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Show bj LOUIS JOSEPH VANqQJ (Continued From Our Last Issue) i "I'm lorry. I only wanted you to ; understand why I felt I had to warn you against Nelh . She's, unfortunate, God knows, but she's dangerous, too. The all are. once the stuff gets hold on them, there nothing they won't do. no lie ihey won't tell " "And this is what goes on ln this early paradise." "It in t ( alifomla, II isn't Hull', wood, it's human nature" XXVII l.iuinda dated from lhat Saturday' the dawn of a fortnight when everj thing went wrog for her with Mich regularity that, in tho end, the bur-, den of lis crosses grw too sore, ihe woman had been something more than merely morial whose storen of fort 1 j tude and forbearance had not run low. Naturally she blamed Bellann nut one day Luelnda devoted pain ful hours to lot ;iling up her bank ac counts, a duly which she had been re llglOUSly forgetting for months nnd whose performance broughl lo llghl the fact that She had already given' Harry Lontalhe check! to his ordei In the sum of two hundred and ten thousand dollars, to be cashed by him and deposited to the credit ol Linda Leo, Inc. Ii she felt slightly dashetl by this discovery, it was less because of the mone) Involved for she had from the first been prepared to pay more dearly for her whistle than Lontalne had d dared it would cost than because tin-end tin-end was not yet, ihe first picture remained re-mained Unfinished. It was now necessary to write Willie Wil-lie and ask him to find her more money. But her only course was to consult Lontalne in the taint hope that out of the um entrusted to him there mlghl bo enough left In the company's treasury to see It through Lhe present production And this sh ted to do because Ol an intuitive feeling ihir he would take Hub as directly chal longing his competency. Lorjtalne was a sensitive soul. However, he spared hei the pain, for the next time they met he blandly advised Luciuda that ihe r.m.pan. culd do with another . .1 I nrx oo thfl rOlllll twenty mouiauu wwn - tind time to dra the check . and n learning that it would have io wait a few da vs. or until she could hear from Willis, he seemed coneWerablj discountenanced, or else faney misled her. . The da when Lucinda broke witll Barn Nolan began ausplciou -1 ' enough with a night letter from liar ford Willis stating t hat money mat tors bad been arranged In conform a nee with Lucinda's v. , i.. and add ling thai WlUts hoped before long to give hlmsell the pleasure ol calling on her in person, he was leaving w York the da) he telegraphed Not a Httle to her own wo,,der. Lu cinda found herself pleasantly excited by the thought thai sne was to see this old mend again. Busy with such reflections, and with the pleasing prospect of soon having a willing prospect tor her complaints, Lucinda made nothing ol the fact (hat Lontaine showed the white., ot his eyes and shied back like a skittish cob from 'he telegram which she submit ted to his inspection, and was not much tranquillaed by 'be check which at the same time she gave him for the replenishment of the company's coffers. cof-fers. And in her most amiable tem per she hurried Trom his office to her dressing room, into the newest, prettied pret-tied and most becoming dance irock She had ever owned, who had oam., bo many, and then nut to the stage. The company was walling, the cam eras were waiting. Nolan with an air of noblest patlence was waiting All o which was quite needless, for 'here was other work In abundance that , ould have been attended lo ! V Lucinda drew near. Nolan hoist led himself out of the basket chair ln which he had been lounging, with something more than a suggestion of limbs cramped by prolonged Inactivity, Inactiv-ity, and bowed poli'ely. too politelj "Sorry If I've kepi ou wailing. Mr Nolan, but I had some business with I i ,,l,ln'f nut off" 1 .Mr l.oniaiue l-juii -- I "No matter at all. MlSS Lee, 1 as i sure you not matter a-tall, M tlmel lis youra the company's time Is yours, 'ail' the tune there is our3 to use or Waste. Just as you think best" Lucinda couldn ' very well let of fensiveness so pointed pass wlthoui comment She stopped turned square lv to face Nolan, with a keen smile looked him deliberately up and down B movement of shoulders summing up clearly enough the substance of her j impressions. "Thauk you for telling me." she said; sweetly. "And now thai is understood, 1 suppose we try to make up for the, time I've wasted, if possible, by get- , ting to work at Onrp Nolan's eyes snapped, but the only i retoit that occurred to his mind ; at all appropriate he felt instinctively io be inadequate in point or elegance. "Fair enough," he agreed with i passable display of good spirit. "Let's j go to it then." He approached the set iipon which two cameras stood trained at close range, with KMeg lights fo cused "Now, Miss Lee, I'll just line ln what I want of you this scene." The set