond. In this +last the big dramatic moment of the play was to be staged, a scene +involving Lucinda and her two leading-men, the heavy father and the +juvenile, his son, both of whom were understood to be in love with +_Nelly_. + +Here, in his bachelor apartment, _Nelly_ was to call at midnight on the +father, seeking him without care for appearances in an hour of +desperation, to beg him to intervene with the villain of the piece and +save her wayward brother from imprisonment on a charge of theft. + +The madly infatuated father was to take this opportunity to propose +marriage, and _Nelly_ was to accept him, momentarily carried off her +feet by the sincerity of his passion as much as by the glamour of his +wealth and social position. + +While this was going on, _Dick_, the son, passing in the street, was to +catch a glimpse of _Nelly's_ shadow on the window-shade and, wild with +jealousy, demand admittance. The father, divining his son's suspicions +and desiring to allay them, furthermore at a loss for a fair excuse for +refusing to see the boy, was to conduct _Nelly_ to the private hallway +and leave here there with the understanding that, while he was letting +_Dick_ in at the front door, she was to slip away by the back. + +Instead of doing so, _Nelly_ was to linger behind the door and overhear +the quarrel between father and son, in the course of which it was to +transpire that the former had once offered to wager the latter that he +could make the girl his mistress within a given period of time. +Whereupon, in revulsion of feeling, _Nelly_ was to confront the two and, +while confessing she had planned deliberately to marry either one or +the other of them for his money, assert herself to be too good to be the +wife of either. + +It is illustrative of the topsy-turvey methods of cinema production that +no part of this sequence had as yet been photographed except the scenes +in the street when _Dick_, passing on the way home to his own bachelor +quarters, looked up and espied Lucinda's shadow; and that Lucinda was +now to enact the scene at the doorway before taking part in the +living-room scenes which in the photoplay would precede and follow it. + +The angle had been set up directly adjoining the living-room set, in +order that the door, when _Nelly_ opened it to denounce father and son, +might reveal a glimpse of that interior with the two men standing +thunderstruck. + +Nolan proceeded now to act out in his own person the business which he +conceived to be in character for a girl of _Nelly's_ quality in +circumstances so contrived as to make voluntary eavesdropping on her +part seem constructively defensible. And Lucinda looked on with earnest +attention and puckered brows, eager to catch every hint that would help +her become a better actress. Her distrust of Nolan extended only to his +abilities as a constructive builder of story-telling pictures and a +judge of pictorial values. For the very considerable amount of raw power +as a pantomime which he indubitably possessed, she had much respect. +Prior to invading the realm of motion-pictures, Nolan had served long +and arduous apprenticeship as a general utility actor in stock companies +of the Middle West and the Pacific Coast. He knew every trick of gesture +and expression and how to communicate the secret of their most effective +use in the delineation of theatrical as distinguished from real emotion. +In this respect his greatest fault was a tendency to overdo things, to +let enthusiasm for acting run away with discrimination. + +This enthusiasm was running away with him now, he was building the solo +scene which Lucinda was to play on lines of broad emotional melodrama +widely inconsistent with the situation. Forgetting that, while the +conversation assumed to be going on beyond the door was one well +calculated to annoy and disgust her whom it concerned, its revelations +were after all hardly of a character to break her heart, who was in love +with neither of the speakers--indifferent to these considerations, Nolan +was, as _Nelly_, ranting and raving in the angle like one gone half-mad +with shock and grief. Yet such was the fire he infused into the +performance that for the time being he truly succeeded in perverting +Lucinda's grasp of the scene, and won her admiration in spite of her +latent dislike. So that when, having exhausted his repertoire of +emotional artifice, he stepped out of the camera lines, consulting +Lucinda with a glance and the stereotyped enquiry, "See what I want, +dear?" she replied without thinking--"You make it most real. I'll do my +best"--and stepped into character and the set as the lights blazed on, +the cameras began to tick, and Nolan seized his baton of authority, the +megaphone which he invariably used while directing, though he had as +much need of it now as the cameras had of telescopic lenses. + +"Now, dear," he blared through this instrument--"go to it and show us +all you've got. Don't be afraid of letting yourself go. Remember, this +is your Big Scene, biggest you've got in this story, your one grand +little chance to put it over that you're a sure-enough actress.... +That's it"--the elderly leading-man ushered Lucinda into the set from +the living-room side, laid a finger to his lips, and pointed down the +hallway before disappearing--"that's it--nod to show you know what he +means. Now you start for the back door. You haven't thought yet it would +be a swell idea to stop and listen to all they're saying about you. But +now you do, now you hesitate, turn, look back at the door, frowning. +Pretty work. Now go back, but not all at once. Make us see you don't +think you ought to do this sort of thing, make us see the big struggle +with your better nature, and better nature losing out. Good. Now you put +your ear to the crack in the door and hear your name. Give a big start +and look horrified. You never dreamed men could talk about women like +that, you know, you wouldn't have believed _Richards_ and _Dick_ could +talk that way about you. Show us horror, dear, and make it strong, you +can't make it too strong. Remember: you're just realizing the man you +love is such a rotten cad he could make a bet about your virtue. It just +makes you feel sick all over----! + +"Great snakes! what's _that_ for? What's the matter?" + +For of a sudden Lucinda laughed outright, suddenly the heart-rending +tremolo of Nolan's voice as he detailed the awful offense Richards had +committed against _Nelly_ in the play tickled irresistibly her sense of +the absurd; and her laugh followed naturally, inevitably, +uncontrollably. + +Now as Nolan with a frantic wave bade the cameraman cease cranking, she +made a sign of helpless appeal and, inarticulate with mirth, rested +weakly against the door and held her sides. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Nolan," she gasped. "Forgive me, I--I didn't know I was +going to laugh till--till--till it struck me as so funny----!" + +Her voice rose and broke in another peal of hysterical merriment, her +words became unintelligible, while Nolan literally ground his teeth. + +"_What_ struck you as so funny?" he exploded. "Show me anything funny +about this scene and I--I'll eat my megaphone. What's so damn' funny?" + +"Oh, I am sorry!" Lucinda was doing her utmost to sober herself, but +still her voice shook and her body rocked with recurrent spasms of +idiotic mirth. "You see--when you said that--what you said about +_Richards_ being a rotter--all at once it struck me--I'm sure I don't +know why--as funny, too awfully funny for words!" + +"Well, why?" Nolan insisted, all but dancing with rage. "Hell! Give me a +reason. Why's it funny?" + +"Because--well, you see--I don't like to criticize, you resent my +suggestions so--but really, you know, this is a ridiculous way to expect +_Nelly_ to carry on when she hears what she hears. She isn't in +love with _Richards_, she isn't even in love with _Dick_; and +surely"--Lucinda was now rapidly growing serious in her anxiety to +justify herself to Nolan's face of a thunderhead--"surely she oughtn't +to go all to pieces just because she hears _Richards_ confess, what +she's known all along, that he's the sort of a man he is." + +"Listen here: who's directing this scene, you'r me? Who wrote the +continuity, you'r me? Who knows best what this story's all about, heh, +you'r me?" + +"But, Mr. Nolan, I'm sure, if you'll just think a moment you'll see it +isn't natural for a girl like _Nelly_ to rant like a tragedy queen over +this situation. She'd be hurt, I grant you, and she'd be angry, angry +with herself as much as with _Richards_, but she wouldn't tear around in +this corner like a--like Lillian Gish in _Broken Blossoms_ when's she's +trapped in the scullery and her father's breaking in to murder her. +Don't you see?" + +"Sure I see." Nolan spoke with an unwonted evenness of tone, for him; +but the tone was ugly. "I see a lot of things. I see you've made up your +mind to try to make a fool of me, arguing about my visualization of this +scene like you have. I see you're dead-set on making me so mad I'll give +up my job rather than go on trying to make an actress out of +screen-struck near-society dame. Well, all right, you _win_. I resign. +I'm out. You've got your wish. And this time I don't come back, not if +you was to go down on your knees to beg me to finish this fool picture!" + +In an abrupt break of fury, oddly out of keeping with the level tone he +had used, Nolan raised the megaphone above his head and with all his +might cast it upon the floor at Lucinda's feet. + +"And that ends that," he announced quietly, and walked off, leaving +Lucinda in a temper curiously divided between relief and regret. For +this time, she was sure, Nolan meant it. + + + + +XXXVI + + +At a late hour that afternoon the war council of the incorporators of +Linda Lee Inc. stalled on dead centre. + +Prolonged discussion had failed to suggest any means of salvaging the +argosy of their fortunes from speedy foundering. No sort of success had +rewarded the quest of a navigator at once competent and free to take +command of the venture which Nolan had bungled and abandoned; so far as +could be determined, there was none such at liberty. And when Lucinda +had once more iterated her unshakable refusal to countenance overtures +looking toward the reinstatement of Nolan, silence spellbound the four +gathered together in that tiny, ill-furnished room which served Lontaine +as an office, the silence of spiritual discouragement and mental +enervation. + +Fanny alone seemed quick with an elfin fire which enabled her to skim +lightly the surface of that slough of despond in which the others were +one and all so sadly bogged. Perched on the writing-bed of Lontaine's +war-worn desk, she sat swinging pretty legs in the space between the +pedestals, and smoking a cigarette, her abstracted but amused gaze +roving out through the single window, the most elusive and illegible of +smiles flickering about her paint-smeared lips. + +Against an end of the desk leaned Iturbide--bidden to the conference +because of his wide and intimate knowledge of directors--with hands +plunged deep into trouser pockets, his oval face of olive tint wearing +that sullen cast which in the Latin is so often indicative of nothing +worse than simple thoughtfulness. + +In a common chair tilted back against the opposite wall Lontaine sat +absently worrying his scrubby moustache with an exquisitely manicured +thumb and forefinger. His look, too, was sullen, but with the sullenness +of fears aggravated by patience worn thin and threadbare. He had not +said or suggested as much by syllable or glance, yet Lucinda felt that +he held her solely responsible for the break with Nolan, and was weary +of the whole business to boot, and heartily wished himself out of it. +But she regarded him without sympathy if with little resentment: his +suggestion and his insistence had first wrung from her a reluctant +consent to try her luck in pictures, his mismanagement alone (who had +plighted such brave work of his superior intelligence!) had been +responsible for the engagement of Nolan; now it was for him to find some +way out for them all. + +But the most curious of her impressions concerning Lontaine was one that +seemed absurdly unfair, yet one from which she could by no means divorce +her imagination, a feeling at once unfixable and insistent, that at +heart Lontaine didn't really care, that he was contemplating quite +callously the threatened wreck of his fair hopes and fine promises, was +more concerned with enigmatic premonitions of a nature wholly personal +and selfish. + +Lucinda herself occupied the desk-chair of the president. Profound +weariness temporarily held her faculties in suspense. Her least formless +thoughts were of the evening to come, when she and the Lontaines were to +dine with Summerlad in Beverly Hills. She was deciding to be beforehand +with Harry and Fanny, that she might have a little time alone with Lynn. + +Relentless association of ideas stirred up thoughts of Bel, speculations +as to whether he had heard as yet, and what he had said, or what he +would say and think when he did hear. Nothing would please him more than +to see her pretensions collapse like a house of cards. Well ... her +temper grew hard with defiance ... he would be disappointed if he +counted on her heart faltering at this juncture. No matter how black the +present outlook, she would go through to the end, be it sweet or as +gall, and bow to the verdict of the public only, never to the blind +bludgeonings of mischance. + +For a little she pondered in mild puzzlement the riddle of Bel's +relations with Nelly Marquis, recalling a scene that recently had been +enacted by those two without their knowledge that she was near. A few +nights since (last Tuesday, in fact; easy to date, because Lynn had +attended the boxing-matches at Vernon, as he did every Tuesday, leaving +Lucinda with an evening empty) she had been sitting alone on the veranda +of the Hollywood, in a chair near the entrance but at the same time well +back in the shadows, when Bel brought Nelly home at an hour indicating a +late and leisurely dinner. + +His car had swung up the drive to stop at the main entrance to the +hotel, but neither Bel nor the girl made any move to alight. Unconscious +of or else indifferent to observation, they had remained in the rear +seat, pursuing a tense discussion, its nature unknown since only the +confused rumour of their voices reached the ears of the onlooker; Bel +forcing the argument, advocating Heaven-knew-what with a great deal of +intensity, not much like his insouciance of everyday, while the girl, on +her part, treated all his recommendations and prayers with an air of +trifling, semi-coquettish, faintly derisive. But Bel's attitude wasn't +in the least loverlike, more that of a man discharging a duty which he +found distasteful but still couldn't bring himself to neglect, something +that had to be attended to no matter how thankless.... + +The dispute continued for several minutes without appearing to get +anywhere; and presently Bel leaned forward and spoke to his chauffeur +round the side of the tonneau wind-shield, whereupon the car rolled out +into the street and stopped again at the curb. Then Bel got down and +helped Nelly out, and the two of them sauntered up and down the +sidewalk, now visible, now hidden by the fretted screen of subtropical +growths, but always with their heads close together, always with Bel +maintaining his air of almost passionate seriousness, and always with +the girl lightly obstinate and teasing. + +In odd contradiction to this impression of her, Lucinda set the memory +of Nelly's face viewed at close quarters when, having parted with +Bellamy, she hurried up the drive and into the hotel, passing without +noticing Lucinda. Then the illumination from the lobby, escaping through +the front door, had shown her countenance printed with the look of a +damned soul hunted to its last gasp, a look to haunt one's dream with a +sense of terror abject and unabated, of savage passions unappeased and +unappeasable. + +What all this had meant, Lucinda couldn't guess. Of one thing only she +felt fairly confident: it hadn't been a lover's quarrel. + +Curious that one's mind should revert to that memory, at a time when it +ought by rights to be exclusively occupied with one's own, peculiar, and +never more critical embarrassments.... + +Altogether without warning Lucinda found herself staring into the +homely, greasy grin of Isadore Zinn. + +The owner of the studios, without troubling to knock, had opened the +door far enough to permit the introduction of his head and nothing more +of his person. For a moment or two he held this posture playfully, +looking from one to another of the unhappy four with a leer at once +inquisitive, knowing, and hideous. Then he thrust the door wide open, +came in, and shut it behind him. + +"Hello, people!" he saluted affably. "How you making out?" + +"Ah, that good Mr. Zinn!" Fanny airily replied. "If you really must +know, we're not." + +Iturbide stirred and shook his head, smiling gravely. "We talk and talk +all day, Mr. Zinn," he said gently, "but we don't get some place. You +want to know why? Because there is no place for us to get." + +"It's an impasse," Lontaine stated. Then remarking Zinn's nonplussed +stare, he interpreted: "We're all in a blind alley, you know." + +"Bet your life I know you are," Zinn agreed vigorously. "That's what I +butted in to see you about. If I ain't in the way...." The four made +reassuring noises. "I was thinking maybe they was something I might do +to help out." + +"I'm afraid not, Mr. Zinn, thank you," Lucinda replied with regretful +gratitude. "That is, unless you can find us a director." + +"Funny. That's just what I was going to suggest." The instant stir of +animation encouraged him to grin more abominably than ever. "Lay my +hands on the very man you want inside five minutes; only they's one +catch to it--he's under contract to somebody else." + +"Then I don't quite see--" Lucinda began. But Lontaine interrupted: "You +mean we can buy the fellow's contract, what?" + +Zinn wagged his head. "Not a chanst," he uttered in lugubrious +accents--"not a chanst. I wouldn't sell that boy's contract for no +amount of money you'd want to name. Best little comer't ever breathed +hard into a megaphone, and I got him so's he'll eat out of my hand right +now, and I'm going to get at least two good pictures out of him before I +let him loose to get all ruined up by kind treatment. Wally Day's the +lad I'm talking about. Got everything a guy ought to have to make a loud +splash in pictures except the big-head, and he'll get that, too--all you +got to do's give him time. Just now he's the only man I know could pull +you out of the hole you've got yourselves into." + +"But what's the use of tantalizing us?" Lucinda demanded fretfully--"if +Mr. Day's services can't be begged, bought, or borrowed----" + +"Well, I just got an idea maybe we could come to some sort of agreement +about letting Wally finish up your picture. Like this, now: I been +watching you people, the way you work, the way you been doing things, +and seen a lot of your rushes, and I got an idea maybe I know how to +make your picture right, maybe I and Wally could fix it up between us. +Now listen: you've spent a bale of green money, I don't know how much, +but a lot, maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars, maybe more. That's +all right. We don't have to worry about that till I come to look at your +books----" + +"Look at our books!" Lontaine expostulated. + +Zinn pacified him with a gross hand that patted the air. "Sure I got to +look at your books, ain't I, if I sit in on this production? What I mean +is like this: You sell me the production as is, story, continuity, Miss +Lee's contract, all your properties 'n' everything, and I'll pay you +fifty per cent what it cost you to date, cash money. Then I and Wally +and Miss Lee here'll go ahead and finish up, and it won't cost you +anything more, Miss Lee, and I'll give you ten per cent. the net +profits. Meanwhile you"--he nodded to Lontaine--"can be fussing around +and taking your time about finding a studio all your own and getting all +set to use Miss Lee again when I and Wally are done with her. If that +ain't a sporting offer, I don't know. What you say?" + +Lucinda looked dubiously to Lontaine. His eyes had suddenly grown more +stony and staring than she had ever seen them, and she fancied that he +had lost a shade of colour; but he met her glance with a quick nod and +said in a husky voice: "I agree with Mr. Zinn, Linda." + +"You advise----!" + +"I think he's made a very handsome offer. It--it's a clear and easy way +out for us. You can't lose as much as you stand to under our present +arrangements, assuming things shouldn't turn out as well as we've been +hoping, and you may make some money. And, as he points out, it will +give us time to look around and make up our minds just what we want to +do next. If I were you, I'd accept." + +Lucinda delayed another moment, then turned to Zinn with a