The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-05-29


I'm sorry. 1 only wanted you to
| understand why felt had to warn
you against Nelly. She's unfor-
| tunate, God knows, but she's dan
gerous, 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!"
1T isn't California, it isn't Holly
wood, it's human nature"
XVII.
Lucinda dated from that Satur-
day the dawn of a fortnight when
everything went wrong for her
with such regularity that, in the
end, the burden of it's crosses grew
too sore. the woman had been some
thing more than merely mortal
whose stores of fortitude and for
bearance had not run low.
Naturally she blamed Bel
| lamy
But one day Lucinda devoted
painful hours to totaling up her
/ bank accounts, 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
] checks 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 o.
| 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 I'M
| finished.
! 1t was now necessary to write
| Willis and ask him to find her more
money.
But her only course was to con-
| suit Lontaine in the faint hope that
| out of the sum entrusted to him
| there might be enough left in the
| company's treasury to see itthrOugh
the present production. And this
| she hesitated to do because of an
intuitiye feeling that he would take
| this as directly challenging his
competency. Lontaine was a SEN
| sitive soul However, he spared
her the pain, for the next time they
met he blandly advised Lucinda
that the company could do with an
other twenty thousand as soon as
| she could find time to draw the
| check; and on learning that it
/ would have to wait a few days, or
until she could hear from Willis,
| he seemed considerably discounte-
nanced, or else fancy misled her.
The day when Lucinda broke
with Barry. Nolan began auspic-
| iously enough with a night-letter
from Hartford 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; 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 again.
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 SHE'D back
like a skittish cob from the tele-
gram which she submitted to his
| inspection, and was not much tran
| quilted by the check which, at the
same time, she gave him for the
replenishment of the COmpany'S
! Golfers. And in her most amiable
ten per she hurried from his Of
| fee to her dressing room, into the
newest, prettiest and most becom-
ing dance frock she had ever own
ed, 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.
AS Lucinda drew near, Nolan
| hoisted himself out of the basket
chair in which he had been loung-
| ing, with something more than a
suggestion of limbs cramped by pro-
| longed inactivity, and bowed polite
| Iy, too politely.
Sorry if I've kept you waiting,
Mr.. Nolan, but l had some business
with Mr.. Lontaine we couldn't put
| off"
| = mo matter at all, Miss Lee,
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 with
out comment. She stopped, turned
sauarely to face Nolan, with 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 IN
derstood, suppose We try to make
up for the time I've wasted, If pos
sible, by getting to work a.
once
Nolan's eyes snapped, but the
only retort that occurred to his
mind as at all appropriate he felt
instinctively to be inadequate in
point of elegance.
Fair enough" he agreed with a