OCR Text |
Show fiSiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM y lnilll, & ObJELV ME j 3 ) By SOPHIE KERR j liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilMlMilffl "But what's it all about? Why do you try all this? Don't tell me you re writing a book." "I might at that, a Worm's-Eye View of New York, maybe." "It sounds grubby enough for a worm." "Listen", my haughty beauty, in spite of the popular adage soap has very little to do with morals and none at all with interest of char-ater, char-ater, I know stacks of people who don't wash and don't shave much, but they're sweU, nevertheless." "Cleanliness combines very well with other attractions, though," Rachel Ra-chel maintained. "I must go on home," she continued, rising, "I'm going to get dinner tonight. Thanks ever so much for the tea. It's been fun." She was surprised that she was speaking the truth, the half hour with Curt Elton had reduced her discontent and pushed her difficulties diffi-culties into an easier perspective. She stopped on the way home and bought mushrooms and bacon, limes and avocadoes, and as Pink fend Oliver especially, you'll think I'm interested in him and I'm not, but you ought to be fair, Pink. He may be a great actor some day just as Genie Moore may be a singer." sing-er." "It's right to help Genie because she works and tries to help herself," her-self," blazed Pink. "Oliver Land's a loafer and a beat!" Rachel got up and put on her hat and coat "I'm going to the movies," mov-ies," she said, blindly. She stopped at the door, remembering that Pink was tired. "Leave the dishes, I'll wash them when I come in," she managed to say. Her mood of discontent and loneliness lone-liness had come back stronger than ever. She was, she thought, an utter ut-ter failure. She sat in the nearest movie theater and watched the roaring comedy without seeing it, while all around her the audience chuckled and chortled. Finally, in the midst of the longest, loudest laughter she rose abruptly and went out. . , - -. im t ,5fBt;- Curt caught her arm as they passed an old - fashioned hotel. "Let's stop In here, then. This place has good mufflns and nice deep-cushioned deep-cushioned chairs and they haye real India tea, which should always be drunk, Miss Vincent, without any fixings no sugar, cream, lemon or whatnot." "Oh, I must have a tiny pinch of whatnot!" said Rachel; and then, "I don't know what makes me so silly. It must be because I'm tired." It was early, there were few people peo-ple in the tearoom. The tea and muffins were delicious and at first Curt and Rachel ate in the pleasant greedy silence of hunger. But at his second muffin Curt paused and spoke. "I'm awfully glad you came out with me. It was kind. I was afraid to ask you, really, for fear you'd turn me down." "Well," said Rachel, reflectively, "it's the first time I've been out with one of Vinco's young men " Curt stopped her with a shout "Hey, lay off, I'm not one of Vinco's Vin-co's young men, God forbid. I'm just a country newspaper boy taking tak-ing a sabbatical year to learn about the big city. And Louie Vinco, the good-hearted guy, throws a piece of easy money in my way as often as he can, because he worries about my finances. I'm not really hard up, but Louis thinks anything less than a plush suite and a private bath with valet attached is squalor. Needless to say, Louis didn't get those ideas in our native village." "If you don't like being a model and don't need the money, why do you do it?" asked Rachel. "But I just told you I'm a newspaper news-paper man and a comparative stranger in town. I want to know people, all kinds of people, and I 5 S'rsis Y Hose her summer home 'A parine ' . r ln France with a ' B."hel. twenty and :fdK . she U her about her real Si ;f ' lt3 ! n unselfish, understand-3 understand-3 S,e task difficult. Rachel her .1 mother was beautiful "A old Elinor Malloy, de- $ 1!'e3k;; vouns husband, before 6 b!'ir He was killed ln the ?fi VS K desperate financial straits. $ ?d to Rachel's adoption ' -;!t,id ne whose own baby had : t bL subsequently had married & a Shy New York bust- i 3:C - L had a son. To soften the 1 J "inn. omiU telling her 'fi -Jl Sher had been callous and W loes fishing with Bob 1 3. local boy who runs a library J carving. She refuses his ,tav in Rockboro and marry w. eoing to New York to flo lnne8 decides that it is ;il r Rachel to learn more self--! L Rachel makes arrange-"3New arrange-"3New York with "Pink," scu.rl absorbed ln her 3 eaves provision for Rachel's Sf :' case of need and leaves for Rachel, bent on seeing her real "tSs up Elinor Cayne's num-il num-il '-lic e learns the Caynes are not '! : Mown Pink akes Rachel t0 dlnn,er ill ::T-"and Rhoda Steele's where she rl :' ' ouver Land, a shabby genteel S man out of work who suggests , .4 applv for a job as a photog-:oil photog-:oil :;.vs model for advertising illustrate- :".'nearees to introduce her to the v.! :;; (i an agency. Rachel is not entirely T with Pink Matthews, Her desire 8, : Elinor Cayne increases. Through :'v Land she meets Louis Vinco, is it i'ii'as a photographer's model and i ""eeds on her first assignment posing a'' failure advertising. Oliver makes (7; her indebtedness to him. CHAPTER V Continued i -6-Jachel knew better. Oliver hung JfC ;::ad because she liked him and liked her, very much; yet it -.a not as simple as that, Oliver 7 i not a simple person. He might jrher-very much but he might ;io be willing to take that commis- though he never admitted it 1 ::i;ght Rachel didn't feel that I :;; could offer money to him; if a did and he took it, it would r snge everything. Men shouldn't ie money from women like that. ? 