smile. "Very +well, Mr. Zinn. If Mr. Lontaine's agreeable, I don't mind...." + +"Fine business!" Zinn held out a mottled, hairy paw. "I and you don't +need any writing between us, do we, Miss Lee? Your word's good enough +for me, all right...." + +His hand was warm and moist and strong.... + + + + +XXXVII + + +Harry Lontaine got home at a late hour for one who had it in mind to +bathe, dress, and put in appearance for an eight o'clock dinner several +miles away. So was the tempo of his gait unhurried as he left the +blue-and-white car waiting at the curb and passed up the straight-ruled +sidewalk of cement between the tutelary orange trees of the bungalow he +rented furnished. And on its miniature veranda he delayed for several +minutes, motionless, with his face lifted thoughtfully, even a shade +wistfully to the sky in which the afterglow of sunset pulsed like dreams +of youth reviewed across the desert years of middle-age.... + +Other than this shy colour of regret, however, nothing of the trend of +his thoughts, nothing of their nature, escaped the eyes, steel-blue and +dense, in that lean, hard mould of features, never more self-contained, +never more British than in this moment. + +And presently he roused, but without change of countenance, and went on +into the combination living and dining-room to which the best part of +the dwelling was given over. + +Here, where the dusk held close and still, Lontaine, when he had made a +light, wasted no more time than was required for a stop at the buffet to +treat himself to a considerably stiffer drink of pseudo-Scotch than the +law allowed, or--seeing that the law allowed none at all--his +superficial necessities seemed to call for. + +Before the door which gave upon the more private quarters of the house, +however, he hung for some time in seeming reluctance to proceed, a +suspicion of strained attentiveness in his deliberation. From beyond +came never a sound. Eventually he pushed the door open. + +Immediately he saw Fanny. Bathed in a great glare, she sat in her +dressing-room facing a long mirror of three panels; decked out en grande +toilette, wearing every jewel she possessed, groomed to the finest +nuance of perfection; a brilliant and strangely immobile figurine of +modern femininity, with bobbed hair like burnished brass, milk-white +bosom and arms rising out of a calyx of peach-blow taffeta, jewels stung +to iridescent life by that fierce wash of light. + +As if hypnotized by so much bright loveliness, she continued steadfastly +to gaze upon her reflected self; even when she heard Lontaine at the +door and the mirror placed him behind her in the doorway, she did not +move by so much as a trembling eyelash. Only when he spoke, her lips +parted in answer, though still she neither turned nor ceased to +contemplate the vision in the glass; as if this last were something +precious but tricksy, something that might incontinently vanish forever +from her ken did she but for a single instant turn her eyes away. + +In a voice that strained without success to sound easy and natural, +Lontaine said: "Ah, Fanny! dressed already, eh? Must be later than I +thought." + +"It's past half-past," Fanny replied without expression. + +Lontaine glanced nervously at the back of his wrist. "Right you are. +Never dreamed time was getting away from me like that." + +"You have been ... busy, yes?" his wife enquired with a distinctly +satiric accent. + +"Rather. Gassing with Zinn, you know----" + +"To be sure." The satiric inflexion was now more marked. "The +life-saver." + +"Not a bad name for him, that." Lontaine chuckled with, however, an +unconvincing brevity. "Daresay Linda looks on the little beast in +that light, at all events. Had a thousand details to discuss with +him ... ah ... naturally." + +"Naturally." Fanny's tone had become again illegible. + +"That's what--ah--delayed me. Have to rush for it now--what?--or +Summerlad'll be vexed." + +"You really think so? With Cindy there to console him?" + +"Something in that, no doubt. Still"--Lontaine made as if to go to his +own room, but lingered--"it's hardly the thing to be so much behind +time. See here, old girl: you're all dressed.... I say! but you've laid +it on a bit thick tonight, haven't you?" + +"Don't you like the way I look, Harry?" + +"Never more ravishing in all your life----" + +"That's good." + +"Good? Afraid I don't follow. What's got into you tonight, Fanny? You've +rigged yourself out for the opera instead of a simple little dinner...." + +"I wanted something to remember myself by," Fanny mysteriously informed +the mirror to which her attention continued constant. + +"What do you mean by that?" Lontaine paused for answer, but Fanny was +dumb. He essayed another short, confused laugh. "You know, Fan, +sometimes you think of the damnedest things to say." + +"Yes: don't I?" + +He recognized one of her mulishly enigmatic moods. + +"Mean to say," he harked back--"since you're quite ready--what's the +matter with your cutting along and explaining I'll be delayed a bit? +Tell them not to wait dinner for me...." + +"And you?" The movement of enameled lips was imperceptible. + +"I'll be along later, of course, as soon as I've dressed. You can send +the car back for me. Why not?" + +"Why not?" + +But Lontaine took this inscrutable echo for assent, and with a grunt of +relief disappeared into his dressing-room. A series of clicks sounded as +he turned on lights. Still the woman seated before the mirror didn't +move. But her interest centered no longer upon what she saw; though she +did not avert her eyes from the glowing figure painted in those still, +shallow depths, all her attention now was concentrated in another +faculty: she was listening. + +She heard Lontaine moving about, chair-legs scrape a hardwood floor, the +snap of the bathroom light. A pause followed, then a clashing noise of +bottles and toilet articles impatiently shifted upon their glass shelf. +After that, Lontaine's returning footsteps. Then he reappeared in the +doorway. + +"Hello! Thought you were going on ahead." + +"Presently," Fanny replied in brittle accents. "Plenty of time. +Something the matter?" + +"Can't find my razors." + +"No." At last the woman broke her pose: her counterfeit in the glass +nodded gravely to the man behind her. "No," she iterated--and he had the +flying thought that her voice had never vibrated so sweetly--"and you +won't find them, either, Harry. They're in a safe place, it's no good +your hunting for them." + +"What!" Lontaine advanced one single, sudden stride. "What's that for?" + +"I thought it might save trouble. You see, Harry, I haven't forgotten +that hideous scene we had in London, last time you decided it was all up +with you, there wasn't anything to do but cut your throat. I didn't see +any sense in going through all that again." + +After a full minute of silence Lontaine uttered heavily: "I see you've +guessed...." + +"There have been so many of these crises in our life together, Harry, I +ought to know the signs--don't you think?" + +The man stumbled to a chair, and bent a louring countenance over hands +savagely laced. "What else can I do?" he muttered. "I'm in a hole +there's no other way out of...." + +"There are steamers every so often from San Francisco, for Honolulu, +China, Japan, the South Seas...." + +"No use. They'd get me by wireless if they ever allowed me to go aboard. +Zinn ... I'm sure that Jew devil suspects ... insists on getting at the +books first thing tomorrow." + +"How much have you got into Cindy for?" + +Lontaine said stupidly: "Eh? What's that?" + +"How much have you ... borrowed, Harry?" + +"Fifty thou--perhaps a bit more." + +Following another little silence, Fanny gave a curt laugh, left her +chair and, standing at the dressing-table, began slowly to strip off her +jewels, her sunburst brooch, her flexible bracelets, the pearls that had +been her mother's, all her rings, even that slender hoop of platinum and +diamonds which she had never removed since the day of her marriage. + +"Stocks?" she enquired quietly. Lontaine replied with a dour nod and +grunt. "Somebody's sure-fire tip, of course, some 'deal' that couldn't +lose...." He grunted again. "Never learn anything from experience, do +you, Harry? I've often wondered about the kink in your mind that makes +you such a giddy come-on, eager to risk everything, even your honour, on +the gossip of stock-market touts no better than yourself.... Ah, well! +it can't be helped, I suppose. You are what you are--and in my way, God +knows, I'm no better. It's all been a ghastly failure, hasn't it, Harry? +If I'd been a stronger woman, I might have made it another story for +you; if you'd been more of a man, you might even have saved me...." +Lontaine lifted his hand sharply, but his eyes wavered and fell under +her level, ironic stare. "But it's no good crying now, nothing can +change our natures at this late day." + +She crossed to him and paused, looking down not unkindly at his bowed +head and shoulders. + +"I don't love you, Harry, and you don't love me. It's funny to think we +ever did--isn't it? All the same, we've been through the rough together +so often, I presume it's only natural I should be fond of you in this +funny, twisted fashion. I don't want you to go away thinking I blame +you...." + +"Go away?" Lontaine groaned. "Where can I go, they wouldn't find me? I'd +rather be dead than a convict!" + +"Don't worry: I'll soon talk Cindy round, persuade her not to be too +hard on you. She's fond of me, poor dear! and won't find out I'm as +rotten as you are till you're at a safe distance. Here...." She bent +over and poured that coruscating wealth of jewelry into the cup of +Lontaine's hands. "These ought to see you a long way...." + +"What!" Lontaine jumped up, staring in daze at the treasure in the hands +that instinctively reached out to Fanny, offering to give back her gift. +But she stepped away and stood with hands behind her, shaking her head +so vigorously that the glistening short locks stood out like a brazen +nimbus. "But, you, Fanny--what will you--?" + +"Never fear for me, Harry." She fixed his puzzled eyes with a smile of +profoundly ironical significance. "I'll get along...." + +"But these ... every blessed trinket you own!..." + +"I'll get others." + +His jaw dropped. She continued to posture lightly before him, an +exquisitely fragile and pretty shape of youth deathless and audacious, a +dainty spirit of mockery temptingly incarnate, diabolically sage, +diabolically sure of the potency of her time-old lures.... What she had +urged was true enough, too true; idle to let scruples on her account +work his undoing. Let her alone and she'd get along, no fear, she'd get +other jewels when she wanted them, just as she'd said, she'd go far.... +At heart as wanton as he was weak.... + +He felt a creeping tide of blood begin to scorch his face, and avoided +the cynical challenge of her eyes. + +"If you're content," he mumbled ... "daresay there's nothing more to be +said." + +She nodded gayly, repeating the word "Nothing!" in a flute-like note of +mirth. Hanging his head, he began wretchedly to stuff the plunder into +his pockets, muttering half to himself: "What a pity! If only I could +have had a bit of luck; if only we could have hit it off----!" + +"If you hurry," she reminded him, "you can catch the night train for San +Francisco, you can just about make it." + +"Well...." He glanced uneasily at her, and again was conscious of the +heat in his cheeks. "So it comes to this at last ... eh? ... good-bye!" + +"Good-bye," she repeated, amiably casual. + +"I daresay...." He gave a dubious chuckle. "Daresay it's stupid but, +well, the usual thing, you know...." + +"Usual thing?" she parroted, with faintly knitted brows. + +"To kiss good-bye." + +"You'll miss your train." + +He developed a moment of desperately sincere emotion: "Fan! you've been +a perfect brick to me, a perfect brick. I feel like a dog, leaving you +like this." + +"Oh!" she said, as one indulges a persistent child--"if you really want +to kiss me, Harry, go ahead." + +Nevertheless she turned her mouth aside, his lips brushed only her +powdered cheek. Then she stepped back to her mirror and with a puff made +good her imperceptible damage done by the caress. The glass showed +Lontaine's shadow slinking out. She heard him blunder through the +living-room, the slam of the screen-door. And her hand fumbled, the +powder-puff dropped unheeded, mist drifted across her vision, she +gasped a breathless "Damn!" Tears meant a wrecked make-up.... + +Though there was need enough for haste if he were to carry out the plan +she had made for him, Lontaine dragged slowly down the walk, with a +hang-dog air, the hands in his pockets fingering the price of the last +sorry shreds of his self-respect. In the darkness the flesh of his face +still burned with fire of shame.... + +Beside the car he halted and rested with a hand on the door for so long +a time that the chauffeur grew inquisitive. + +"Where to, Mr. Lontaine?" + +"No, by God!" Lontaine blurted into the man's astonished face, and +whirling about, strode hastily back to the bungalow. + +As he drew near he could hear Fanny's voice. She was at the telephone in +the living-room, calling a number he didn't catch; Summerlad's no doubt. +One had forgotten all about that wretched dinner. Then the connection +was established, and he paused with foot lifted to the lower-most of the +veranda steps. It couldn't be possible Fan was talking to Summerlad, in +that voice whose tenderness called back old times.... + +"Hello? Is it you, dear? Fanny.... First chance I've had.... Poor +darling! I've been aching to see you all day and tell you how I +sympathized.... Yes, any time you please, as soon as you like.... No: he +won't mind, he ... I mean, I'm all alone. Besides, we had a little talk +tonight, came to an understanding. He won't be in our way after this, +ever again, Barry dear...." + +Something amused her, peals of musical laughter hunted Lontaine down the +walk. "Union Pacific Station!" he cried, throwing himself into the car. +"Drive like hell!" + + + + +XXXVIII + + +That sunset whose reluctant waning Lontaine was presently to watch from +the bungalow veranda was still a glory in the sky when Lucinda motored +to Beverly Hills. The heavens in the west had opened out like a +many-petalled rose of radiant promise, whose reflected glow deepened the +warm carnation of her face and found response in the slow fire that +burned in dreaming eyes. Those whose chance it was to view so much +mortal loveliness in too fleeting glimpses all envied its possessor, +women her lot, men her lover's. + +The soft air of evening, already tempered with an earnest of the coolth +to come, was sweet to taste with parted lips. Upon the perfect highroad +the car swung and swooped and swerved like a swallow, through a +countryside lapped in perennial Spring. She thought: This blessed land! +and thought herself thrice-blessed to be at once in it, in love, and in +the fairest flower of her years. + +Odd, how completely that compact with Zinn, which the clasp of their +hands had sealed so lately, had done away with every form of fear and +discontent. Vanity had a deal to do with that, no doubt, self-esteem +purring with conviction that Zinn would never have offered to invest one +lonely dollar in the picture had not his appraisement of Lucinda's work +on the screen approved the risk. Zinn smelt profits in the wind; that +much was manifest; which meant that success was assured to Linda Lee. +The loss of half the little fortune she had sunk in the production was a +mean price to pay for knowledge that failure could now reward her hopes +only through some frown of fortune unanticipated by one of the canniest +of those sure-thing gamblers whom the American cinema acclaims its +financial genii. + +Best of all, this new association spelled an end to all that meaningless +and inexcusable procrastination from which the work had suffered +whenever Nolan felt over-worked or harkened to the call of the +continuous crap game, an institution of the studio that had its +permanent habitat behind one of the stages. Zinn was notoriously scant +of patience with delays that meant money thrown away; and, he had +assured Lucinda (after striking his bargain) no reason existed within +his knowledge why another fortnight shouldn't see the last scenes of her +production shot. Much admittedly depended on how little or much of +Nolan's work might seem to need retaking, when the three of them, +Lucinda, Zinn and the new director, sat in judgment on the rushes in +rough assemblage. But Zinn didn't believe they would find many instances +of incompetent or indifferent direction so flagrant that they couldn't +be cured in the cutting-room.... It's surprising what a cunning pair of +shears and a neat subtitle or two can do for a scene that, as originally +photographed, is good for nothing but insomnia or to bring on sclerosis +of the sense of humour. + +Nolan had left to the direction of his successor only the sequences in +two sets. Lucinda made out a mental timetable: a week for the supper +club scenes, less time than that for the living-room; another week for +possible retakes, one more in which to cut and assemble the finished +picture. In a month at most she ought to be able to call herself once +more a free woman and bid farewell to Hollywood till the courts had made +that boast a statement of consummated fact. + +A single month! Such a little time when the journey's end was well in +sight, a little time to wait for life to yield up all its riches. It was +harder, truly, to be patient till this lesser journey should duly come +to its appointed end in lovers' meeting. The car was a snail, minutes +sluggards, the beauty of the land a bore to one bitterly jealous of +every second which heed for speed laws stole from the half-hour she had +schemed to have alone with Lynn before the Lontaines were to be +expected. She had so much happiness to share with her beloved, so much +to tell, everything that had happened since morning, a busy chapter of +studio history of which he could know nothing, since he had not +revisited the studio since leaving it for work on location that morning. + +It seemed a churlish chance indeed that ordained a reception for her +exclusively at the hands and glistening teeth of a semi-intelligible +Jap, who, when he had uttered assorted fragments of English to the +general sense that Mister was having his foot treated by an osteopath at +the moment but would soon be disengaged, smirked himself into an +indeterminate background and left Lucinda to make the best of this minor +disappointment. + +Resolutely denying this last, she put off her wrap, made herself at +home, and sought but somehow failed to distill a compensating thrill +from the reflection that she would ere long be called upon to make +herself at home here for good and all. 