, 1923-04-01

from w. J. Locke's novel Septlmus.
Hobby had wanted to play the
simple Septimus. Mem. who had
read no novels at all TIL recently.
was horribly iltiterate in famous
names. But she was ~wondrously
stirred by his story as Hobby told 1t:
septimus loved a girl who mere
ly hkekd him. She loved another
man-ldve1 him too we'll" as the
curious saying II. He betrayed" her.
as another rio saying il. and
whe he had gone beyond her reach
she found thab she was to become a
mother-sti!l using the stock phrases.
Hobby noted that Mem was all n
SILVER over the situation. He never
dreamed that It had been her own.
He thought that he had frightened
her prudery and he tried to soften
his phrases stiIl more.
But she was uncontroilably agitated
when he went or with the plot and
told how Septimus. for all his limo
ence, discovered the cause OF the
girls dismay-and. knowing all, Of
fered to marry her so that her child
might have a name. so that the girl
he ido,ized might not be driven to
desperation.
Are there men like that.' Mem
Easped.
Hobby locked at her and interpreted
her question as a cynlcism.
"oh, yes" he answered. earnestly.
There must be lots of men Ike that.
II I loved a girl and found her in
such a plight, I think I would
hope I would-offer to help her
through it. It wouldn't be much OF
a love that would die at such a sit
uat!on. would IT," D.
Mem fell to thinking. A ferocious
temptation assailed her to confess to
Tom Hobby that she had been such n
girl herself. N had never dreamed
that such a man existed.
Perhaps when Tom Hobby had
courted her a little there in Palm
canyon. If she had not rebuffed and
despiscd him. but had told him the
truth. he might have offered her his
famous name; they might have been
married and she might now be sitting
with him in their own home with a
living child at her quick breast. The
vision shock her like a blast Of hot
desert wind. Her baby had never
seen the world. She had never Eeen
It's face. Where had its soul WAITED
and whittier had it returned? Had it
Joined Its father in that strange over
grave realm?
For a few mad moments Mem tonr-
ed to be a wife and mother so In
Eanely that she could hardly check
the cry of protes at the denial. She
forgot her brave independence oil the
carly morning, her pride in her ar
ustic self-sufficiency. She wanted to
be an Cushioned woman" to DO
fed by her husband and to feed his
children.
But while the tempest was raging
inside her soul she was 30 remote
from her body that her face had not
disclosed her thoughts at all.
What Tom Hobby saw was a dreau
smile, which he misread as mild dis
dain for such n romantic nonsense.
When she spoke at last sho mere
y sked:
} And why didn't you play Sept
l mus on the screen. as you say you
) WOULD have done in real Ife?'
The censorsr' he snaried. They've
got everybody frightened TO death. In
Pe~nnsylvanLa and other states you
can't even refer to approaching ma
amy Inv p"IOuuCtE3 uOnL WINK
to make pictures with n big market
cut off In advance. so we've got TO
DO more Drudis than n Sunday-schcnI
library.
'The censors seem to feel that fe
they keep the motIon-p picture audi
ences from eve learning tina babies
arc born OF their mothers a greet
blow Will be struck for morality. The
books and magazines and spape
can talk of twilight sleep and birth
control and everything. but the poor
movies can't even how a young wife
sewing on baby clothes.
but let's not talk OF censorship. I
froth at the o every time I think
OF the shame md the tyranny and
the aslninity OF it. The story OF Sep
timus would have boen beautiful. 1t
is as clean as tho parable In tho
Bible o the woman taken In adui-
tory. and that's given to little girls
to reed and IT'S preached in ali the
pulpits. Blu on the screen Il would
Immediately send AL tho audience out
to get into trouble. Anyway, I can't
do the story and we've had TO cook
up this mess of denatured rallsm W.
arc going to do. But Lord how L
should have loved to play Sepdmus
and have you play the pitiful little
girl I would have married. In tho
story h married Seotimus and came
to love hin so dearly that when sho
met the ether man she hated him."
He fell into a silent while and Mem
dreamed tremendous dreams. vain
and already frustrated but beautiful
with all the elegy of the might-have-
been.
People make love unconsciously at
times md in tho truest courtships
never a word Is spoken. Two souls
travel mystic gardens together and
come to deep UNDERSTANDINGS without
the exchange OF a syllabled thought
Mem was so woSed by Hobby. The
more ~brooding upon him as a lover.
a husband. o protector who would
once have solved on ugly problem
into beauty, presented him TO Mem
In a light OF compelling warmth.
She tried TO shake or the spell. but
from now on there was an Aureole OF
chivalrous self-saorifice about Tom