, 1923-04-22

Mem felt divinely foolish as the
wishbone Of such a rivalry. But
when Tom Hobby drifted back. as al
ways. and Ned Ling came up TO
glorlfy her with attentions. both of
them felt that she was cut off from
them by some transparent but I'M
passable cloud.
CHAPTER Nv
Mem found It n marvellous thing 10
have geniuses begging for the pri-
vileFe of writing the words to the
music of her beauty. ubrettos for her
timber personality.
She had met so few authors, and
those few so briefly that she stnl
thought OF them as miracle workers
of a peculiar mystery. creators who
spun out little universes at their
own sweet will.
The hack continuity writer's she
had encountered had not confirmed
this quaint theory. and she soon
learned that most of them. somewhat
like the dwellers on a certain famous
island, earned a ~precarious existence
by stealing one another's plots.
The novellsts she had read but not
seen were stnl cloudy beings who
dropped tablets from their private
sinais. She felt that II she were
even lucky enough to touch the hem
Of the garment of one of them she
would ask him:
How on earth do you ever think
OF your plots?'
In good time she would learn to
know some Of the most famous OF
the men and women who plowed with
a pen and were as much hitched TO
II as II to them. And SHE would fin
them also poor, narrowed plain PEG
ple. wondering what life IL all about
and why their sawcust dolls would
not behave like humanity. c OF
them had his or her favorite critics
who made life n burden and every
new work a target.
Still. fer a time. IL was drinkins
the milk OF paradise and feeding on
h~onevdew to find herself inspiring
STRANGERS with a cesire to build stor'
les as airplanes and char1ots for her
to ride and drive to glory. II was
warming TO hav strange persons
writing in from nowhere and every
where imploring her to touch their
manuscripts and with her iife,giving
radiance, make them walk and III
their authors out OF their bells OF
oblivion.
When the compliment became n
commonplace, Il became n bore a
nuisance, a pest. an outrage An
amazing number Of strangers wrote
nor that their life stories would make
nor rich and famous. and were far
mora dramatic than the works OF
Griffith, lean Mcpherson John En-
erson Anita Loos. Marion FAIRFAX
June Mathis. Thompson .
G. Hawks, Charles Kenyon Monte
Kattorjohn, and the other photopiay-
wrights.
she answered such letters as she
could by hand and labored TO AVOID
-one,ltionu of phrase. Then she set
bor mother to work to copying out
forms and finally made her mother
s,en them with her best imitation OF
Mems name.
And now I'm a foreerr' gasped
Mrs. steddon. What next9"
By and by both Of them were so
NJ answering letters from every kino
ovorvyorked with the increasing TASK
N person, ranging from little girls
Of eight to elderly Japanese gente
men. and offering everything from a
PRAYER for a photograph to an op-
p~ortunity to pay off a MORTGAGE that
Mem began to hate and revile her
annoyers.
Here and there was a letter OF
gracious charm, cry from some sore
beset soul, n word of rewnrding graf,
itude from some one who felt a dent
to her art, a glimpse OF some wretch
with a cancer OF ambition nawlns
n hapless soul. Young girls. uniuek'
lly married and dwelling on farms FAR
distant from Los Angeles. described
the colo Of their hair and eyes and
the compliments they had a from
their neighbors and begged to De
brought 70 Los Angeles that they
might trade their messes OF pottase
for their birthrights of wealth and
They opened their
70 Los Angeles as to the city Of de-
llveranoe-whieh it had been TO a
multitude.
Continued next Sunday