'Ere long' meaning, of course, +after Reno ... And why not? The house was excellently planned, amply +big for two; no reason why Lynn need move unless he really wanted to. +Only ... the eye of the prospective chatelaine took on a critical +cast ... some details would want a bit of readjustment, the all too +patent stamp of the interior decorator's damned good taste would require +obliteration before one would care to call the premises one's very own. +The present scheme, for example, lacked anything in the nature of a +study, wherein one might lounge and read and accumulate quantities of +books; according to Lucinda's notion, the real nucleus of a home for +civilized people. Lynn, poor dear! worked so hard, he had little time to +give to reading; a moan it was his wont to make whenever Lucinda gave +their talks a literary turn. The few volumes of his collection stood in +sadly broken ranks on a rack of shelves in an alcove that adjoined the +living-room, a sort of glory-hole furnished with odds and ends of sham +Oriental junk which Lynn called his "den" and Fanny had rechristened +"the vamp room." + +Curiosity concerning Lynn's tastes, when he did find time to read, moved +Lucinda to con the straggling squad of titles. Novels led in number, +naturally, works of fiction old and new, in general such trash as +furnishes the cinema with most of its plot material. In addition, a +subscription set of De Maupassant with several volumes missing, another +of O. Henry, Wells' _The Outline of History_ (uncut), the _Collected +Verse_ of Rudyard Kipling, six copies of the same edition of "_Who's Who +on the Screen_", Laurence Hope's _Indian Love Lyrics_ in an +exceptionally beautiful binding.... + +With a chuckle Lucinda took possession of this last: Lynn _would_ have +Laurence Hope!... Evidently a gift copy. When she opened the book at its +fly-leaf, a slip of printed paper fluttered out. Without pausing to read +the inscription, Lucinda retrieved the clipping: a half-tone from one of +the motion-picture monthlies, a view of the bungalow grounds, with the +house in the distance, and in the foreground Lynn and a young woman +arm-in-arm, laughing at the camera.... + +The evening had grown quite dark when a crisp rattle of the telephone +startled Lucinda into renewed contact with her surroundings. She found +herself in the recess of one of the living-room windows that looked out +over the lawn. The book was in her hand. Behind her a door opened, +releasing upon the gloom a gush of golden light. Without moving she +watched Summerlad, in a dressing-gown hastily thrown on over dress-shirt +and trousers, hobble over to the telephone and conduct one end of a +short conversation of which her wits made no sense whatever. He hung up, +and peered blindly round the room. + +"Linda, darling?" he called. "What's the big idea, sitting all alone in +the dark?" At the same time he switched on wall-sconces and, blinking, +saw her. "Just our luck!" he grumbled, trying to sound disconsolate. +"What do you think, sweetheart? Fanny says they can't come tonight; +Harry's laid up, got a sick headache or something, and she doesn't think +she ought to leave him. I wonder if you'd mind dining here with me +alone, this once. I can't very well go out with this foot. Eh? What do +you think?" + +Lucinda made no sound. His eyes narrowed as he perceived the abnormal +absence of colour in her face, the dark dilation of her unwavering eyes. +Limping, he approached. + +"What's the matter, Linda? Not cross with me, are you? Hadn't any idea +you'd be so early; and today I gave my foot another nasty wrench, out on +location, and had to call Cheney in to fix it up. He's just left, and I +was starting to dress.... What?" + +An entreating hand silenced him. All in a breath Lucinda said: "Those +things don't matter, Lynn. Why didn't you ever tell me you were +married?" + +Summerlad said "Damnation!" half under his breath and moved nearer, till +another flutter of her hand stopped him. "That wise husband of yours!" +he exploded then, vindictively. "I suppose he's been spilling all he +knows!" + +"Did Bel know? Yes: I presume he must have. But you're mistaken, he +didn't tell me. It was this...." + +Summerlad frowned, at a loss to identify the volume in her extended +hand. + +"I found it, Lynn, quite by accident, while I was waiting. Hope's +_Indian Love Lyrics_. Don't you remember?... See, it's inscribed: '_To +my Lynn, on the first anniversary of our marriage, with all my heart, +Nelly._' And then this picture of you two, published just after you came +here to live.... Oh, Lynn! _why_ did you lie to me about that poor +girl?" + +For a moment Summerlad gnawed his underlip without attempting to reply. +Then with a sign of despair he retreated to one end of the club-lounge, +against which he rested, to ease his foot. He said something in an angry +mumble, as Lucinda followed into the room. + +"You might have told me, Lynn...." + +"I didn't want you to know." + +"You must have known I'd find out, sooner or later." + +"I thought I could keep it from you until...." + +"Till when? Till what?" He growled, inarticulate with vexation. "To let +me go on thinking ... making such a fool of myself!... Since you don't +live together, why aren't you divorced?" + +"How do you know I'm not?" + +"Because you told me that lying story about her. But you've lied to me +so much and so long, no doubt you think it unreasonable of me now to +expect you to remember everything.... Anyway, if you'd been divorced, +you wouldn't have hesitated to own it. Why aren't you?" + +"She refuses to divorce me." + +"Why?" + +"How do I know? I suppose she's still stuck on me, in her way--hopes to +get me back some time." + +"But what prevents you----?" + +"Nelly said if I tried to divorce her she'd fight back, and she +knows...." + +He didn't finish, but shut his teeth on a blundering tongue and looked +more than ever guilty. But Lucinda was in a pitiless temper. + +"About you? You mean--about you and other women?" + +"Hang it all! I've never pretended to be a saint, have I, Linda?" + +"No wonder the poor thing hated the sight of me!... Oh, how could you +have been so unkind!" + +"If you'd only give me a show to explain...." + +Her lip curled: "Explain!" + +"I've been doing my best," Summerlad argued resentfully. "When I saw how +it was going to be with you and me, and found out Nelly'd come back to +Hollywood, I went to her and had things out--gave her some money and +promised her more, on the strength of her promise to go back home and +get a divorce on the dead quiet." + +"And did you hope to keep that a secret from me?" + +"My name isn't Summerlad, anymore than hers is Marquis--or yours Lee. I +thought I'd.... I thought everything was going to be all right till she +turned up again with your officious husband." + +"You think Bel had something to do----" + +"I think he hunted Nelly up, if you want to know, and induced her to +come back here, in violation of her agreement." + +"But Bel.... I don't quite see...." + +"He wanted Nelly on the spot as a sort of club over my head. He hasn't +given you up yet"--Summerlad laughed shortly--"not by a long sight." + +"A club over your head? I don't understand." + +"Not meaning to use it as long as we behaved ourselves." + +"Behaved ourselves! Lynn!" + +"Oh, forgive me! I didn't mean to say that." + +Summerlad's look mirrored a real and poignant contrition as he saw her +colouring with affronted sensibility, drawing back from him, momentarily +slipping farther beyond his reach. "Linda!" he implored--"don't look at +me that way. I can't help what your husband thinks, can I? I didn't ask +him to come out here and be the pest he is, did I? After all, what have +I done? I lied about Nelly--yes--but only to spare your feelings. I +didn't want you to think people might be talking about you, stepping out +with a married man. If you'd thought that, you'd have given me my +walking papers and ... and I couldn't do without you, dear--I can't! The +others never mattered much, they sort of came and went, mostly I didn't +care which they did. But you're so different, you're so wonderful, +everything a fellow dreams about. I've never known anybody like you, +never will again. If I lost you I'd--I'd--I think I'd go out of my +mind!" + +And suddenly, before she could stir to escape, he caught her to him and +held her fast. + +"Linda, sweetheart; don't be angry with me. I've tried so hard to be +good enough for you. And you--you've loved me, too! Don't let this +rotten accident spoil everything for us. If you love me--and you know I +love you--what does anything matter? What if we are both married? What +difference need that make? Love can still be sweet...." + +She made no show of opposition, only drew back her head to cheat his +lips; but when she tried to brave his eyes, thinking to read therein his +heart and mind, she winced from recognition of the hunger that informed +them, hunger that she wittingly had whetted, hunger such as she herself +had too often known of late, like warm wine running in one's veins.... + +But always ere now she had fortified and shriven her conscience with the +belief that they were of one mind, it must and would be Reno first.... + +Now Reno no longer held forth any promise of salvation, of the law's +sanction, the church's countenance. Even though she were to find there +her own freedom, Lynn would still be bound. It wasn't in reason to +hope that the woman who had rejected his money would listen to +other arguments. Today and henceforward it must be all for love or ... +nothing ... a break final and irreparable.... + +And for all the shock she had suffered, for all the wrong Lynn had done +and the pain of which his ill-faith had been the cause, the love she had +given the man still was dear, dangerously sweet and disarming. Already +she was aware of anxiety to grasp at excuses for him, to comfort the +ache in her heart with the thought that she was according charity to a +dear transgressor, already she felt her strength to resist being sapped, +flesh and spirit succumbing anew to the spell he knew too well how to +weave. + +She wrestled with a weakness stronger than all her strength. They +couldn't go on like this.... Lynn hadn't said it, but they both knew +it ... without going farther.... Even Reno couldn't save her now, only +the instinct of self-preservation latent in her, not even that if she +failed to find in herself the will to hear and be guided by its +admonishments. It was make or break.... + +The scales hung long in trembling. They turned only when Summerlad +unwisely, losing patience, sought to take by storm the lips she had not +yet made up her mind to surrender, and thus aroused resistance till then +dormant. + +With an ease that in a queer, detached way she found surprising, she +managed to break his embrace. Nevertheless the effort left her faint. +She faltered to the fireplace and rested a hand on the mantel, her +forehead upon the hand. Lynn followed, stood by her side, not touching +her but keeping her enveloped in the lethargizing knowledge of his +nearness, his strength, his passion. Over and over he murmured gently: +"Linda, Linda, Linda...." Shaking from head to feet, she made a feeble +sign of appeal. He disregarded this entirely, his arms again stole round +her and would have drawn her to him but that, of a sudden, her mind +caught at a straw of memory, she drew away, with a hand upon his bosom +put him firmly from her, eyes that were melting none the less denying +him, lips that were a-quiver with "Yes" resolutely pronouncing "No!" + +"You are cruel...." + +"No, Lynn. Wait. Tell me something.... You say she--your wife agreed to +divorce you?" + +"I made her promise," Summerlad asserted grimly. + +"When was that? The day she disappeared? The day I found her lying +senseless in her room?" + +"I suppose so. Does it matter? Well, then--yes." + +"You'd just left her when I found her?" + +"I daresay--approximately." + +"Tell me what you said to persuade her." + +"See here: what is all this? What are you driving at?" + +"I want to know.... Did you have much of a scene?" + +"I'll say it was some stormy young session." + +"Is that why you found it necessary to strike her?" + +Summerlad started. "What! Strike her! What do you mean?" + +But his eyes winced from hers. + +"She--Nelly had a bruise on her cheek, that afternoon; and it wasn't an +old bruise. Lynn: you struck her!" + +"Perhaps. Maybe I did forget myself, I don't remember. What if I did? +She asked for it, didn't she? Do you think I've got the patience of Job, +to let her get away with insisting on standing between you and me? I'd +have half-killed her if she'd stuck to her refusal to go back East!" + +Realizing that his tongue was again running away with his discretion, he +curbed it sharply, on the verge, perhaps, of admissions yet more +damaging, and in panic essayed to win back lost ground. + +"But what of that? It's ancient history, Linda." + +She started back in repulsion, but he overtook her in the middle of the +room and again crushed her to him. + +"Linda, Linda! what do these things matter? I love you, dearest, you +love me, nothing else matters, nothing can possibly matter but our need +for each other. For God's sake be kind to me! forget----" + +The fury of her antagonism found him unprepared. Once more his arms were +empty. And this time when he started in pursuit, something he couldn't +see struck him brutally in the chest and bodily threw him back. In the +same instant he heard a heavy, crashing noise he couldn't account for. +An inhuman sound. It shook the room, beat deafeningly upon one's ears. +As if someone had overturned a heavy piece of furniture. Only, no one +had. Certainly he hadn't, certainly Lucinda hadn't. She was flattened +against the farther wall, watching him with a face of horror, blanched +and gaping. + +Enraged, he put forth all his strength to recover from that inexplicable +blow. And instantly it was repeated. And again. Each time accompanied by +that savage, crashing noise. Like thunder cut off short. And each time +he reeled under the impact, and sickening pains shot through him, like +knives white-hot. He felt himself sinking.... + +In expiring flashes of consciousness he saw Lucinda, still flat against +the wall, staring not at him but at a French window nearby. Between its +curtains a woman's arm was thrust, the hand grasping an automatic pistol +with muzzle faintly fuming. There was a face of shadowed pallor dimly +visible beyond the curtains, a face with wild, exultant eyes ... +Nelly's.... + + + + +XXXIX + + +To the woman pinned to the wall by shock--the shimmering frivolity of +her evening gown, a flimsy, fluttery affair of silver tissue, lilac and +blue, lending form and colour to the illusion of a bright butterfly +impaled--the moments immediately following that murderous fusillade were +a raving welter of horrors. + +Between two heartbeats she saw Lynn, with a face as blank as paper, +spinning, toppling, beating the air with aimless arms, pitching to the +floor like something blasted, resting there in a sickening, inert +crumple; and was keenly aware of the acrid reek of smokeless powder +cutting, as acid cuts oil, the sensuous scent of the roses that dressed +the room in her honour; and all the while was conscious of the pistol +nosing in between the draperies like an animate thing of infinite +malice, and the pallid oval of the face behind it, that seemed to float +in the dark as might the mask of some mad ghost. + +As the din of those three shots, beating from wall to wall, lost weight +and volume, a thin shouting became audible from some point outside the +house, and Nelly Marquis with the sweep of a fury broke through the +hangings at the window, and pulled up with pistol levelled point-blank +at Lucinda's breast. + +Through the least of pauses, the merest fragment of a second, a time +measureless in its lapse to one whose every function was frozen in +paralysis of fear, a single thought persisted: _Another instant and I +shall be as Lynn_.... Nelly's eyes were burning like black malignant +opals in a countenance at once luminous and wan. Death's icy grin +glimpsed in the play of light along that blunt blue barrel. Lucinda +felt as one caught fast in the pitiless jaws of some tremendous vice +whose pinch stilled the beating of her heart and arrested her labouring +lungs. + +Then abruptly through the window a dark body hurled and fastening upon +the woman's back, swinging her aside, the pistol detonated with a +bellow, the bullet plumped into the wall close by Lucinda's head. + +She heard a voice crying out again and again: "Bel! Bel! Bel! ..." + +Her own voice.... + +For an indeterminable time she hung in dread upon the issue of that +swaying combat: while Bel clung to the woman's arm, muttering and +panting in futile efforts to wrest her weapon away; while Nelly clawed, +bit, kicked, pounded her free fist repeatedly into Bel's face, and +wrenched madly at her captive wrist. + +Of a sudden, from her hand a spiteful tongue of fire licked out at Bel, +his right arm flailed back and fell useless, agony convulsed his +features; and free, the woman bounded away and with the laugh of a +maniac swung the pistol to bear upon his head. + +Lucinda's faculties clicked together then as gears mesh when the motor +has been idling; the call of the emergency met with response in the form +of instant and direct action. Without knowing what she did, she flung +herself upon Nelly's arm and bore it down. With deflected muzzle the +pistol exploded for the last time. Dropping it, Nelly turned on Lucinda +and dealt with her as might a madwoman. Impressions grew confused beyond +assortment, of flopping wildly this way and that, of hot breath beating +into her face, of her bare flesh suffering a rain of cruel blows; of +elemental lusts to maim and kill awakening from lifelong slumber, in +this moment of close grips with a warm, living, hating and hateful human +body.... + +Thrown off without warning, how she couldn't guess, she felt herself +reeling back, tripping, falling. Something struck the back of her head +a stunning blow, and she knew flickering nausea while dense night like a +moving cloud on every hand closed in upon her, and the world, in the +likeness of a rainbow swirl streaked with fiery paths of sparks, +guttered into blank nullity.... + +Nothingness absolute and still received her, harboured her for a space, +spewed her back into life again. + +Cold rain spattering cheeks and brows ... once more the heart-rending +perfume of roses ... anguish incomparable racking her temples ... her +heart a wild thing caged ... ammonia in strangling whiffs.... + +Choking and coughing she unclosed her eyes upon the vision of Bel's +face. A hand holding a bottle of smelling salts dropped away from her +nose. Bel saluted her reviving intelligence with an even growl: "Coming +round, eh? About time. You'll do now, I guess. Try to pull yourself +together. No time to lose." + +She was on the floor, the bulk of the lounge between her and the spot +where Summerlad had fallen; her shoulders propped against Bel's knee, +her head resting in the crook of his arm. Summerlad's Jap boy was +standing by with water in a silver vessel. At a nod from Bel he filled a +glass and, bending over, set it to Lucinda's lips. While she was gulping +thirstily, Bel said something she didn't catch; but as soon as she +turned her head from the glass, the Japanese took it away and himself as +well. + +The living-room, with its softly lighted walls and draped black +rectangles of windows open to the night, presented itself in a guise +inexplicably unfamiliar. She felt as if she had been a long time away. +In mystification, looking back to Bel, she asked: "I fainted, didn't I?" + +He grunted: "You struck your head, when that hell-cat threw you--went +out for ten minutes by the clock. How do you feel now?" + +"My head aches...." She discovered that Bel was in his shirt-sleeves, +with the cuff turned back above his right elbow, the forearm rudely +bandaged with torn linen on which a deep stain was spreading. "But +Bel--your arm----?" + +"Hurts like hell, but that's the worst of it, thank God. Bullet ploughed +through the underside from wrist to elbow, nearly. I'd be dead if you +hadn't jumped for her." + +"And I, if you hadn't come through the window when you did." + +"If you're grateful for that--try to get up." + +"But ... Lynn?" + +Bel laughed shortly. "The excellent Mr. Summerlad's all right--I mean to +say, still breathing. That's all we can tell till the surgeon gets here. +I've telephoned. The fellow ought to show up any minute now. If you can +manage to get a grip on yourself, I'd be glad to get you out of here +first." + +"I don't understand.... What became of--her?" + +"Got away clean, worse luck!