7:en Rachel would wonder what iierence it made, it was all right I- help a friend in trouble; what :- iitrence did it make whether the lad was a man or a girl? But ii nettling always balked her when n is tried to speak to Oliver about 8 ::iey, she didn't quite trust his :at it seemed, though she hated y hrsell for suspecting it, a bit too Li'rionic. J "Everything seems to be going i -Are, nothing happens that rata sense," she thought unhappi- If. "I might as well have stayed t Rockboro with Bob Eddis. I've ae nothing at all about the one ' 'iiag I wanted most, nothing." She pfj J-sed at the clock. She must go nn " !" appointment made for her by ; photographs for an automo-w automo-w :i comPany she would sit, smil- :t gaily, in a long red roadster a young man model beside her ii He wheel, also smiling gaily be- . : (supposedly) with the least rrf 3t of gasoline and the greatest 3ount of ease they were passing J the bigger grander higher-priced n cw !;rsmthe road! It bored Rachel ' think of it. CHAPTER VI C .j1!!4 out not to be a bore at I h The man model who sat beside ;-r in the car was quite different tte usual Vinco brand. Rachel ,'"f she had never seen him be-.f be-.f 'he told her she was mis-;'x mis-;'x "I was there the first day CltS ;'"me,"hesaid, "I've been hop-leliX hop-leliX - j you aSain. but I'm not xM 'Ty Sten- My name's Curt W' r1 mow yours, you're Miss & it? iT" her a uttle 01 Bob lelli :.;( ; was so offhand, yet per- Jc " his look at her. He didn't iteet like a modeli he wasnt slick) ,e2 collegiate, he wasn't waa iaie sne naa dinner almost ready when the other came in. "Oh good!" exclaimed Pink. "I'm so glad we're going to have something here instead of going out. I'm so tired I'm sunk. What elegant food!" Just as they sat down to table there was a ring at their bell and a florist's box came for Rachel. She opened it to find snapdragon and African daisies, all pale rose and orange and yellow, with "a card saying "You look like these, not like Marlene," but no name was signed. So she had to tell Pink about Curt Elton and Pink said he seemed a good scout. "And a lot better than that so-and-so Oliver Land, If you ask me," she added. "There's nothing the matter with Oliver except that he can't get a job," said Rachel, annoyed by Pink's cocksureness. "Since when have you got a down on people because of that?" "This Elton lad seems to have no difficulty in finding jobs," replied re-plied Pink, calmly. "That's different, he's quite another an-other type. Everyone's not so smart and up and coming as you are, Pink. We'fe not all made alike." "And thank heaven for that. But I do like a man to earn his own living and not cadge it." Rachel had a grievance she had not aired. It would now make a reprisal. "I don't criticize your friends, Pink. Not that I think so much of them there's that girl across the hall, she's been in here half a dozen times and always to borrow something, some-thing, carfare or a hat or an evening eve-ning dress " "Genie Moore is going to be a great singer some day and she's only got money enough to pay for her living and her lessons and I'm glad to help her along. She works like a horse and she's got to have decent clothes when she gets a chance to sing at a private house. I suppose you're still peeved because I loaned her your white evening At the side of the theater foyer a telephone caught her eye. With sudden resolution she went in and dialed a number she knew by heart: R-E-4 5674, and as she heard the click of the cbnnection and the far muffled ringing of the bell her heart began to swell and hammer painfully. pain-fully. A man's voice answered, a servant: "Yes, this is Mr. Peter Cayne's apartment . . . You wish to speak to Mrs. Cayne . . . What i3 the name, please, I will see if Mrs. Cayne Is at home " Rachel stammered painfully: "I I don't want to give my name please tell Mrs. Cayne it's it's someone she knew a long time ago-" The voice answered as if by rote: "What is the name, please, I will see if Mrs. Cayne is at home " "Ask her please to speak to me she used to to know me " begged Rachel. There was a pause, and then, "Mtfs. Cayne will speak to no one who does not give a name," and the receiver was hung up. The shock of the rebuff cleared up a little of Rachel's disordered emotions. She walked home slowly, slow-ly, thinking that she had been incredibly in-credibly absurd. When she got