, 1923-04-15
BY RUPERT HUGHES

will her a picture and autograph
it for me-"
who is your secretary girl?"
Hobby slid a glance Of eager query
under his eyelids. He hoped that
there was a tinge Of jealousy in her
heart. That would be VASTLY en-
~ccuraging. But her eyes revealed
contempt only, for men and the par
asitesses that haunt them.
NO, he's a man." said Tom. dole
DIFFERENTIATION of press agent.
valet, dresser nj secretary"
Tho next letter had a Philippine
Islands postmark. 1t was from a
man in Cuba. 1t said:
DEAR FRIEND Kindly
please e me n copy of your
sympathy portrait. Hoping to
receive it your benevolent reply
Many thanks for my best
wishes
He e a few moro. They repre-.
scented q cosmic clientele. But he
saw that they were boring Mem and
put them back into his pocket.
Brave man." she said. open
your mall in the presence OF the
woman you-you-"
Il love and expect t marry" he
said, gripping her hand. 1t was a
grip OF authority. 1t was Cupid the
constable, 30 different from The path
etic clutch Of Ned Ling the clown
child.
Just now It was Mems humor to
control somebody. She did not OPP
pose Holby's clutch or resent 1t. She
followed the most loathsome and ex-
asperating OF all policies, nonresis-
lance.
You're not going to marry me.
Tommy" she said. Il don't want
"Solmon's wives?'
Yes. You're welded already to
an army Of fans, Half the women in
the United States seem to claim you
as their spiritual bridegroom. ia
as soon marry a telephone booth or
n census report. You make Brig.
ham Young look like a confirmed
bachelor; he had only forty wives
or so. You have a million.
They make me tired"
Maybe, but what wouldn't they
60 TO me? I'd get poisoned candy or
Internal mnchlnes in the mail. I'd
never dare marry you. It would be
committing suicide"
She was not altogether without
seriousness; she felt a primevai jeal
ously, a primeval sense of monopoly,
She writhed at the thought of pos
sess'ng only a minute fraction OF n
artistic admiration. as the medlaeval
universal husband a syndicate con.
sort whose portrait on n Thousand
bureaus inspired numberless strange
girls and spinstres set up images o.
women with NJ ardor they called
saints and made violent love to then
under the name of religion. clothing
what they interpreted as heavenly
%yearnings.
Mem turned green ut the though,
of n husband whose real lips she mus
share with actresses on the scene an,
whose pictured lips would be kisse,
good night all around the world.
ID was a monstrous. fantastic
Jealousy. but It's foundation wa
real, She shuddered at the prospect
OF being embraced by n real hus
band whose virility thrilled n multi
tude of anonymous maenads. If al
these idiots wrote, how many mus
there be who w%orshiped in silence?
But she did not expires his revul
sion to Tom Hobby. She did not real
ly feel enough cesire for him JUS
now to be Jealous. except with @
prophetic remoteness. Just now she
was curious about another typ o.
soul, about a comic sprite.
Che foft tt,.a that ~ 1rov,.~ -1a
Ned Lang love letters or set him VI
as an icon on a bureau. Ned Ling'i
pictures were not sitting around tn,
s'olbe. setting fool girls aglow. foi
Ned Ling's published portraits wer,
always grotesque. He was photo
graphed with n c%aricutured face o.
white chalk and n charcoal grimace
with a nosensical hat and collar be
coming alomst as familiar now al
Charlie Chap!in's neat slovenliness
and his m~ustaches, and his splay
foot shoes.
Surely Ned Ling was free from tn,
amorous bombardment of anonymous
love letters. A oma might stant
n chance of keeping his heart for he
very self. and It would be Cheerful
to have ones own comedian on thu
hearth.
Thinking these things. Mem said
"I'd be Jealous OF your public. Tom
It is a big M and you've got TO b,
true to 1t. I suppose It's because Nv,
got non OF my own. I've hardly
had n letter yet"
That's because YOU first pictur,
Is only being released now. Jus
waiti You'll DO showed UNDER
"And would you like It II I READ
you a letter from some man in Okla
hona who had my picture on his
bureau and kissed mo every might
good night7"
mo"
Would you be ~Jealous7"
Yes! I'd want to kill him."
"Reaily7" There was n pleasant
thrill in this-a thrill that will be q
long timo dying out of the femni,
soul. the excitement of stirring VI
battle ardor IN two or more males.
Mem wen on. teasing. yet oxplor
lniy;
And would you kill any mar
who put mo on a shrine nnd worship