--ducked past me and through the window like +a shot. I tried to follow but she gave me the slip in the dark. _That's_ +all right: she won't trouble us again. She left her pistol +behind--anyway, it was empty--and the police will pick her up before +morning.... Now: how about getting up?" + +"I'll try," Lucinda said meekly. "Please help me." But then, +appreciating that she was in no way incapacitated, she got up unaided, +and steadied herself with a hand on the back of the lounge. + +Summerlad lay where he had fallen, on the far side of that piece of +furniture. His face, upturned to the staring light, was like a thing of +sculptured ivory, expressionless and bleached; the lips ajar, the whites +of his eyes alone visible under the half-shut lids with their effeminate +lashes. The shirt beneath the flowered dressing-gown was hideously +blotted. He was so deathly still that terror took hold on Lucinda's +heart and mind. + +"You think.... O Bel! do you really think he will live?" + +"No fear," Bel sneered. "He'll make a fool of many another woman before +he's finished. Here: put this on, will you?" + +He was proffering her wrap. Like an automaton Lucinda accepted it, but +seemed to forget that the thing was meant for wear. + +"Where's your car?" + +"I told my driver to call up about ten----" + +"I'll attend to that, then. My chauffeur will run you down to the hotel. +I think he's to be trusted. Wish I felt as sure of that Jap." + +"Sure of him?" + +"Why do you suppose I'm hurrying you away? Do you want the papers to get +hold of the fact you were keeping an assignation with this actor when +his wife caught you and shot him?" + +Lucinda flinched, faintly remonstrated: "Bel!" + +"Well?" he demanded--"got anything to say to that?" + +"You don't think ... nobody would dare...." + +"What's the reason I don't think? Why wouldn't anybody dare? I presume +you expect the world--this good, kind, charitable world we live in--to +believe 'appearances are against you'!" + +Affronted, she held her answer, seeing her husband as with eyes from +which scales had newly dropped, as a man she barely knew, whose fleshy +husk alone was familiar in her sight, but whose spirit was altogether +strange: a man self-reliant and resolute, skeptical, cold and hard of +temper, estranged and unforgiving; witness the contemptuous incredulity +that animated his regard. + +Smouldering indignation blazed, she threw back her head with eyes as +cold as his, a mouth as hard. + +"You are insolent," she pronounced slowly. "If you think--if you dare +think what you hint--what is it to you whether I go or stay?" + +"You forget you neglected to get rid of a husband before taking on with +this busy lover ... who got precisely what was coming to him, if you +want the truth for once!" + +"Do I hear you setting yourself up to judge him, Bel?" + +"Do you know anybody better qualified?" + +"By what right----" + +"The husband's right! Do you think I want every paper in the country +linking your name--my wife's--with Lynn Summerlad's as his latest +mistress, the woman who made his deserted wife so jealous she tried to +murder him?" + +Lucinda let her wrap fall. "If my relationship to Lynn is what you +imply--then my place is here with him." + +"Please yourself. But remember, the papers are going to make big capital +out of this scandal in the movie colony. They've been itching for it for +years, licking their chops with impatience, knowing it was bound to +break some day.... Good God! what's got into you, Linda? How long do you +imagine it'll be, after this affair gets into print, before the +reporters will ferret out the fact that 'Linda Lee' is Mrs. Bellamy +Druce? Do you want to go into a witness-box and testify against that +demented creature when she's tried for murder? Do you want everybody who +knows you--all your friends back home--to think what everybody in his +sane mind has every right to think?" + +"What you think...." + +"What the devil do you care what _I_ think? But if it comes to that, +tell me this: If you aren't what people are going to say you are, what +are you doing here, alone with Summerlad, in his own home, at night?" + +"The Lontaines were coming to dinner, but----" + +"'But'!" Bel snorted. "Oh, all right! I'll be a high-minded ass, if +that'll satisfy you; I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, if that'll +induce you to clear out of this before it's too late. But don't forget +I'm the only one who will. His wife wouldn't--didn't. Neither will +another living soul who knows you were here when this thing happened. +Your only salvation now is to get back to the hotel and lie low; if you +hear any rumours, be as much surprised as anybody; if you're asked any +questions, know absolutely nothing. If you'll do that, and leave the +rest to me, perhaps I can save you." + +"You are too kind----" + +"I'm not. Don't fool yourself. I'm thinking of nobody but Bellamy Druce. +All I'm after is to save my name from being linked up with this rotten +business. Think of yourself, as I'm thinking of myself, then. Think +whether it's going to be worth the name you'll get, to have the +satisfaction of this heroic gesture, this theatrical effect of sticking +bravely by the side of your actor lover--so nobly wounded!--this man +whose promiscuous amours have made his name a by-word even here, even in +Hollywood!... But for the love of God, think quickly!" + +He ceased upon a note of impatient admonishment, then, when Lucinda +remained silent, changed his tone. + +"I treated you badly enough, God knows! but you paid me out properly, +you can afford to be magnanimous now. I've done nothing to deserve your +active ill-will since you left me. And it isn't as if you could do +Summerlad any good by staying. His fate's all up to the surgeons. And +you can trust me to see that everything possible is done for him. I'll +keep you posted, I'll come to the hotel tonight and tell you what the +surgeon says." + +He bent with painful effort and lifted her wrap. She took it without a +word, swung it round her shoulders, turned and left the room. + +Bellamy followed as far as the front door. His car was waiting on the +drive, its motor running. The chauffeur, already instructed, held the +tonneau door for Lucinda, closed it smartly, smartly climbed into place +at the wheel. She looked back as they drew away. Bellamy stood en +silhouette against the light, nursing his bandaged arm. A turn in the +drive blocked out that picture, the car wheeled sharply into the public +street, gathered speed. And Lucinda crouched down in her corner, +chilled to her marrow by realization of the loneliness of her lot, from +whom Life had stripped away even the forlorn company of her last, most +dear illusion.... + + + + +XL + + +Amazing to learn, upon authority as sound as that of the clock in the +hotel lobby, that the age of the evening was still something short of +nine ... preposterous to credit that lapse of time so little could have +wrought the transformation of life's kindly countenance at close of day +to its present cast, so bleak, forbidding, and implacable.... + +Yet neither circumstance was a whit less certain or more disputable than +the other. And that the hour was what it was, no earlier, no later, gave +one good reason for thanksgiving. For now the miscellaneous dinner mob +with its components of envious sharp eyes and ungenerous tongues had +scattered on its various ways; while the cinemaniacs were not yet due to +come trooping home from the neighbouring halls of their addiction. Only +the elderlies remained in evidence, that element of the clientele which +Fanny had styled the Grumpies in discrimination from the Gaddies; staid, +smug bodies in black taffeta, old lace fichus and rocking-chairs, or +stiff collars, shapeless trousers and blunt-nosed boots, devoted to +solitaire, fancy-work, and gossip of the home-brewed brand that cheers +but not inebriates; a species of migratory perennials to whom the +cotton-wool climate of Southern California is a sort of gracious prelude +to the grave; at once avidly intrigued by and as honestly innocent of +that other Hollywood with whose lively denizens they rubbed shoulders +daily, as of the other world and its press of equally unquiet souls. + +Dotting the public rooms with little groups, engrossed in cards, +knitting, and placid prattle, these took only casual account of the +flying transit of that vision of elegance and youthful charm with +evening wrap caught high about the pretty face. Such sightly shapes were +too much a commonplace of their deliberate and self-sufficient days, and +always passed in haste; as young blood does ever, irrationally enough, +having so much time before it, so little patience.... + +So, though she knew them for a pack of greedy scandal scavengers, and +conceived every eye among them to be regardful of her and all her shifts +to deceive them spent for naught, not one who observed her guessed with +what agitation she was a-quake, what unrelenting urgency whipped on her +feet till they all but stumbled in their eagerness to find her sanctuary +behind locked doors, where she might ease off at last the tension of +self-control, pillow her sore and aching head, and give range to the +pent tempest of emotions brewed by love thwarted and chagrined, faith +confounded, dreams done shamefully to death.... + +Fleeting free of that gauntlet, she gave a sigh to find herself in the +quiet corridor leading to her apartment. How good it was to think she +would in another minute be alone, what an inspiration had been hers +when, looking forward to an evening long drawn out, she had given her +maid liberty till morning! + +She passed the door through which she once had ventured to discover +Nelly Marquis lying in a faint brought about by Lynn's cruelty.... And +now what would become of that one? Whither had she turned in her flight? +with what hope of asylum or immunity? A hapless creature beating blindly +through the night, a land-bird swept to sea by an off-shore gale, +questing what it might never hope to find.... + +Lucinda slipped into her sitting-room, turned the key, found the +switchbox near the door, and in an abrupt blaze of illumination stood, +startled beyond speech, face to face with the woman the riddle of whose +fate had been riding her imagination. + +One of Nelly's hands was planted flat against the wall; but this support +helped not at all to abate the vicious racking of her body by nerves +deranged. The other, a begrimed fist, was fumbling at her mouth. Those +eyes whose haunted beauty had first laid claim to one's humanity were +now--their blazing madness of a short hour since dispelled--black pools +of pathos in a face whose chalkiness was runneled by tears and framed in +hair like tarred rope unravelled. Her dress of hackneyed smartness was +bedraggled, the skirt marked by knees that in some fall had ground into +loam. The black satin slippers were pale with dust, and the openwork +stockings, which boasted two great tears as well. + +In that first flash of affrighted recognition, Lucinda started back to +the door and fumbled for the key, but had yet to find it when the woman +plunged down to grovel at her feet, catching at her knees, lifting up a +face of torment, supplicating against teeth that chattered as if with an +acute ague. + +"O Mrs. Druce, Mrs. Druce! I'm all right now, I am, I swear I am! +Forgive me, and for God's sake don't turn me out, don't call the +police!" + +Still frightened and mistrustful, Lucinda yet held her hand on the knob. +"What do you want?" she asked in a voice that shook. + +"Just to talk to you a minute.... Don't be afraid...." + +"I'm not afraid," Lucinda lied. Nevertheless, in compassion and dawning +reassurance, she stooped, freed her skirts from the clutching hands, and +stepped back. "Get up," she said, watchful. "Tell me plainly what you +want...." + +The woman scrambled to her feet again, cringing and fawning. "I had to +come," she protested. "I didn't know where else to go, I had to know. +Mrs. Druce: please tell me, is he.... Did I hurt him bad?" + +"Desperately," Lucinda replied, wondering at the reserve of fortitude +which enabled her to speak with such composure. "Whether he'll live or +not we don't know yet. He was unconscious when I left, before the doctor +came." + +"You left him that way? You didn't wait to find out! O my God!" + +"Are you reproaching me?" Lucinda retorted in amazement--"as if it were +I who shot your husband!" + +"_My_ husband!" Nelly shrilled. "It's yours I'm talking about, it's Mr. +Druce. It's not knowing how bad I hurt him that's driving me crazy ... +not meaning to harm even his little finger, I hope to die! I didn't +hardly know who he was, that time while we was fighting...." She drove +her knuckles against her mouth again and sunk teeth into them till pain +helped her reassert self-control. "I didn't know what I was doing!" she +mumbled between sobs----"I didn't know." + +"Do you know now?" + +"Oh, I do, I do! I'm all right now, honestly I am. I know what I've done +and what--what I've got to pay for doing it. But I don't care!" She +jerked up her chin, bravado fighting with fear in her eyes. "Lynn only +got what was coming to him. I warned him often enough, time after time I +told him how it was all bound to end if he kept on like he was doing; +but he wouldn't listen, he'd just laugh and tell me what I could do if I +didn't like his ways.... I don't mean I threatened him, Mrs. Druce. It +wasn't like that. I don't believe I ever dreamed of striking back at him +before today. I always thought it would be some other woman would do it, +somebody that didn't love him like I did, and couldn't stand being +treated like a dog, just because he got tired--I always thought somebody +like that would make Lynn pay, I never thought I'd have the nerve. But +today, all at once, I couldn't seem to stand it any longer.... And when +I looked in at that window and saw you alone with him, and him holding +you in his arms, even if you did try to make him quit.... But I'm not +sorry! Lynn never treated any woman so mean, and I guess it was right +his punishment should come from me. I ain't a bit sorry, I hope he +dies.... Do you--do you think he will?" + +To the implicit hope that thus gave vaunted impenitence the lie, Lucinda +returned, in a low tone and against her wish, the one word, +"Probably...." and saw the woman quail and writhe away, twisting her +thin, graceful hands into each other till their knuckles shone dead +white through the tortured skin. + +"I don't care," she wailed--"I don't! And anyway, it wasn't about him, +it was Mr. Druce I came here to find out about. I couldn't go away +without knowing.... He's been such a prince to me, a regular prince, and +I never meant him any harm. It just makes me sick to think...." She +swung passionately back to Lucinda. "Won't you please, _please_ tell me +how bad he's hurt?" + +"Not much--a flesh wound in the arm----" + +"Thank God it wasn't worse!" Nelly drooped heavily against the wall, +with a pathetic smile testifying to her relief of mind. "I'd never have +forgiven myself, never...." + +Profound fatigue seemed to be overcoming her. The quavering murmurs +failed upon her lips, her eyes closed, her head sagged toward one +shoulder. + +"Are you in love with him, then?" Lucinda demanded inexorably. "Is Bel +in love with you?" + +Startled, Nelly stood away from the wall, with a hysterical note in the +laugh that scorned this notion. "No, no, no, no!" she cried. "He isn't +that sort. You ought to know he isn't. I don't know what the trouble was +between you two, but I'll tell the world it wasn't on account of any +other woman.... It wasn't as if Mr. Druce didn't have his chance, +either; any time he'd wanted it he could have had it with me, anytime!" + +"Yet you tell me you're not in love with him!" + +"You don't have to be in love in the picture business...." The fugitive, +twisted smile vanished away, the lustreless eyes stared into space. +"Mostly it's better if you aren't. If you are, it's likely to turn out +like it did with me and Lynn. If a girl wants to get on, she can't +afford to care for anybody, only herself. It hasn't mattered much to me +what happened, since Lynn.... But Mr. Druce never as much as held my +hand." + +"Wouldn't you tell me that anyway?" + +"It's God's honest truth." + +The statement was made without spirit, as one of simple, provable fact. +And for all her memories of Bel's misconduct, Lucinda believed. + +Wearily the woman began to pull about her shoulders a wrinkled, sleazy +wrap. + +"Guess I'd better be going," she said with eyes averted. "Thank you for +being so kind. I'm glad Mr. Druce wasn't much hurt, and I wish you'd +tell him I'm sorry for everything. I didn't mean to do it, but I just +went crazy when I saw you and Lynn together, and him making love to you. +I don't remember much about what happened, but I guess it must've been +pretty awful for you, and I'm sorry." + +Continuing to avoid Lucinda's eyes, she plucked at her cloak once more +and moved toward the door; but faltered on finding that Lucinda stood in +her way and didn't offer to budge. "I'd better go," she iterated +uneasily. + +"Where?" + +"I don't know." Nelly wagged a head of desolate uncertainty. "There +isn't any place I can think of now, they wouldn't find me. Only ... I'm +sorry about Lynn, and I'm not going to suffer any more on his account +unless I have to. So it's up to me to be on my way." + +"Wait a minute, please." Remaining between the girl and the door, +Lucinda pursued: "I want to know how you got in here. How did you get +back to the hotel so quickly?" + +"From Beverly Hills, you mean? Oh, I had luck and caught a trolley +without having to wait. They make pretty good time, you know. And then, +when I got here ... I wanted to go up to my room and get some money.... +I was afraid to come in the front way, I thought maybe they'd telephoned +or something, so I tried the side door. They don't lock that till about +nine o'clock. And just as I came in, I noticed the chambermaid unlocking +this door, and it come over me like a flash you'd probably be coming +home pretty soon, and I was worried about Mr. Druce; so I slipped in +while she was in your bedroom, and hid behind that chair there till she +went out again." + +"But what if they've locked the side door since? It must be after nine +now. You won't be able to leave except by way of the office." + +"I guess I'll have to take my chances...." She bent upon Lucinda a look +of flickering defiance. "Anyhow, what do you care?" + +"I don't like to think of your being caught." + +"Why?" + +"I don't know, unless it's because I think you've been punished enough +already. You'd better wait and rest for a while, at least till the house +quiets down. And perhaps we can think of some way.... Don't you think +you'd better trust me?" + +For another instant suspicious eyes searched Lucinda's, then with a +half-nod the girl wilted into a chair. "All right," she acquiesced with +the passivity of a child chastened by terror--"just's you say, Mrs. +Druce. Only, I don't see why you're being so good to me." + +Lucinda had no answer to that. Her motive was not more obscure to that +muddled mind than to her own. Unless, of course, it had to do with that +enduring image of the bird storm-beaten, weary of wing and bewildered by +the dark, risking the debatable mercy of mankind in its stark +necessity.... + +She stood pitiful, contemplating the creature who huddled in the chair, +shivering, whimpering a little, gnawing her knuckles, with the dazed +eyes of an animal hunted to its last gasp seeking to probe the fearful +ambiguity of the future. A murderess by intention, whom the word of any +moment might prove a murderess in fact.... And one couldn't condemn or +reproach her, one couldn't shrink from her because of the crime that +stained her hands, one couldn't even win one's own consent to send her +out to chance the retribution she had invited. + +Incomprehensible the alchemy of the human heart! Lucinda was making up +her mind to help a sinner circumvent justice.... + +"Tell me something," she said, with no more preface: "You've been +calling me Mrs. Druce. How did you learn that was my name? Did Mr. Druce +tell you?" + +Only the hand of the girl moved in a sign of dissent, and her lips to +shape the words: "It was Lynn told me." + +"Lynn!" + +"Mr. Druce never said as much as a word about you. I don't believe he +knows I know now. I thought he didn't want me to know, so I never let +on; but of course I did know, all along." + +"Lynn told you when----?" + +"That time you found me on the floor, you know. I guess I ought to +apologize for the way I treated you, but I was all upset, I hated you on +account of what Lynn had told you about me and all." + +"I don't think I blame you--now." + +"You wouldn't 've, then, if you'd been through what I'd been through +that afternoon.... Lynn didn't let me know he was coming, or send his +name in or anything, he just walked in through the window while I was +getting dressed to go out. He said I'd got to clear out, go back home, +where I come from in the East. He said if I didn't I'd spoil everything +for him, if you ever found out about me you wouldn't have any more to do +with him, and then where'd be his chance of getting in with New York +society people like you trained with. He took out a hundred dollars and +put it on the bureau and said I'd got to take it and go home and he'd +send me fifty dollars every week. I said I wouldn't, and he said I would +if he had to ship me East on a stretcher. I forget what I said then, but +I was pretty wild, I guess, and he hit me, and I don't remember anything +after that, except waking up to find Lynn gone and you taking care of +me." + +She jumped in the chair, cried out shrilly, and clapped a hand over her +heart when the telephone sounded a peremptory call. Lucinda, answering, +heard the voice of her chauffeur: he had called up Mr. Summerlad's, +somebody there had told him Miss Lee had gone home already and wouldn't +want him again that night, and he wanted to make sure that was all +right. + +"Yes, Ben," Lucinda assented, "it's quite all right. I left that word +for you, but ... just a minute ... I may change my mind." + +"It'll be all right with me, Miss Lee, if you want to go out again." + +"Yes, Ben, I know; and thank you. But if I decide to use the car again +tonight, I'll drive it myself--alone, you understand. If you wouldn't +mind bringing it to the side door of the hotel in about an hour and +leaving it there.... No; don't wait for me, I may be delayed; just leave +the car and go home. I'll take it to the garage when I'm through with +it." + +When Lucinda hung up she found Nelly slewed round in the chair and +watching with darkly doubting eyes, to which she responded, with a +slight smile: "That was inspiration. While Ben was talking, it occurred +to me, the only possible way for you to escape would be in somebody's +car. So I've arranged to let you steal mine. You can leave it wherever +you think it safe to get aboard a train. You can drive, of course?" +Nelly nodded. "Then if you'll come into my bedroom, you can lie down and +rest while I find you a change of clothes. I'm afraid, if the police get +a description of you dressed as you are, you wouldn't have much +chance...." + +Before she could surmise or move to defeat the girl's intention, Nelly +had caught one of her hands and was weeping and slavering over it. + +"You're so sweet and good to me!" she sobbed. "I can't make out what +makes you so kind!" + +"I think," Lucinda said, with gaze remote--"I think _I_ am beginning to +understand...." + + + + +XLI + + +In an interlude of difficulty to beggar all believing, response to +Lucinda's forbearance all at once swept like a