back to the apartment apart-ment Pink had washed the dishes whether as a rebuke or a peace gesture, Rachel did not know and shut herself in her room. As she dashed around trying to dress and make coffee at the same time, the next morning, Rachel realized that Pink was still angry. She had not fixed any orange juice for Rachel or even cut the extra slice of bread ready for toasting, which the first one up usually left to help the later riser on her way. And yet Pink knew Vinco's stiffness about punctuality. Rachel hurried and burnt her fingers and cracked a glass and spilled the cream in the tiny refrigerator. At last she was ready but she had to take a taxi to the office, which was an extrava- f - 1 fl III ' y& iS -i "But What's It All About?" want to do all kinds of things. This is my year off. When it's over I'm going back home and edit the paper pa-per my father edited." His face clouded for an instant, but he went on: "I'll have a lot of experience and a lot of pictures in my mind to keep forever. Like you, sitting there looking like, yes, you do like Marlene Dietrich in 'Blue Angel.' " "All legs and wispy ostrich feathers! feath-ers! Thanks! I can only hope you mean it kindly." "Most girls would have screamed with joy." "Then you've tried it before, that line?" "It's my test. I say to a girl, 'You look like Marlene Dietrich in "Blue Angel" ' and watch how she reacts. Then I rate her, the count ranging from one-half of one per cent to ten." "And what does the rating prove, , Mr. Einstein?" dress. I wouldn't have done it if she could have worn mine. I had it cleaned for you, didn't I?" "This doesn't need to be a brawl," said Rachel. "I certainly didn't like your lending my white evening dress without telling me, but" "It was a chance for her to sing as a substitute and I didn't have time to do anything else. I should think you'd want to help another girl along. Look here, I'll buy you another evening dress and you can give me the white one and I'll give it to Genie Moore." "Certainly not," said Rachel, stiffly. She didn't want to quarrel with Pink. She had come home feeling better than in weeks, the flowers had added to her peace of mind but now somehow she and Pink were fighting. Over what! Over Oliver Land. She went on after a minute: "I don't want to de- gance. But when she came in, feeling feel-ing bothered and fussed, there was Curt Elton talking to Mr. Vinco and his smile and greeting made her feel better. "Oh, those flowers!" she said. "They were so lovely. I can't tell you" "Never mind trying. Listen, I've had good news for me. All those auto pictures have to be made over, the photographer, poor nut, used the wrong plates or the wrong lens or something. I'm going to pin a medal on him." "It's true, Miss Vincent," said Vinco. "You have to go back there as soon as you're through with one other appointment. You've got to model an evening wrap for a fur catalogue, but that's all." Miss Dean was writing down the first appointment on a card and while she did it Rachel heard Vinco going on with his talk to Curt (TO BE CONTINUED) & Ti - self-conscious. He :;vT?ni tather gating, with 'ou i::.! eyes humorous intelli- 4v'.deSn,t Seem your Same it '.-. jn" s,aid Rachel, as he opened 1 , fr Mr for her. enl?! r But Louis Vinco comes "fp- ;'M a ,me town in 0hi and to-j : n fl schoo! wilh y broth- & "'-r I m If nything comes alng i: Lm,ght PMibly be used, he -4- me- He's a good scout, . fl -Lfl f0t awhile aftcr this, i;;P 1 eC'i0ns' Rachel tilted V C lnd Smiled her smiles. , vl a2 , ePt his ha"ds on the IS"1 ''nlv gn6d ahead Intently yet ! 'Wt'n 8 good driver a- '' Clh s,pendins- P'1' CIEltnn 0ng ordeal was over " "i&ai,ed "Me Rachel took 1 ;,e outfitsent for the pic. you Ther strt clothes. N of te ewhere and have ' y UV lth me?-r a cock- H:1 ui- rm hgry J ';''W Wh0 never "I for m gths Perfect Agger?" & a.!or T eat and I'd love otm dead." "It doesn't prove anytning. trouble is, I try to do this modern young man patter and it never works out, the girl doesn't give the right answers." "Now that's all settled," said Rachel, Ra-chel, "suppose we skip it and talk sense. How long have you been here?" "Since the first of June. I have a room in the Caledonia where O. Henry used to live. I get a new job every two weeks or so and between be-tween times I work for Vinco. It's all against his principles to take me on in this odd way, but he's intent on improving me and, do you know, sometimes I fear he's succeeding. 1 bought one of those deep blue shirts the other day from a swell haberdasher. haber-dasher. I'm slipping." (( "Tell me about your jobs begged Rachel, "and don't take that last muffin, it belongs to me. "I've driven a taxi, been a doorman door-man for a chop suey joint, sold ladies' hosiery from door to door and delivered hats for a Fifth avenue ave-nue milliner so far. Hows that. I'd like to get a job as a waiter but there's a stiff union. I m ay do some amateur window wash.n, or janitor work, and I want awfully to be an usher at Madison Square Garden." |