Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-06-03
CD11 By Lc1sis tcssyh NAcs

that you may have CONCLUDED you've
had enough"
Enough, Bel?"
"Of both :"
THAT can't be anything but cal
culated impertinence!
Bel made wry face as he stopped
to pick up his motor-coat. "ThiS
conversation is degenerating into a
wrangle in which / have the tradi-
tional chance SNOWFALL has in the
place where motion pictures were
spawned. Mind lending me a hand
Linda? Can't quite manage this
with one arm"
At once angrily and gently Luz
cinda draped the motor-coat over his
shoulders.
Bel continued: Ppm to understand,
then, my wishes mean nothing to
you?"
Lucinda gave little, silent laugh,
and in silence for moment gazed to
Bellamy, her eyes unreadable.
You forget, what / don't, Bel"
Lucinda said slowly, that it was
you who made the mode of life with
which | 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 l
had. And now you'd rob me even of
1t! And one thing more you forgot:
II | should give in to your wishes
and leave Hollywood today, | would
only be doing what you say you
want to prevent, confessing by flight
that my only real interest in my pic
ture work was my greater interest
in Lynn Summerlad. For that rea-
son alone-and not, as you believe,
to spite you've got to and Pm
going to go on to the end of this
present production, at least After
that e.. don't know ;"
Discountenanced, 81 hadn't
thought of that" Bel owned square
ly. "Yvu may be right -. That's
your last word, Linda?"
"My last word to you, Bel
hope"
XXXIV
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.
Then, since the death of the I'M
happy woman had defeated all hope
of lurid court proceeding and rem
dere piquant exploitation of wild
life inside the movie colony" the
case went into quick eclipse.
Lucinda spent the best part of
that day in the projection-room with
linn and Wallace Day, her new di-
rector, sitting in judgment on thirty
six reels of film, the accumulated
sum of Nolan's fumbling with about
two-thirds of a picture.
To the wearinss of those days the
visit of Hartford Willis came as a
welcome interlude.
1t did Lucinda good to hear him
growl and scold about anything as
relatively inconsiderable as the
lunacy of throwing money away -
like rand then refusing to
set the machinery of the law in mo-
ton to apprehend and punish Lon
tame.
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
nepose less Faith in Fanny's loyalty.
She was feeling very sorry for her
self, and very lonely, and when most
in need of friendly companionship-
Fanny was seldom at her call. Fanny
had give up the bungalow and moved
to a residential hotel on the out
skirts of the Wiltshire district, whose
accommodations she claimed were
cheaper than the Hollywood's.
Deep in Lucindas subconscious-
ness an Incidental recollection
turned in its sleep. Somewhere,
sometime, she had heard that Barry
Nolan had a bungalow down Will
shire way. Or hadn't he?
A week from the night of their
.encontre IN Summerlad's bungalow
Bellamy called to tell Lucinda he
was leaving for New York the next
morning. linn would take charge of
his producing interests during his
absence. He couldn't say just how
long that might be. If he could be
of any service to Lucinda in the
east, he would be glad
"Goodby, BEL" she said, with not
unkind decision but decision unmis-
taxable 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
cherries comfort of hotel rooms,
missing poignantly the intimacy of
her home and the sense of security
she had known nowhere else.
And in the morning and morning