great wind over those +treacherous emotional shallows, kicking up their still unsettled dregs +of hysteria, storming in wild squalls of gratitude, remorse and shame, +driving shoreward that frail, crank pleasure-craft which was the soul of +Nelly Marquis, leaving it at the last stranded in a slough of self-pity +and abasement, where it rested in maudlin wreckage, weeping, lamenting, +calling out upon its shabby gods for that they had forsaken it. + +Early in this scene Lucinda made shift to get the woman, half-leading, +half-dragging her, into the bedchamber where the seizure might spend +itself unheard by passers in the public corridor. But for a tedious +while after she had persuaded her to lie down she made no headway toward +stemming her transports; and sitting on the side of the bed, suffering +Nelly to cling to her hands, seeking to pacify her whenever in a lull +she could make words tell, learned enough from her maunderings to sicken +one with the very thought of love. + +As if what had been had left her in need of this last disenchantment!... + +Sheer persistence in the end proved tranquillizing, the woman ceased to +toss and writhe continually, her communications became more lucid. But +she wouldn't hear of being left alone for a nap, she wouldn't release +Lucinda's hands, she wouldn't heed suggestions that it might perhaps be +well for her to get up and change to the clothing which Lucinda had +provided. Time enough for that, she argued, when Mr. Druce had been and +gone. Maybe Lynn hadn't been as much hurt as Lucinda believed. If he +hadn't, he could be depended upon to move heaven and earth to save his +fair name in the esteem of picture fans from the odium that must attach +to it should the news get out that he had been shot up by a discarded +wife. Anyway, they couldn't tell anything for certain till Mr. Druce had +kept his promise to report the surgeon's verdict. + +Besides, if it came to the worst, if it turned out that Nelly would have +to cut and run for it, the later the hour at which she left the hotel +the better, the fewer people there would be about to see her go.... + +It had been agreed that it would never do for Lucinda to ask for the key +to the side door. But if she chose to stroll out through the lobby, +accompanied by a young woman well cloaked, the chances were that the +latter would pass unquestioned as some friend who had dropped in to +spend the evening with her. + +"But are you quite sure you feel strong and well enough to drive the car +yourself?" Lucinda misdoubted for perhaps the hundredth time, though for +the first openly. + +The woman on the bed gave her hand a small jerk of petulance. "Don't you +worry your head about me, Mrs. Druce," she insisted. "I'll be all right. +I can drive any make of car there is, and I know all the roads out of +Los Angeles like a book. Why, when me and Lynn was living together, we +didn't hardly ever have any use for a chauffeur." + +"Where will you go, then?" + +"Up North, I guess, by the Coastal Highway. I can make Santa Barbara by +morning easy. But I don't know, maybe I might go right through to +Frisco. That's where I want to get, you know. It ought to be easy to lie +low in a town like Frisco. Anyhow, wherever I decide, I'll shoot you a +wire first thing, telling you where I left the car. I only wish I didn't +have to take it, somehow it don't seem right. But there! maybe I won't +have to.... And unless I do, there wouldn't be any sense in my leaving +all my clothes here and everything, would there? What time is it now? A +person would think Mr. Druce wouldn't be much longer, wouldn't they? I +suppose you wouldn't want to call up Lynn's house and ask...." + +"I'd rather not." + +"I kind of thought you'd feel like that about it. It would look too much +like worrying about Lynn, wouldn't it?" Lucinda made no reply, and after +a moment of dumb staring at the ceiling a shadow of complacency modified +Nelly's fretful look. "I guess it's all over with Lynn now, as far as +you're concerned, isn't it?" + +"Yes," Lucinda said with the slowness that spells restraint--"as far as +I'm concerned, it's all over." + +"I'm awfully sorry," the girl asserted, her voice in turn carrying the +colour of complacency--"I mean, sorry for you. You must've been awfully +stuck on Lynn." + +"Yes...." To offset a choke in her voice Lucinda added with a hard +laugh: "Awfully!" + +"It's terrible to have to give up a man like Lynn.... Don't _I_ know!" + +Lucinda bluntly changed the subject. "What will you do now?" she +asked--"I mean, after this blows over. Will you go on with your picture +work in the East?" + +"I don't know.... I guess not.... Nobody's likely to give me another +chance.... Lynn isn't going to be able to keep the truth from leaking +out inside the business, of course; and he's terribly popular, his +friends will take good care I don't get another job. I guess I've gone +and fixed it for myself in the picture business, all right, no matter +what.... Unless, of course, I might maybe change my name or something." + +"But this picture my husband is making: he won't be able to go on with +it with you out of the cast, I presume." + +Nelly laughed outright. "I guess that won't worry Mr. Druce a terrible +lot. You don't suppose he cares two whoops what happens to that picture +now, do you?" + +"Why not? Why did he start making it, unless?..." + +"Why don't you know, Mrs. Druce? I'd 've thought you'd 've been wise to +that dodge all along. All Mr. Druce went into the film business for was +to be near you."' + +"You believe that?" + +"Why!"--the girl laughed again--"it's just as plain as paint to anybody +in the know; I mean, anybody that knows you two are married but living +separate on account of some row or something. All Mr. Druce cares about +pictures a person could put in their eye and never know it. He just +wanted a good excuse to be near you and take care of you in case +anything ... like tonight ... or if he thought you was beginning to take +Lynn too seriously or anything.... Anyway, that's how I figured it from +the very first. He had it doped it would cramp Lynn's style to see me +around the studio all the time, and maybe make him break it off with +you. And so did I. Only I guess neither of us guessed how hard Lynn had +fallen for you." + +"You haven't told me how my husband happened to engage you." + +"Well, he just went after me and wouldn't take no for an answer. He's +like that, you know. Of course, I don't know what the trouble was +between you two, but I don't see how you ever stood out against a man +like him, Mrs. Druce." + +"Where were you when he found you?" + +"Back home. You see, after Lynn gave me that hundred ... and what +happened ... I was afraid to stay in Hollywood, I didn't know what else +he might do to me. And besides, I simply couldn't stand seeing you +stepping out with him all the time, it made me simply wild. So I went +right back to Findlay." + +"Findlay?" + +"The place in Ohio where my people live." + +"And that's where Mr. Druce found you?" + +"I'd only just got back when a man came to town, Mr. Roberts he said his +name was, and said he'd got me a swell offer to go back to the Coast and +act for a new company just starting. I kind of thought there was +something fishy about it, because I never was much in pictures; and why +should they send somebody all the way to Findlay to get me when they +could 've got plenty just as good right here in Hollywood? Anyhow, I was +afraid of Lynn, so I said nothing doing. Next I knew, Mr. Druce himself +come to see me and said I'd got to go back to Hollywood with him and +make pictures and I could write my own contract. Of course, as soon's I +heard his name, I tumbled to what it was all about; and I thought if you +got to seeing a lot of your husband you'd give Lynn the air ... chuck +him, I mean ... and maybe ... Ah! _I_ don't know...." + +She was quiet for a moment, in wide-eyed, wondering abstraction. +"Somehow I never got over being crazy about Lynn, you know," she said in +a quieter tone than she had yet used--"not even when he treated me +meanest." + +In this pensive mood she mused on: "You know, sometimes I think it's all +wrong the way women, like you and me, take everything a man wants to +hand out to us, just to hold him. They keep telling you it's the only +way; but the way it looks to me, it hardly ever works ... I mean, unless +the man's crazy about you, like Mr. Druce.... + +"Of course, I know it isn't any of my business, Mrs. Druce, but I +haven't got any hard feelings towards you on account of Lynn and all, +not any more, and I'm perfectly sincere when I say _I_ think you'll be +making one big mistake if you don't make it up with Mr. Druce as soon's +ever you can now...." + +The house telephone came to Lucinda's rescue: Mr. Druce was calling, if +Miss Lee would be kind enough to overlook the lateness of the hour.... + +Lucinda promised to get rid of Bel as soon as she could, and in return +exacted the girl's promise to rest quietly and not worry. Then she shut +herself out into the sitting-room, and had almost immediately to answer +the door. + +Bel's light motor-coat hung from his shoulders with empty sleeves, by +which device he was able to make no parade of the fact that his right +arm was in a sling. His features were drawn and grey, his speech slow +with weariness, but his eyes keen, steady and (Lucinda made sure, +looking sharply) wholly unsentimental; while his greeting, +characteristically abrupt--"Still up, eh?"--was accompanied by ironical +recognition of her unchanged evening costume. + +"I waited up for you," Lucinda replied sufficiently to both words and +look. "How's your arm?" + +"Nothing to brag about, but no worse than I thought. A bit stiff and +sore, that's all." + +"You look fearfully tired, Bel. Won't you sit down?" + +Irony again tinged his flying smile. "No, thanks. Won't stay but a +minute. I promised, so here I am. But I'm dog-tired, and as soon as I've +turned in my report, I'll cut along." + +"Well?..." + +"He's got one chance in a thousand to pull through. Say what you like +about that young woman--she can shoot. Only one shot went wrong, merely +smashed his shoulder. One of the others just missed his heart, the third +drilled through his lungs. Wouldn't give a great deal for all the show +he's got." + +Grim watchfulness was rewarded by her slight start, a swift darkening of +Lucinda's eyes, but no flinching, after an instant a slow nod, nothing +more. "Nothing to say?" Bellamy demanded in pitiless humour. + +"Thank you for letting me know." + +"And that's all?" + +"Was there something you expected me to say, Bel? Sorry to disappoint +you...." + +"Well: you knew the fellow better than I----" + +"If it interests you, you may as well know now what I didn't--not before +tonight." + +"You didn't know Summerlad was married----?" + +"If another man dared ask me that question, I think even you would +resent it." + +"Perhaps. Daresay it's the husband's astigmatic point of view. However, +I didn't mean to be offensive." + +"Do you seriously ask me to believe that, Bel?" + +"Damn it, Linda! you always did have the faculty of putting me in the +wrong." + +"Isn't it more true that you haven't yet mastered the faculty of always +putting yourself in the right?" + +"Perhaps we'd better let it go at that. One thing's certain, I'm none +too happy in my efforts to express myself tonight. Daresay I'd better +clear out before I make things worse...." Nevertheless he delayed. "That +girl ... she got away. Not a trace...." + +"Are they--is anybody looking----?" + +"The police have got that job in hand. I had rather a time with them, +you know. They didn't fancy my story at all, at first, couldn't see why +the devil I had let Nelly escape. The circumstance that she'd shot me in +the arm didn't seem to carry any weight; in fact, I gathered they didn't +put it beyond me to shoot myself in the right arm to divert suspicion. +Only one thing saved me: Nelly had thoughtfully lost her handbag outside +the window, with an extra clip of cartridges in it." + +"She must have meant to make sure.... I mean, it wasn't an affair of +impulse, then?" + +"Oh, she'd had in mind what she meant to do for a long time. I don't +know how long, but she let a hint fall the other night, when she'd had a +bit more drink than she needed, and I spent the best part of the evening +trying to talk her out of it. She fobbed me off with a half-promise in +the end; but I wasn't satisfied. And tonight, when she wasn't on hand to +keep a dinner appointment, and one of the bellhops told me he'd seen her +boarding a trolley for Beverly Hills.... Well: my chauffeur says we +broke all existing records, getting out to Summerlad's. Why we weren't +arrested neither of us knows. Lucky...." + +Bel's words trailed off into a thoughtful mumble, he seemed momentarily +lost in study of the rug on which he stood, then roused and put his hand +to the door-knob. + +"If it matters," he announced--"possibly you'd care to know--we've +telegraphed Summerlad's people in his home town, Terre Haute----his +mother and sister. The family name appears to be Slade. We thought he +ought to have them with him...." + +"'We'?" + +"Zinn and I." + +"You told Mr. Zinn?" + +"Called him up first thing. Naturally. Nobody had a better right to know +what had happened, holding Summerlad under contract as he does. He came +right out, calling himself bad names for being in the picture business, +and took charge. It was mostly thanks to him I was able to get away as +soon as I did." + +"Does he know the full story, Bel?" + +"All that matters. But your part's still a dead secret between the four +of us--including my chauffeur and Summerlad's Jap. I think those two +have been well enough paid.... It remains to get hold of your man and +make him forget he drove you out there for dinner and didn't bring you +home. If you'll give me his address...." + +"Perhaps I can attend to that better than you, Bel; without making it +necessary to explain how you happen to be interested, I mean." + +"You won't forget? This affair will be all over town before morning." + +"I'll call Ben up at his home as soon as you've gone." + +"Very well, then. I presume that brings us to good-night." + +"But Bel...." Bellamy reclosed the door and turned back with weary +patience. "About that poor girl...." + +He looked startled. "That sounds like pity." + +"Can one think of her in any other spirit? Have you any notion what will +happen to her?" + +"Nothing's going to happen to her--if I can find her before the police +do." + +"You don't mean you'd help her get away, Bel?" + +"If it takes every dollar I've got in the world. Do you realize what it +means if she's caught and put on trial--either for murder or attempted +murder, as it turns out--in a case that's going to get the publicity +this is bound to? Do you imagine it will be possible then to keep your +name out of it? She's bound to tell her story in self-defense; and +inasmuch as she's good-looking enough to be acquitted on one pretext or +another, in all probability, the chances are in another six months +she'll be starring in a film based on a re-hash of this pretty little +affair." + +"Then you will help me? I can count on you, Bel?" + +"Help you?" + +"Help get her away." + +Bellamy started excitedly. "Mean to say you know where Nelly is?" + +"She's here, Bel. She came straight to me, half-mad with anxiety on your +account. It seems she's grateful to you for kindness----" + +"And you didn't throw her out?" Bel interrupted, staring. + +"She made me understand.... And she was so bewildered, so terrified.... +I couldn't blame her, Bel; and I couldn't have put her out in any +event." + +"In there?" Bellamy nodded toward the bedchamber and, receiving a nod in +reply, strode quickly to the door and threw it open. + +The room was a pocket of darkness and, when the lights had been turned +on, proved to be tenantless. + +The nightly breeze from the hills was bellying the curtains at one of +the windows that opened on the street. Lucinda ran to it and leaned out. + +No sign of the car that by her order had been left standing before the +side door, nearly an hour since.... + + + + +XLII + + +Lucinda slept that night--and that she slept at all crossed her +presentiment--but fitfully, in spells of profound and wasting lethargy +broken by wretched watches of half-waking dread under the dominion of +the incubus that agonized her dreams, that phantasm of the land-bird +lost, spending its slender strength against the cruel vasts of night and +sea and storm.... + +Toward morning exhaustion claimed her absolutely, sponging out every +care, and for some hours her slumbers were unbroken. But she woke up as +it were against her will, heavy of heart and without sense of having +rested. + +Sluggish resentment crawled in her mind, that she should feel so worn +and old whose first moments after sleep were as a rule her happiest, +when she would lie serene, luxuriating in whole refreshment and with +normal optimism very like a child's looking forward to the day, making +plans to fill in with small pleasures every hour that wasn't to be +devoted to her work. + +There was still the feel of immaturity in the day, the chilly souvenir +of night which so frequently renders the mornings of Southern California +sickly, before the sun finds strength enough to burn away the high fog +that, like a thief in the dark, is wont to steal in after sundown from +the sea. + +What, then, had awakened her so far in advance of the customary hour? + +Something hideous and hateful skulking like a torpid snake in the +shadows beyond the threshold of consciousness, some foul shape that she +instinctively shrank from calling up.... + +The bedside clock struck nine, and Lucinda started up in a flutter +excited by the thought that she would yet another time be late and so +afford fresh reason for dissension with her director ... then sank back +to her pillow, cringing from memories that came trooping in the wake of +the reminder that she was to know no more of Barry Nolan in her life.... + +No more of Nolan, no more of Nelly, no more of Lynn ... no more of +Love.... + +With a convulsive movement she flung over in the bed and lay almost +prone, her face snuggled into bare arms whose pure lustre lent fire to +the crimson that glowed in a lunette of cheek, the one ear visible, even +in her neck's sleek loveliness. + +Things that Nelly had told her, resting on that very bed, plain tales of +the life that Lynn by preference had led, related in the flat and +toneless accents of emotional prostration, therefore the more likely to +be free from overstatement; things Lynn himself had owned inadvertently +or injudiciously at the urge of vanity craving greater prestige in her +sight; things that she knew of her own experience with the man, little +circumstances of their association that had threatened its harmony, +things she hadn't liked and wilfully had been blind to, denied, or +disbelieved: all swam up from the deeps of memory to float like scum +upon the surface of her consciousness. + +Lonely and restless, starving for affection and all too eager to snatch +at shadow and proclaim it substance, self-dedicated victim of a +ready-made infatuation.... + +And she had called that Love! + +What dishonor, what humiliation, what reproach! + +What an escape! and at what cost!... a cost not yet all paid, and which +if she would she might not pay alone, but must see others pay in part +for her, Nelly and Lynn perhaps with their lives, Bel too in his way, in +another way Zinn ... all called upon to lay down things they held dear +that she might have her lesson, that she might learn Love is never +lightly to be won, no, nor put by, either.... + +In the room adjoining she could hear her maid quietly moving about, +tidying up, with presently a chirrup of the telephone, then a guarded +mumble as the woman answered. + +She was hanging up when Lucinda, dragging on a négligé, flung open the +communicating door. + +The maid said Mr. Zinn had called up, and gaped to see Lucinda's glance +grow dull and the spirit of her entrance pass abruptly into apathy. + +Sinking wearily against the door-frame, she desired to know what Zinn +had wanted. + +"He asked if you was up yet, ma'm, and when I told him no, he said it +didn't matter, would I kindly take the message, he couldn't keep his +date with you to look at the rushes today, and maybe not tomorrow, he'd +give you a ring 'safternoon and let you know." + +"Very well," Lucinda said without interest.... "I'll have my bath, +please." + +Waiting for the water to be drawn, she wandered to a window. The high +fog still held the day against the sun, a dense, cold pall of grey, as +flat as a metal plate, closing out the blue, closing in an atmosphere +lifeless and bleak. + +She thought of Lynn fighting for his life, perhaps losing, perhaps +already still in defeat. + +And Nelly ... at whose fate one could only guess.... + +She recalled that bright hour of sunset, so clear and warm, through +which she had motored in gladness toward his arms whom she had called +her beloved, that hour in the dread light of this so weirdly unreal, so +inconceivably