was a simple angle, where two wajls met ln an apartment hall-J way, 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 j Involving Lucinda and her two leading lead-ing men, tho heavy father and the Juvenile, his son, both of whom were understood to be in love with Nelly. Here, in his bachelor apartment, j Nelly was to call at midnight on the father, to beg him to Intervene with the titular villain and save her way i yard brother from imprisonment The madly infatuated father was to propose marriage, and Nelly was to accept him, momentarily carried off1 her feet by the sincerity of his pas alon 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 wa I o conduct Nelly to the private hall way, understanding lhat she was to slip away by the back door Instead Of doing so. Nelly was to linger and overhear the quarrel be-i be-i w een father and son, in the course of which it was to transpire that the for mer had once offered To wager that the latter could make the girl his mistress mis-tress Wlth.li) 8 S'ven period ol time ' Whereupon, In revulsion Ol feeling Nelly was to conlront the two, and while confessing she had planned de liberate)' to marry either one or the other of them for ins money, assert herself to be too good to be the wife of either. Noln,, proceeded now to act out In his own person tho business which he ! conceived to bo In rharacter for a girl of Nelly's quality in circumstances so contrived as to make voluntary eaves ! dropping on her part seem 1 OnStruo ' lively defensible And Lucinda looked on With earnest attention and puck "Hell' Give a reason. Why's it funny?" lered brows, eager to catch every hint ! that would help her become a better actress. Her distrust of Nolan ex-j I tended only to his abilities as a con ! tractive builder of story-telling pic t ' lures and a iudsre of nlctonal values I For the very considerable amount of raw power as a pantomine which he j Indubitably possessed, she had much ' respect. This enthusiasm r&3 runngln away 1 with him now, he was building the I solo scene which Lucinda was to play on lines of broad emotional melo 'drama widely inconsistent with ihe 'situation Forgetting that, while the conversation assumed to be going on beyond the door was one well cal-I cal-I ciliated to annoy and disgust her I whom it concerned. Its revelations ; were after all hardly of a character to break her heart. Nolan was as Nelly, ranting and raving ln the angle, like one gone hajf-mad with shock and I grief. Yet such was the lire he Infused Into the performance that for the time 'being he truly succeeded in perverting Luclnda's grasp of the scene. Having j exhausted his repertoire ot emotional ! artifice, he stepped out ol the camera lines, consulting Lucinda with a glance 'and the stereotyped inquiry, "See i what I want, d ear?" she nodded without with-out thinking "You make II most rea1. 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, author-ity, the megaphone which he invarla-j invarla-j bly used while directing, though he had as much need of it now as the cameras had ol telescopit lenses "Now, dear," he blared through this , instrument "go to It and show us all ! you've got. Don't be afraid of letting i yourself go Remember, 'his Is your I big scene, biggest you've got ln this story, your one grand little chance to put it over that you're a sure-I sure-I enough actress Now you put your , ear to the crack in the door and hear iyour name, tiive a big start and look horrified. You never dreamed men ! could talk about women like that, you I know. Show us horror, dear, and 'make It strong. ou can't ruake It too strong. Remember vou're just reallz-i ! i,,g the man you love is such a rotten cad he couldjnake a bet about your virtue II J'isi makes you feel alck j all over "Great snakes! What's that for? hat's the matter?" Tor of s SUdtfen Lucinda laughed outright) auddenls the heartrending tremolo "f Nolan's voice as he detail ed the awftll offense Richards had committed against Nelly ln the play tickled rresistahly her sense of the absurd; ;nd her laugh followed naturally, natur-ally, Inevitably, uncontrollably I'm sorry. -Mr Nolan" Bhe gasped. Forgive me. I I didn't know I was going to laugh till till till It struck me as so funny!" Her oice ro9e and broke in an Other peal of hysterical merrlmentj her ords became unintelligible, while j Nolan literally ground his teeth. 'What s ruik you as so funny0" he exploded Show me anything funny ' about this scene and T I'll eat my megaphone What's so dam), funny?" "h, I am sorry''" Lucinda was doing do-ing her utmost to sober herself, but still her voice shook and her body rocked with recurrent spasms of idiot-I idiot-I Ic mirth. "You see when you said 1 that- what you said about. Richards being a rotter all at once It struck I me I'm sure I don't know why as I too awfully funny for word1;." "Well, why" Nolan Insisted, all but dancing with rage. "Hell! Give a rea-' rea-' son. Why's it funny?" |