remote; and the old, embittered plaint of Abdu-el-Yezdi +found a melancholy echo in her heart: + + "Strange that Life's Registrar should call + That day a day, this day a day." ... + +Bel came in about ten, by that many sleepless, active, anxious hours +more jaded than when she had seen him last. Road-dust powdered his face +and hands and lay caked in the folds of his coat, and he carried the arm +in the sling with more open confession of acute distress. Lucinda +herself opened for him, and he met her eyes with a short nod. + +"You've found her, Bel? Where?" + +He glanced round the room, caught sight of the maid through the open +door to the bedchamber, and indicated her with a brusque jerk of his +head. + +Lucinda called the woman. "You've had no breakfast?" she added. + +"No time. Been on the road all night. Just got in." + +"Let me order you something...." + +"Well ... I would be glad of a cup of coffee--nothing else, thanks." + +Lucinda sent the maid on the errand, and as soon as they were alone gave +intuition voice: "Bel: something has happened to her? she's dead?" + +With a weary nod, Bel dropped into a chair. "We got as far as Santa +Barbara without picking up a sign," he said. "It was getting daylight +then, and I made up my mind we'd taken the wrong road, that Nelly had +lied or changed her mind about the way she meant to go. But she hadn't. +When we turned back we found her ... what had been her...." + +He bent forward with his sound elbow on his knee, covering his eyes as +if to hide their reminiscent horror. + +"There had been an accident?" + +"She ran your car off the road at a turn and over a low cliff to a rocky +beach. Must have been killed instantly. If so, it was a mercy, for +nobody had noticed the wreck till a few minutes before we turned up. I +happened to catch sight of the crowd on the beach and made my chauffeur +stop...." + +He didn't look up, and neither spoke again till the maid returned. Then +Lucinda made another pretext to get rid of her for another while, +apparently to her considerable annoyance. + +"How much does she know?" Bellamy asked, as the woman took herself off +with an aggrieved flounce. + +"There's been nothing for her to know, Bel," Lucinda returned without +resentment. + +"I didn't mean ... I was merely wondering if she knew where you were +expecting to dine last night. She must have helped you dress." + +"I don't recall saying...." + +"Better give her a good present and make her understand a tight mouth +pays." + +"Very well." + +Bel sipped his coffee, frowning. "Heard anything from your friends the +Lontaines this morning?" + +"Not yet. Fanny will call up, of course, or come round to see me as soon +as she hears." + +"Risky to wait. Better get hold of her at once, let her hear about this +business first of all from you, and tell her she's got to protect you if +she has to lie like Sapphira." + +"But surely we can count on Fanny's discretion!" + +"Can we?" Bel's grin was skeptical. "I'm not so sure. Nolan knew last +night you'd been due at Summerlad's for dinner. Told Zinn he had his +information from Mrs. Lontaine." + +"Barry Nolan! I don't understand...." + +"Only know what Nolan told Zinn. Stopped in at the studio just now, saw +Zinn for a few minutes.... By the way"--Bel's manner was studiously +casual--"it may interest you to know, the latest reports say Summerlad's +holding his own." + +"I am glad," Lucinda said simply. And Bel's eyes wavered under her +level regard, lightly charged as it was with contempt. "You were telling +me about Nolan...." + +"Zinn says he telephoned all over Los Angeles last night trying to +locate Nolan--because he and Summerlad had always been so close--but had +no luck till about three this morning, when Nolan got home and found +Zinn's message waiting for him. Then he hurried over to the +bungalow--with at least three sheets in the wind, according to Zinn--and +the first question he asked was where you'd been when the shooting took +place. Zinn swore you hadn't been there, and the Jap backed him up +nobly.... But there you are, if you're asking for proof that your friend +Fanny tells everything she knows." + +Lucinda coloured resentfully. "I am sure," she insisted, "Fanny never +dreamed of hurting me when she told Mr. Nolan--whatever it was she did +tell him. But it's easy enough to find out...." + +She took up the telephone, but had to wait, receiver at ear, several +minutes before the Lontaine's number answered. Then a voice with a +drowsy sound, like a tired and husky imitation of Fanny's: "Yes? Hello! +who is it?" And when Lucinda made herself known a brief stammer prefaced +a shift to honeyed accents: "Oh! is it you, Cindy darling? Heavens! what +time is it?" + +Lucinda named the hour, heard Fanny give a smothered exclamation, and +added: "Did I wake you up?" + +"I was simply dead to the world when the telephone rang," Fanny declared +with an equivocal giggle. "The poor dear eyes are hardly open even now." + +"I'm so sorry, dear. I supposed of course.... Is Harry there?" + +The reply came readily and without suggestion of uncertainty: "Why, no, +darling: he isn't." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Quite----" + +"I mean," Lucinda persisted, in some perplexity, "if you've just waked +up, you've hardly had time to find out." + +"Oh!" Fanny interrupted herself with an uneasy laugh. "Oh, but I know he +isn't! I ... he ... I mean to say, darling, Harry must have gone out +quite early. I mean ... O dear!" An audible yawn and then an apologetic +noise. "I'm simply drugged with sleepiness, Cindy. What I'm trying to +say is, I was awake when Harry left the house, but went to sleep again. +Have you tried the studio? If he isn't there, I'm sure I haven't the +remotest notion where he can be." Then with a quite unmistakable accent +of apprehension: "Why, darling? is something the matter?" + +"I'll explain when I see you," Lucinda temporized--"if you wouldn't mind +running round to the hotel when you've had your breakfast." + +"Mind, darling! I'll simply fly into my clothes, be there in no time at +all." + +The meditative expression with which Lucinda put the telephone aside +drew from Bellamy the direct question: What had Fanny said? + +"It wasn't what she said, it was the funny, embarrassed way she said it. +As a general thing, Fanny's as transparently candid as--as a plate of +glass." + +Bellamy made a doubting mouth. "You're pretty thick, you two," he +supposed--"you tell her everything?" + +Irritation in a gust shook Lucinda till her voice shook in sympathy. + +"Really, Bel! you seem fairly possessed by desire to believe my life out +here full of things an honest woman would want to hide." + +"No," Bellamy dissented slowly. "But I do seriously believe--in fact, +know--you haven't always been altogether discreet, you've done things +here, without a moment's thought, you'd have hesitated a long time +before committing yourself to at home." + +"You forget this is now my home. What Fifth Avenue holds inconvenable +isn't anything to bother about on Sunset Boulevard." + +"Well ... if life has taught me anything, Linda, it is that it never +does to trust too much to the good will of one's friends. We're all too +exclusively creatures of selfishness: self always comes before the +claims others may have or impose on us. It pleases us no end to believe +our friends so devoted that they'd put our interests before their own; +but when the test comes, as a general thing, we find out we've been +self-deluded." + +"How funny, Bel: _you_ philosophizing!" + +"That isn't philosophy, it's common sense based on observation of the +underside of human nature.... I'm not blaming you for clinging to your +friends, or standing up for them, I'm only anxious you shan't suffer +from finding them out." + +"I fancy I know Fanny, at least," Lucinda retorted severely. + +"You think you do. And I don't dispute your superior knowledge of every +side of her but one, the side she shows only to the men she picks out to +flirt with." + +"For example, yourself." + +"Exactly." + +Lucinda openly enjoyed an instant of malicious amusement. "Do you really +believe you're learning to see through women at last, Bel?" + +"You'll admit I've served a long apprenticeship"--Bellamy gave a +deprecating grunt--"enough to have learned something." + +"And now you're warning me against the wiles of my best friend!" + +"I'm warning you against all such adventurers.... Oh, yes! the Lontaines +are just that, both of them. Chances are they haven't got a dollar +between them they didn't get from you. Neither did Mrs. Fanny set her +cap for me just to keep in practice, she gets enough of that in other +quarters. No: she had another motive, and it wasn't any way altruistic." + +"What was it, then?" + +"Think I can leave that to your intelligence. I've never noticed you +were--one might say--dense concerning the psychology of your sex, +Linda." + +Indignation threatened to find expression in a rush of tears, but +Lucinda winked them back. + +"I do wish you wouldn't try to make me angry with you----" + +"I'm only trying to tell you, one can't afford to trust anybody in this +world except those who have nothing to gain through cultivating one's +friendship." + +"--Just now, when I've so much to be grateful to you for, when you're +doing--have done so much to save me from the consequences of my +folly----" + +"Ah! you realize that." + +"Both my folly"--Lucinda nodded gravely--"and all you're doing to repair +it. So this once I won't resent your calling my friends adventurers." + +Bel chuckled as he got up. "Because you know in your heart that's what +they are, neither more nor less.... Think I'll be getting along now. I +want sleep badly, and I must stop in at the studio first and have a word +with Lontaine, if he's there. And then I need Nolan's address." + +"You're going to see him. Do you think that wise?" + +"I won't permit him to spread gossip about your being with Summerlad +last night." + +"Do you think he'll admit your right to dictate?" + +"I don't imagine it will be news to him that you're my wife, if that's +what you mean. Your friend the actor seems to have been tolerably busy +crowing about his conquest of Mrs. Bellamy Druce--always, of course, in +strictest confidence. Zinn knew all about you before I appeared on the +scene. And Nolan was Summerlad's bosom pal...." + +The thrust told shrewdly, rewarding Bel with a fugitive moment of +sardonic satisfaction. Then the courage with which Lucinda took +punishment exacted his admiration. + +"But I'm afraid," she said quietly, "you won't have much success with +Nolan, even if he does recognize your right to interfere." + +"How so?" + +"He has too little reason to feel well-disposed toward me." + +"On account of your quarrel with him yesterday...." + +"I didn't know you knew." + +"Who in Hollywood doesn't, do you suppose?" Bel snorted. "Gossip travels +like grass fire, out here. I heard five different versions yesterday, +myself, before your cameraman told mine what I imagine was the +approximate truth." + +"Then I presume you know, as well, about my new arrangement, with Mr. +Zinn taking over the production?" + +"Yes?" + +The single syllable of assent carried the rising inflexion of enquiry as +well. Lucinda mildly curious, replied that she had merely been +wondering.... + +"Well, I'm wondering, too," Bel countered, eyeing her intently. "Of +course you understand that arrangement's not necessarily to be +considered binding till you've signed up." + +"We shook hands on it," said Lucinda: "I gave Mr. Zinn my word. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing; unless what's happened since has had some effect on your +attitude, I mean, made your bargain with Zinn seem less desirable. In +that case, of course, I'll be glad to use whatever influence I may have +with him...." + +The tensing of her body betrayed the temper in which Lucinda met his +suggestion. "What you really mean is: Have I changed my mind about +continuing in pictures, because of this dreadful accident to Lynn?" + +Bel's eyes and mouth tightened. "It's not an unnatural supposition, that +you may have concluded you've had enough." + +"Enough, Bel?" + +"Of both...." + +"That can't be anything but calculated impertinence!" + +"Call it what you like. Nothing I could say would convince you to the +contrary. Does it matter?" + +"Then your suggestion doesn't deserve my notice." + +"In that event"--Bel smiled in a knowing fashion difficult to +tolerate--"I've got my answer, plain enough: you're bent on going on." + +"Have you any objection?" + +"If I thought my views had any weight with you I might be tempted to +tell you." + +"You'd waste your time--if you think I don't know what you'd say." + +His brows circumflexed a mocking: "So?" + +"You want me to give it up." + +"Well"--he stressed a shrug--"one would think you'd seen enough of this +sort of thing to satisfy even your curiosity." + +"You think I had no other motive?" + +"Plus gratification of your vanity--the inevitable factor in every human +equation." + +"You don't believe my work means anything to me for its own sake?" + +"Are you asking me to believe _you_ consider this a life worth while? Or +that any success it may purchase is worth the sacrifice?" + +"What sacrifice, pray?" + +"Of the woman you might yet be, if you'd give up this nonsense." + +"I think you must mean the woman I might have been before your conduct +killed her in me!" + +Bel made a wry face as he stooped to pick up his motor-coat. "This +conversation is degenerating into a wrangle in which I have the +traditional chance a snowball has in the place where motion-pictures +were spawned. A husband, even a deserted one, is always in the wrong.... +Mind lending me a hand, Linda? Can't quite manage this with one arm." + +At once angrily and gently Lucinda draped the motor-coat over his +shoulders. "Generalizing on the hardships of husbands," she suggested +sweetly, "is hardly an excuse for making it your specialty to be always +in the wrong." + +"I feel that, you know." Bel replied with lips that twitched--"feel it +like everything.... I'm to understand, then, my wishes mean nothing to +you?" + +Lucinda gave a little, silent laugh, and in silence for a moment gazed +on Bellamy, her eyes unreadable. Nor was there the hostility he had +expected in the tone in which she asked: "Have you any reason to +advance, why your wishes should influence me?" + +"If you know of none, Linda--no." + +"I know of nothing that counterweighs the persecution you've been +subjecting me to, ever since you found out where I was hiding from +you--persecution that ended last night in a tragedy. I can't forget +that, if you hadn't bribed that unfortunate girl to come back----" + +"If I hadn't!" Bel interrupted--"and God knows I regret what came of +that as bitterly as anybody!--if I hadn't brought Nelly back here, you +might still be playing fast and loose with Summerlad's ambition to make +you his mistress. Got anything to say to that? You know now, at least, +he never intended anything else. And yet, if looks could kill, you'd +strike me dead where I stand for having presumed to be as wise in +advance as you've been made by the event! And because I made the mistake +of trying to stage-manage things so you would presently find out for +yourself what a rotter you were throwing yourself away on, instead of +chancing your deeper hatred by telling you outright what every other +soul in Hollywood knew--running the risk of seeing you go straight to +his arms to prove your indifference to me--because of that error of +judgment you'll see me damned before you'll give up a mode of life for +which you're about as well fitted as--as I am for that of the Kingdom of +Heaven!" + +"You forget, what I don't, Bel," Lucinda said slowly, "that it was you +who made the mode of life with which I was content impossible for me. If +this life I've taken up here is in some sense a makeshift, it's all I've +got to take the place of all I had. And now you'd rob me even of it! And +one thing more you forget: If I should give in to your wishes and leave +Hollywood today, I would only be doing what you say you want to prevent, +confessing by flight that my only real interest in my picture work was +my greater interest in Lynn Summerlad. For that reason alone--and not, +as you believe, to spite you--I've got to and I'm going to go on to the +end of this present production at least. After that ... I don't +know...." + +Discountenanced, "I hadn't thought of that," Bel owned squarely. "You +may be right...." + +"I am; but even if I weren't, it wouldn't be any use your trying to +force me to forego my chance at a career in pictures just to get rid of +you. Believe me, Bel, it's no good. Give it up, give up this producing +blind--I know it's only a blind--and go back where you belong. And leave +me to do my best with what I have--with what you've left of my +happiness. And remember you have my faithful promise to set you free as +soon as the courts will grant me a divorce." + +"That's your last word, Linda?" + +"My last word to you, Bel--I hope." + +He hesitated, the muscles of his face working beneath its day-old +stubble; and for a moment, reading truly or mistakenly the look in his +eyes, from which all anger had died out, Lucinda was in deadly fear +lest he were on the verge of making one last appeal in another key, one +which she was, in that time of emotions, ill-prepared to deal with. + +Then flinging out his hand in the salute of the vanquished, Bel bowed +and, whirling on a heel, left her--left Lucinda for once at a loss, +intuition inextricably hobbled by a mat of doubts. + + + + +XLIII + + +For how long she was never quite sure Lucinda remained rooted in that +moment, unseeing gaze steadfast to that door whose closing had been +synchronous with the opening of another upon her understanding, to let +in light, a revelation blinding and arrestive, upon the mirk of her +distraction--that failure of self-confidence and determination which had +come with realization, for the first time in her history, of inability +to read her own heart and mind and guide her steps by such +self-knowledge. + +Thus posed she was found when Fanny, weary of knocking and getting no +response, without more ceremony drifted in, a vision fair of impudent +innocence in dainty organdie, the ravages of "oversleeping" perceptible +in dim blue stains beneath eyes the more alluring for such underscoring; +and with a start and a cry of solicitude perhaps a thought theatrical, +convincing enough for all that, dropped parasol and handbag and ran to +strain Lucinda tenderly to her bosom of an adolescent. + +"You poor, dear darling!" she cooed--"no wonder you sounded so troubled +over the telephone--and so sad! I couldn't imagine ... Why didn't you +tell me?" + +"How did you hear?" Lucinda evaded, gently extricating herself to +disguise distaste for the sickly-sweet fragrance of Fanny's breath. "Who +told you?" + +"The papers, dearest: haven't you seen them?" Lucinda fell back a step, +clasping her hands in sharp dismay: she had never once thought of the +newspapers. "Screaming headlines on every page: one would think Lynn, +poor dear! was the President of the United States lying at point of +death from an assassin's bullet.... But what a frightful experience for +you!" + +"It was a shock," Lucinda assented in a murmur. Without conscious +volition she found herself moving away to a window, as if to hide her +emotion. "When I heard...." In private amazement she heard her voice +break; and touching a handkerchief to her lips, said no more. + +"Heard! but you were there, weren't you, when it happened?" + +Still acting as if in deference to an authority outside herself, +Lucinda, without withdrawing her gaze from the street--now basking in +the calm gold of the belated sun--deliberately shook her head. + +"When I found you and Harry weren't coming," she said--"I mean, when +Lynn told me what you had telephoned, I came away. I thought it best, +everything considered." + +"Oh, how fortunate!" + +But there was in that exclamation an undertone of disbelief clear enough +to untrusting ears. And of a sudden Lucinda, while continuing to view +with astonishment her duplicity, all unpremeditated as it had been, no +more regretted it. + +"Fortunate?" she breathed. "I don't know ... perhaps...." + +Now too thoroughly enmeshed in tissue of involuntary falsehoods to +extricate herself without confession, she collected her wits to deal +with Fanny's breathlessly vollied questions; and found curious +gratification in matching the texture of fact with strand after strand +of fabrication, till at length the stuff of lies was woven in with and +not to be distinguished from that of the truth. Mixed with which feeling +was a sort of dull and angry wonder at herself, that she should be doing +something so foreign to her every instinct, lying with such shameless +artistry to the one true friend she had saved from the shipwreck of her +old life--and this at the behest of the man who alone had been +responsible for that disaster. + +She had no more than reached home (she told Fanny) after refusing to +stop at the bungalow for dinner alone with Summerlad, when Bel +telephoned to tell her what had happened. Suspicious of Nelly's temper +for days, Bel, upon her failure to keep a dinner engagement with him, +had traced her to Beverly Hills, arriving just too late, if in time to +be shot in the arm by Nelly when he tried to prevent her escape. + +Determined to see Summerlad--not as yet comprehending the whole truth +concerning his relationship to Nelly--Lucinda had instructed her +chauffeur to leave her car at the side door of the Hollywood; meaning to +drive secretly to Beverly Hills. But this she couldn't do till Bel kept +his promise to call and give her all details. It was while they were +talking that the car had disappeared. Bel had promptly reported the +theft to the police, and that morning had called to tell Lucinda how +sharp work had trailed it north along the Coastal Highway to the scene +of Nelly's death.... Accident or suicide, who could say?... + +At the same time Bel had begged her to make sure of Fanny's silence in +respect of the aborted dinner party. It was unnecessary that Lucinda's +name should be dragged into the case in any way, if it were she could +hardly hope to come through with her incognita intact. She felt that she +owed Bel that much consideration; it wasn't his fault she was still his +wife. Not that she herself had any wish to court publicity in connection +with the affair.... + +"But of course, darling! you know you can depend on me." + +"I know; but I had to be sure. You see, you told Mr. Nolan last night I +was due at the bungalow for dinner." + +"But Cindy!" Fanny's wide eyes were a child's for candour--"that was +before I knew there was any reason ... Mr. Nolan called up about nine, +said he wanted to talk to Harry; and when I told him Harry was away on +business (that was a lie--tell you presently) he guessed that Harry had +come here to see you, and said he'd try to get in touch with him here. +So I told him I believed you were dining out with Lynn; we'd all been +invited, but Harry found he couldn't make it, at the last moment, so we +begged off. That's how it happened." + +"I fancied it was something like that," Lucinda commented, +unsuspiciously enough but in a thoughtful tone open to misconstruction +by an inquiet conscience. + +"But surely you don't doubt my word, Cindy!" + +"Why should I, dear?" Lucinda asked, smiling; and pausing in her +restless, aimless circling of the room she dropped an affectionate hand +on Fanny's shoulder. "What a silly notion!" + +Fanny cuddled the hand to her cheek. "Forgive me, dear: I don't know why +I said that. I suppose it's because I'm as much upset about my own +affairs as you are about yours, Cindy--most of all about this shocking +business, of course, and so sorry for you, dear----" + +"Don't be sorry for me." Lucinda's fingers tightened on Fanny's. "Be glad +I've learned a good lesson and had a fortunate escape. I ought to be +glad the hurt's no worse...." + +"Poor darling! you were fearfully fond of Lynn, weren't you?" + +"Was I? I've been wondering. In love with Lynn, or just in love with +Love: which? I'm afraid the shock of it all is too new for me to be sure +as yet, but.... Oh, I'm sorry for Lynn, of course! but only as one would +be for any acquaintance who was in pain and at death's door. But in the +light of what I know now, of how Lynn lied to me, and how shamefully he +treated that poor creature he married, it seems impossible I could ever +have been in love, actually in love with such a man.... In love with +being loved, yes, I'm afraid I shall never get better of that weakness; +and so absurdly conscious that Lynn Summerlad, the great lover, had +chosen me, I never stopped to consider him in comparison with other men. +But I don't think I was in love with Lynn.... Or am I sincere? is what +I'm saying just sophistry to salve my poor, sore vanity?" + +She laughed consciously, then in swift variation of mood added a +pensive, wistful note: "Fanny: Bel loves me...." + +The countenance turned up to hers was quick with mirth: Fanny started to +speak, gurgled rapturously, and broke down in laughter so infectious +that Lucinda could not but respond, if ruefully. + +"You great goose! if that's news to you, it's news to no one else." + +"It is to me." Lucinda sobered. "Daresay I might have guessed if I'd +been a wiser woman, but I wasn't, not till just now, when Bel was going +away, after a wretched little squabble. Then something, I'm sure I don't +know what...." + +"I could have told you long ago, sweetest; in fact, I was only awaiting +the right moment. I've been sounding Bel out, you may have noticed. +There isn't anything one can teach him about flirting, Cindy, all the +same there's only one woman in the world Bel can see." + +"I'm sure of that," Lucinda agreed ... "just now." + +"Cindy!" Fanny insisted, tugging at her hand--"tell me something--" + +"Very well, dear. No: I shan't give Bel another chance. I'm not in love +with him at all, and I dare not run the risk of falling in love with him +again, I daren't risk going mad with happiness, as I should if what once +was could be again ... and then having to live through all the misery of +breaking with him another time." + +"But surely--if he promised faithfully----" + +"The promises men make to win us, Fanny, are not the sort that they +know how to keep. It's always what they can't have they want most. Give +them all they ask today, and tonight they'll lie awake longing for the +things they've forsworn. The only woman who could hold Bel to his good +behaviour would be one who could keep him guessing. I'm not that woman, +I can't pretend, with me it's all or nothing--always!" + +"Poor lamb!" Fanny drew her down to sit on the arm of the chair and +nestled her frivolous, fair head upon Lucinda's bosom. "You have such +desperate troubles, I'm ashamed to tell you my own...." + +"Your own, Fanny?" + +"We're both in the same boat, Cindy," Fanny lamented--"two lorn women +this very day as ever was! Harry has left me ... flat!" + +"Fanny!" Lucinda caught the girl's face between tender hands and looked +incredulously into its swimming eyes. "You're not joking?" + +"Divvle the joke's in me the day," Fanny declared between gulps, +dabbling her tears with a handkerchief. "I didn't want to tell you, when +you had so much else to worry you, but I'm afraid you've got to know. +Because, you see, you're mixed up in it, too." + +"I! what do you mean?" + +"Well, Harry and I haven't been happy together for ever so long. Love +with us you know, was rather a flash in the pan. Last night we had a +scene, I mean another scene--forget the serial number. When I went home +I found him trying to drink himself to death. He was half out of his +head, and wouldn't tell me why. But I had a suspicion and wormed it out +of him finally: he's been speculating with the company's money, your +money, Cindy; and, now, with Zinn taking over the production, his +shortage is sure to be found out. I couldn't make him say how much it +was, but there's no question, it will run into a good sum. Well: I +promised to intercede with you, and managed to quiet him down and get +him to bed. Next thing I knew he was in the bathroom, trying to cut his +throat. Then I hid his razors and let him go back to his whiskey, hoping +he'd drink himself asleep. And presently he did. At least, he seemed to. +So I went to bed--about three this morning, that was--worn out. When you +called up, Cindy, I fibbed to you: I'd been awake about half an hour, +howling like a lost child because I knew that Harry had deserted me at +last." + +"But how did you know--? Did he leave a note?" + +"No, dear--that's how I knew. He didn't leave me a note or much of +anything else except my clothes; everything that was portable and easy +to turn into money he'd taken, all my jewels, everything. So you see, +dear"--the face of an unworldly child quivered with a pitifully sad +smile--"I'm not only an embezzler's wife, I'm a pauper--and a friendless +pauper unless you keep on being my friend!" + +The woebegone voice died away in sobs, and with a broken cry of +compassion Lucinda gathered that unhappy little body into her arms. + + + + +XLIV + + +The finding of Nelly's body crushed beneath the wreckage of a motor-car +on the beach some fifty miles north of Los Angeles, gave the story of +the Summerlad shooting an extended lease of twenty-four hours only on +front-page space in the newspapers. In none of these was the ownership +of the car called in question; in which circumstance Lucinda thought to +detect the influential hand of "Mr. Bellamy Druce of New York," finding +further support for this surmise in the fact that even Bel's name came +in for astonishingly occasional mention, considering his active part in +the aftermath of the affair, and especially considering the civic zeal +ordinarily displayed by the local press in playing up the presence in +"the Queen City of the Sunny Southland" of personages of social or +financial consequence in the East. + +Then, since the death of the unhappy woman had defeated all hope of +lurid court proceeding, and rendered piquant exploitation of "wild life +inside the movie colony" an open invitation to actions for criminal +libel as soon as Summerlad got well enough to reckon damages to his +reputation, the cause célèbre went into quick eclipse. The newspapers of +the third morning carried brief notices inconspicuously placed to the +effect that Summerlad was reported out of danger, though his complete +recovery promised to be a matter of many weeks, and that the body of his +wife was being shipped East to her parents. And the affair was never +mentioned more. + +Lucinda spent the best part of that day (and a good part of the next two +as well) in the projection-room with Zinn and Wallace Day, her new +director, sitting in judgment on thirty-six reels of film, the +accumulated sum of Nolan's fumbling with about two-thirds of a picture. + +Not that such extravagance was anything extraordinary under prevailing +methods of production. It remains to this day quite in order for a +director to photograph between fifty and sixty-thousand feet of scenes +on celluloid, only forty-five hundred feet of which will ever be +revealed to the public. The ordinary photoplay, Lucinda learned, runs to +not more than six reels, or six-thousand feet of film, approximately +one-fourth of which is devoted to reading matter, leaving forty-five +hundred feet or less to carry on the story in terms of pictorial action. + +The more than seven miles of photography which constituted Nolan's +legacy to his successor would consequently require boiling down to about +one-twelfth its length to make room for the third of the picture which +he had left undirected. + +This monumental feat of waste had been achieved by means of +photographing every scene, even the simplest, in inordinate length, over +and over again, and from every conceivable angle, much of the time with +three cameras in simultaneous operation, and by making provision to +break up each scene with close-ups of the principal players heaving +their chests and mugging intimately at audiences as yet undreaming of +their treat in store. + +Thus it came to pass that Lucinda, who had at first welcomed the +prospect of the seclusion which the projection-room was to afford her, +the freedom which those blank black walls would insure from +consciousness of fleering eyes and tongues over-ready to whisper evil +concerning her relations with the wounded man--Lucinda, long before a +fourth part of the rough footage had been unreeled for her inspection, +began to find inexpressibly tiresome the sight of her shadow-self +mincing and simpering through endless repetitions of business with which +she was already conversant to satiety, and with all her heart wished +herself back again in the uncompromising glare of the Kliegs, where at +least, though onlookers might mock and mouth lies, she would have work +to do that would help her to forget. + +As it was, though her eyes were constant to the screen, her attention +was forever flagging, her thoughts harking back along old trails where +heartaches haunted.... + +The lively disputes between Zinn and Day which from time to time +interrupted the procession of the scenes, as those two debated ways and +means to cut and eliminate and avoid retaking, contributed little to the +relief of her afflicted spirit. Hourly its burden of boredom grew more +nearly insufferable, toleration of it more seemingly insane. + +The business as a whole seemed so stupid, so puerile, so hopelessly +inconsequential. + +Pictures! her very soul sickened at the sound of the word. As if +motion-pictures mattered, or whether they were good or bad, inanely done +or cleverly. People went to see them anyway, paid money to sit goggling +at them, and incomprehensibly dispersed without tearing down the +theatres which had taken such cheap advantage of their confidence! + +All this bickering about "saving" a production whose asininity one +esteemed beyond repair as long as one lacked the moral courage to touch +a match to its interminable footage of footless photography! + +If it hadn't been for that last quarrel with Bellamy, if it were not for +seeming to give in to his wishes and thus giving him more encouragement +to tamper with her concerns, Lucinda before the end of that first day in +the projection-room would have cried off her agreement with Zinn, +abandoned the production then and there, pocketed her loss without +murmur, and let the looks of it go hang. + +But still the secret springs of vanity were subtly at work. For her own +sake, she insisted, for the sake of her pride, false pride though it +might prove in the end, she couldn't draw back at this juncture, she had +to go on and, if it were in her so to do, make good her claims to +consideration as one who had shown at least a certain promise of value +to the screen. + +So though she shuddered to contemplate the weeks to come, she steeled +heart and soul to see her picture through to the very end. + +Young Mr. Day on improved acquaintance appeared to be an amiable and +modest person with a fair grasp of the rudiments of his calling; and +presently surprised Lucinda by proving himself the "clever kid" that +Zinn had asserted he was; immolating himself with the three-dozen reels +in the cutting-room for forty-eight hours, at the end of which period he +emerged with an eight-reel edition of Nolan's unfinished opus which, +when still further abbreviated and publicly shown, ultimately drove its +author half-mad with chagrin. + +Upon Zinn, however, the effect of this accomplishment was to dispel +altogether the gloom in which he had been plunged ever since the +attempted assassination of his most profitable star had halted for an +indefinite term a costly production within a few days of its completion. + +Even Lucinda plucked up heart, began to cherish regenerated hopes.... + +To the weariness of those days wasted in waiting for camera-work to +begin again, the visit of Harford Willis came as a welcome interlude, +notwithstanding the effort required to show him an undiscouraged +countenance and, at the same time, the tale of losses sustained through +the mismanagement and knavery of Lontaine. + +On the other hand, the gentleman of early vintage knew nothing of the +Summerlad chapters; and it did Lucinda good to hear him growl and scold +about anything as relatively inconsiderable as the lunacy of throwing +money away--"like water!"--and then refusing to set the machinery of the +law in motion to apprehend and punish Lontaine. But nothing he found to +say shook her determination not to make an example of the defaulter at +the expense of his wife. + +"The poor child's been made miserable enough by her marriage," Lucinda +declared. "And now Lontaine's deserted her she's got nobody left but her +people, who were opposed to Harry from the first and were, I haven't the +faintest doubt, to a considerable extent responsible for making her life +with him the wretched muddle it turned out. If they'd treated Harry +half-way decently, when treating him harshly couldn't change the fact +that he was Fanny's husband, if they'd interested themselves to give him +a chance to make a comfortable living for himself and her, it's more +than likely he would never have dreamed of doing anything wrong. Now his +troubles have driven him to it, I'm not going to add to Fanny's by +bringing him back to the notice of her family branded a thief. Let +things alone and they may make up their differences with her...." + +"Such magnanimity is costing you a pretty penny," Willis suggested +mildly. + +"It isn't anything of the sort," Lucinda pointed out with some heat. +"Putting Harry Lontaine in a penitentiary won't put back in my +pocketbook one cent of the money he made away with. In fact, to do +nothing about him is the only inexpensive way to deal with his +affairs.... + +"Besides," she added with a shy, sly twinkle, "whatever this experience +has cost me in money, it's taught me something I would never have +learned in any other way, something I badly needed to be taught, too." + +"And that is----?" Willis prompted. + +"Shan't tell you. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to admit all it's taught +me, even to myself." + +With this she left Willis to his vain surmises, confident that he would +aim the shrewdest of them wide of the mark. + +Otherwise, she found irritating the open gratification with which +Willis took note of Bellamy's neighbourhood and drew an easy inference. +But he had the wisdom to refrain from mentioning the possibility he +foresaw of such propinquity; and Lucinda was generous enough to imitate +this reticence and spare Willis the pain of hopes disabused. + +He went his way at length not, everything considered, dissatisfied with +the way events, as he read them, were shaping social salvation for the +young woman in whom he took an interest so genially paternal. + +And Lucinda took leave of him with dewy eyes ... her one true friend.... + +Now she had nobody left but Fanny; and she was coming daily to repose +less faith in Fanny's loyalty. + +She was feeling very sorry for herself, and very lonely, and when most +in need of friendly companionship--that is to say, when she wasn't busy +at the studio--Fanny was seldom at her call. Fanny had given up the +bungalow and moved to a residential hotel on the outskirts of the +Wiltshire district, whose accommodations she claimed were cheaper than +the Hollywood's; pointing out that she hadn't anything now but the wage +she earned by playing in Lucinda's picture, which wouldn't last much +longer, and that she had to acquaint herself with the uses of economy. +Furthermore she knew several picture players who made the Wiltshire +hotel their home, and they were nice to her, always asking her out to +dinner and the movies, or somewhere. It helped her hold her head up, she +said, helped her to carry on. + +She employed the slang phrase in its late British sense. Lucinda +wondered if the significance of its older American usage were not +perhaps more applicable to this instance. The duration of Fanny's +love-life with Lontaine had been too brief to keep her faithful to his +memory. + +Deep in Lucinda's subconsciousness an incidental recollection turned in +its sleep. Somewhere, sometime, she had heard that Barry Nolan had a +bungalow down Wiltshire way. Or hadn't she? + +At all events, he had: the address listed opposite his name in the +telephone directory proved that. + +After a time she ceased to suggest the little dinners and drives and +minor distractions which would have interfered with Fanny's social +commitments. And her loneliness grew more and more wearisome. Times were +to come when she would almost have welcomed even the sight of Bel. But +then he was away. + +A week from the night of their rencontre in Summerlad's bungalow, +Bellamy called--first telephoning to ask if he might--to tell Lucinda he +was leaving for New York the next morning. Zinn would take charge of his +producing interests during his absence. He couldn't say just how long +that might be. He had several matters on his mind that he wanted to +arrange before returning. If he could be of any service to Lucinda in +the East, he would be glad.... + +She thanked him quietly, said there was nothing she could think of. + +Bel was glad to state his belief that the Summerlad business had blown +over without her name being even privately whispered as in any way +involved. He fancied she would hear nothing more of it. If she did, if +anything unpleasant happened or threatened, she knew where a telegram +would reach him, and upon receipt of it he would drop everything and +hurry back. + +Lucinda thanked him again, gravely, professing an entire lack of +apprehensiveness. If anything did happen, however, she promised not to +trouble him; she'd manage somehow to fight her own battles after this; +it was high time she learned to do it, who had a lifetime of independent +action to look forward to and was unconscious of holding any lien on +Bellamy's time or consideration. + +"It isn't that," he stammered--"I mean to say, I wish you wouldn't look +at it that way. You punished me more cruelly than you knew; but I +deserved it all, and I've no complaint to make and hold no grudge. In +fact--the truth is--I've got a lot to be grateful to you for, Linda; you +cured me of my two greatest vices, and whatever the future may hold for +me one thing is sure: I won't go to smash on account of either wine or +women. And so, though I quite understand what your feeling toward me is, +and how useless it would be to ask you to forget, I'll always be glad if +anything I can do will serve in part payment of my debt. It would make +me very happy now if I could go away believing that in any time of +trouble you would turn to me as to, at least, a friend." + +"I understand, Bel, and I'm most appreciative, but"--Lucinda smiled with +a shadow of sadness--"it wouldn't do, what you suggest. I hear what you +say, I know what you have in mind, and--it would never do. After what +has been, there could be no friendship in true sense between you and me; +we're neither of us people whom half-measures would content. And since +we are as we are, since with us it must be all or nothing...." + +She made an end by rising in a manner he couldn't misinterpret. + +"It must be nothing?" he implored, holding her hand. + +Behind the mask of her composure Lucinda was absurdly agitated and, on +that account, a little angry. She refused to admit she had any excuse +for feeling upset; she had the upper hand with Bel and meant to hold it, +she had nothing imaginable to fear; yet she was horribly afraid he might +see.... + +"Good-bye, Bel," she said, with not unkind decision but decision +unmistakable for all that. "And good luck. But ... please never come +back...." + +That night she sobbed herself awake from dreams of dear days dead, and +lay for hours hating the cheerless comfort of hotel rooms, missing +poignantly the intimacy of her home and the sense of security she had +known nowhere else. Would she ever find such another haven for her +drifting soul? + +It wasn't that she was in any way hindered from settling down wherever +she liked and surrounding herself with possessions. But could any place +where love was not be fairly termed a home? + +In the morning she rose with a heart as heavy as any she had ever known +to address herself to the daily grind--to term which deadly were but to +cheapen the detrition of morale resulting from its wear upon the soul. + +Yet she had to be fair, she couldn't pretend she had any right to +whimper; she was having her own way, getting precisely what she had all +along been asking for; and viewed at a purely material angle, her +affairs were as prosperous as heart could wish. The new director was +living up to and even beyond all Zinn's claims, his revision of the +continuity for the sequences remaining to be taken had been as adept as +his editing of those thirty-six reels of pictorial farrago, and he was +handling the crowded scenes on the supper-club set and the more intimate +dramatic passages staged in the living-room with equal competence and +the ease of one conscious of but not self-conscious about thorough +mastery of his craft. + +In this new association the low spirits lifted which latterly had +oppressed the mercurial cameraman; Iturbide chirked up amazingly and +made it plain that he looked upon Mr. Day as a man, a brother, and an +artistic peer. + +Between Wallace Day and Lucinda there was no friction, and under his +sympathetic guidance she felt she was doing better work than she had +ever hoped to do. + +Only Zinn, though he observed with every indication of pleased approval +the rapid strides the production was making, was known to wag a head +weighted with foreboding and utter dismal croaks. + +"He's a wonder," he said one day to Lucinda, while they stood aside +watching Day rehearse a scene in which she happened to have no part--"a +holy wonder and no kidding. Every so often in the fillum business a +miracle man happens like that. But they never last. It can't be done. +Stands to reason. What chanst they got? If women don't get 'em the +big-head does, and if they happen to get by with both them drags they +run into studio jealousy waiting round the corner with a blackjack. +What's that the feller says about self-preservation being the first law +of nature? Well, if you don't believe he spoke a mouthful, you want to +watch what he said work out in the picture business. Any time they see a +bird coming along that's got something on the rest of the gang, they +just naturally knock him on the head and save their jobs." + +But neither the promising status of the picture nor her growing +confidence that, when it was put on public exhibition, her work would +justify her pretensions, could revivify the old élan. The novelty had +worn too thin, its excitation had lost all potency. Day after day +Lucinda went to her work without enthusiasm, and if she left the studio +of an evening with reluctance it was solely because of the desolation +long drawn-out that she must somehow live through ere she could look for +sleep to bestow a little, brief oblivion. + +And even the hours spent in make-up knew too many pauses, too long +delays spaced her appearances before the camera, when Lucinda must needs +stand idly by while Day drilled others in their business, or else sit +solitary in her dressing-room, waiting to be called, with mind +unemployed but for painful introspection and the ceaseless cark of +longing for old delights forever forfeit; till discontent frayed out +endurance and she learned to loathe every facet of this life whose whole +had once seemed so enthralling: smell of grease-paint warmed by human +flesh, smell of distemper drying on newly builded sets, the hot smell of +dust that scurrying feet kicked up on the lot, the pungent smell of +sensitized celluloid; moaning orchestras without whose strains no true +artistic temperament could reasonably be expected to function at the +peak of its capacity, sizzling of arcs, the magnified howls that issued +from directorial megaphones, of argument and exposition, instruction and +command, encouragement, expostulation, denunciation, rage; clock-work +ticking of camera mechanisms, distant drumfire of automobile exhausts in +the parking yard, the hammering and banging without which property men +and carpenters never are known to materialize, the unending drone of +babble, like the thick rumour of an off-stage mob, as actors strolled +and schooled and talked about themselves; the restless phantasmagoria of +painted faces, dusted with yellow powder, beaded with sweat, inhuman +enough in God's sunlight and in the blue-green glare of the +Cooper-Hewitts sicklied over with a livid cast of dissolution, as they +were dead walking; suffocating heat of still air boxed in beneath the +glass-roofed stages when the sun was strong, drifts of chill across the +lot when evening shades closed in.... + +And as in the studio, so was it when her occupation took Lucinda abroad. +Many of the scenes which had been adjudged to need retaking were those +staged in natural settings--"location stuff." These Wallace Day put off +till he had finished with the supper-club and living-room. Thereafter +Lucinda had for some ten days to face the camera in the open air. Nor +was she often able to arrive at the designated spots except by rising +early and taking long motor rides alone, which she came to hold in an +aversion scarcely second to that which she entertained for her nightly +welcome by that emptiness which in her rooms made its abode. In her +seeing the groomed beauties of the lowlands had lost all grace, she +saw them trivial ... blurs of viridescent tarnish mottling a blasted +waste ... cracked enamel on the face of a senile courtesan failing to +cover its wrinkles and blotches.... From which her eyes, revolted, +turned ever with a sense of terror to the inland ramparts of bare, +seamed hills that, with haggard heads stencilled in raw ochre against +the blue, looked down upon the pleasure-lands like a herd of couchant +monsters bound by some old enchantment for a time to make no move, but +biding their day, a day whose secret was hearsed in their rocky hearts, +when the spell upon them would be lifted and, rising up, they would +march shoulder to shoulder down to the sea, annihilating all things in +their way, all puny things that lived and toiled and loved under that +remote and hollow canopy of sky, in that fixed and brazen grin of +sun.... + +They brimmed her moods with a disquietude formless and irrational, those +everlasting hills, yet she could never keep from dwelling on them, whose +heart was ever yearning over them and beyond, into the unknown and +unguessable tomorrows they walled away, that occult destiny toward which +she must turn her face as soon as her work here was done. + +She counted hourly the tale of the days between.... + +The hole left in her life by the casting out of Bel ached now +incessantly and ever more intolerably, since she might no longer drug +her mind with that infatuation whose strength had departed. And she knew +times whose pain was such that almost she repented having lost capacity +for surrender to the anodynous action of that strange phase of love +which had so nearly delivered her to Lynn. + +Today she called it strange.... + +Twice she heard from Summerlad: on the day following Bellamy's +departure, a pencilled scrawl, informing her that he was now permitted +to receive callers and protesting his impatience for the visit which he +knew her charity would not permit her to deny him; and four days later +another letter and a longer, bringing proof of steady improvement in +less infirm penmanship and phrases turned more carefully, repeating all +the first had said and calling attention to the venerable saw about the +ill wind; on the writer's side at least every impediment to their +marriage had been abolished.... + +In the upshot Lucinda acknowledged receipt of neither, but for two +mornings her waste-basket, with its deep drifts of note-paper minutely +scrapped, bore witness to her endeavors to frame a reply at once final +and not too cruel. + +Better (she decided) send no word at all than a letter which could only +hurt his pride ... _if_ Lynn still believed he loved her ... if he had +ever!... + +The talk of the studio kept her advised concerning the good progress of +his convalescence. She knew no doubt at all but that he would as +speedily get well of his disappointment in her. + +For her part, the thing was dead and done and finished and as something +that had never been; the only wonder was, it ever had.... + +One evening, as she was leaving the studio, she met Wallace Day on the +steps of the administration building, and learned from him that, making +fair allowance for every imaginable delay, he counted on making an end +to camera-work in two days more. + +Accordingly, instead of going directly home to the Hollywood, Lucinda +motored to Los Angeles and booked reservations for Reno by the night +train of the second day following, a slow train but the first that she +could feel sure of catching. + +She had meant to keep her purpose secret, holding it of no consequence +to anybody but herself what she might elect to do, once her work was +finished, and bearing in mind the possibility that, if news of her +intention should by any chance leak out at the studio, it would find its +way to the ears of Summerlad. She understood that he was now far enough +forward on the road to recovery to spend part of each day in an invalid +chair, and thought it wise to run no risk of finding out that his +improvement had been understated. + +Conscience nevertheless reproached her when she thought of Fanny, and on +the way back to the Hollywood she instructed her chauffeur to make a +détour and stop at Fanny's hotel. + +If Fanny had no prior engagement, they might have one last evening +together. But she would hold back her news till the moment came to say +good-bye.... + +Drawing near the hotel, she recognized the conspicuously ornamental car +of Barry Nolan waiting at the carriage-block, and as she bent forward to +tell her chauffeur not to stop, she had changed her mind, she saw Fanny +come out of the entrance, Nolan ambling, with an air of contented habit, +at her elbow. + +At the same time Fanny caught sight of Lucinda, pulled up short in +confusion, then smiled brightly and waved a hand, while Nolan rather +blankly fingered the visor of his cap. And Lucinda nodded, smiled in +turn, and passed, wondering if the deep colour she had remarked in +Fanny's cheek had been merely the sunset's mordant comment on an artful +glow of pink. + +Well: that was that.... + +Yet it was long before the picture faded of that girlish figure, posed +prettily in startlement, brief skirts whipped about it by the evening +wind, with its gay look of mirth, half shame-faced, half-impudent, +wholly charming ... sweet grist for the mills whose grinding knows no +rest. + +The pity of it!... Or was it? Had one the right to say? The mills of +Mammon grind ever but free will alone keeps the hoppers filled. The +choice had been with Fanny, she had chosen in conformance with the +dictates of predisposition. + +And who could say she hadn't chosen wisely, who had every gift that +makes for swift and prosperous progress along the road she had preferred +to go?--beauty and wit, ready adaptability, and that highly developed +sense of self which often enables the worst of women to travel far and +thriftily. Idle to waste time deploring that she had seen fit to throw +herself away on Nolan: she hadn't, Nolan, though he might never know it, +was but a stepping-stone, a single link in a chain that led to a far +shore whose sands were dust of gold.... + + + + +XLV + + +When she had bribed her maid to observe discretion concerning her plans, +and had herself attended to the business of checking her trunks through +to Reno, thus keeping her destination secret even from the woman, +Lucinda felt fairly confident of getting away unhindered and unpursued. + +In the middle of the afternoon, finding she was to be detained at the +studio till the last moment, Lucinda telephoned the maid to take her +hand-luggage to the station and have it put in her drawing-room. She +caught the train with little to spare, and not until it was in motion +did she discover the box of roses in the luggage-rack overhead. + +Her favorites, Hadleys, two dozen suavely moulded blooms of deepest +crimson, exquisitely fresh and fragrant; roses such as Bel had been +accustomed to send her daily, once upon a time ... how long ago!... + +Eyes cloudy with the dreams of yesterday their breath inspired, Lucinda +sat a long time with the open box upon her lap. + +An age since any one had sent her flowers.... + +The box bore the name of a city florist, but was untagged and contained +no card to identify the donor. + +From Summerlad, by any chance? Lucinda didn't think so. If Lynn had +thought it worth his while to try to win her back with roses, he +wouldn't have waited so long, and he would never have neglected to +enclose a card or a note. + +No: that chapter was closed, and Lynn must surely know how wasted would +be his every effort to reopen it. + +In the end Lucinda concluded that the maid had bought the flowers for +her, as a gift of gratitude. Wildly fanciful as this hypothesis might +appear, there had in this instance been unusual provocation, Lucinda in +all her dealings with the woman had been more than generous. + +And, after all, flowers were plentiful in Los Angeles and among the few +things reasonably priced. + +Arranged in the metal catch-alls in the corners of the drawing-room, +stems bedded in wet tissue-paper, they made a brave show through the +evening, and proved rare company, too, trembling with eagerness to +salute Lucinda with lovely, friendly nods, and drenching the dead +atmosphere with a witching sweetness that called up memories like gentle +ghosts. + +Their rich yet subtle perfume saturated her mood and coloured every +thought as she lay wakeful in the dark, watching the ghastly panorama of +the Cajon Pass, basking in unearthly moonlight, unfold like a march upon +the hitherside of Hell, and, later on, the vast, still ranges of the +desert, where tortured cacti entreated Heaven with frozen gestures of +torment and terror, while from afar the goblin hills looked on in dark, +sphinxlike disdain. + +Here, linking widely spaced oases, where the pepper-tree and eucalyptus +shadowed roofs of ribbed iron, and the pineapple palm posed its graceful +fronds against the ungainly bulks of water-tanks on stilts, dim trails +ran with the tracks, and ever and again panting and bouncing flivvers +would spring up out of the night to race the train for a mile or so, or, +less frequently, cars more powerful would overtake and distance it as it +laboured up-grade; shapes of solid shadow hurtling through the night as +if breaking their hearts in hopeless efforts to overtake the fugitive +fans of light thrown out by their lamps ... as men pursue hope through +life ... as women pursue love.... + +And Lucinda, watching, wondered at life's strangeness and its sadness, +and marvelled at the mettle men are made of to sustain them through the +race, though they know the end is ever failure, heart-break, death. + +The scent of roses numbed mind and senses: pain and opiate in one.... + +And it was as if she had slept not at all, save that she felt rested; as +if she had closed her eyes on darkness and unclosed them an instant +later to find the very scene she had been gazing on bathed in hot +splendor of sunlight, warm with colour. Still the desert stretched its +flats of sand and alkali, sage and cactus, to a far, notched rim of +hills, still the train drudged stoutly on an up-grade, buffeting the +hushed air with stentorian gasps; still upon the trail beside the tracks +raced the motor-car Lucinda had been watching when sleep claimed her.... + +Another car, of course. Nevertheless the coincidence was surprising. + +She lay for a little lazily watching it; a powerful, spirited piece of +machinery, well-driven, breasting gallantly that long ascent about which +the train was making such great ado; drawing abeam, forging ahead, +flirting derisively a tail of dust as it vanished from the field +commanded by the window.... Bound whither? upon what urgency of life or +death? that it must make such frantic haste in the heat of the desert +sun!... + +Heat was already beginning to make the tiny drawing-room resemble a +cubicle in Tophet. Lucinda rose, ransacked her luggage for her flimsiest +garments, gave her flesh the sketchy sponging which was all that +facilities permitted, dressed, and rang for the porter and a waiter from +the dining-car. While her room was being tidied up she ordered +breakfast. Before it could be served the porter turned the drawing-room +over to her again. + +She waited by the window, looking out upon without seeing the few rude +buildings that composed a tank town at which the train had made a halt +for water. After that brief respite from the scent of roses she was +finding reintroduction to its influence overpowering. It took her by +the throat and subjugated her, reducing her to a most miserable estate +of nostalgic longing.... + +The waiter was knocking. She started up, hastily dried her eyes, +pronounced a tremulous "Come in!" + +Bel entered, shut the door, dropped upon the red plush seat a duster and +cap caked with desert alkali, and stood apprehensive of his welcome, his +heart in his eyes. + +She fell back to the partition, breathing his name, her whole body +vibrating like a smitten lute-string. + +In a choking voice he cried: "Linda! for God's sake listen to me. I've +been up all night, driving against time to overtake you and beg you to +listen to this last appeal. I want you to promise me not to go to Reno. +Not yet, at least. Give me a little more time, a little chance to prove +to you that you're the only woman in the world for me, that I'm living +the life you'd want your husband to live, and have been ever since you +left me. Because I want you back, because I'm lost without you, because +I want to make you happy ... as you were happy when you first loved me, +long ago...." + +She lifted shaking hands to him, cried his name again, swayed blindly +into his arms. + +"Take me back, Bel," she whispered. "Make me happy ... Be kind to me, +Bel, be fair...." + + +THE END + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + + JOAN THURSDAY + ALIAS THE LONE WOLF + RED MASQUERADE + THE DARK MIRROR + THE FALSE FACES + SHEEP'S CLOTHING + THE LONE WOLF + THE DAY OF DAYS + NOBODY + THE DESTROYING ANGEL + THE BANDBOX + CYNTHIA-OF-THE-MINUTE + THE FORTUNE HUNTER + NO MAN'S LAND + THE POOL OF FLAME + THE BRONZE BELL + THE BLACK BAG + THE BRASS BOWL + TERENCE O'ROURKE + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Linda Lee, Incorporated, by Louis Joseph Vance + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINDA LEE, INCORPORATED *** + +***** This file should be named 36445-8.txt or 36445-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/4/36445/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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