Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-15
CHAPTER Y
An Invitation

CHAPTER
An Invitation
~ ORIA was leaving the set one morn
1 ing shortly after Manning had given
- her the small part Of the beggar girl
| in the new Templeton picture when she
came face to face with the great Temple
ton himself. Rolf had been amused at
Gloras spectacular entry into the movies;
in way he admired the girls nerve, and
he looked at her somewhat curiously, as
something fresh and palatable to his al
ready jaded appetite
He bowed with easy familiarity, and
Gloria returned his greeting But there
was look in her greenish eyes an almost
mocking flicker of amusement very differ
ent from the look Rolf ordinarily glimpsed
in the eyes of woman. In sense it
flicked him on the raw and made him re-
member Gloria afterward.
He determined to become acquainted
with the girl OF course, it wasn't GUS
tomary to bow from his great and exalted
height to bother with extra, but there
was something piquant about her, and he
felt that talk with her might be amusing
And so one day Gloria received a note
written on heavily embossed paper, invit-
ing her to a party at Rolls great stucco
palace.
The old Gloria, the Gloria who had
come to Hollywood filled with dreams,
might have laughed at the invitation, but
the new Gloria had adopted a new policy.
The new Gloria skeptical and bitter.
She had made up her mind to cultivate the
people who might help her in her career,
and it was with that thought in mind that
she accepted the invitation, and on the
night in question put on dinner dress
and took a taxi to the snowy mansion
Beverly boulevard
She was received by a Japanese butler
and taken upstairs to a large bedroom,
where she left her cloak Gloria never
1t was perfect, far too perfect. 1t was
stamped irreyocably by the too careful
hand of the interior decorator.
The bed of pale gray enamel had
canopy of mauve taffeta and gold lace
Mauve taffeta curtains over pale pink net
hung at the windows The dressing table,
with it's heavy plate-glass top over a filet
scarf guiltless of ornaments, the chairs
were delicate and spindly, and even the
chaise Tongue at the foot of the bed seemed
too perfect for use, for its pillows of pastel
silks looked as if no head had ever pressed
against them.
Downstairs it was the same. The luxuri-
BUSINESS of the place smothering The
japanese servants fitting silently about
made Gloria feel as if she were living on
motion-picture set. This not home.
great deal of money had been spent on
the furnishings, but the rooms were over
ornate, entirely without personality.
Gloria was introduced to nearly every one
or importance IN the film colony. She her
self was the only unimportant person pres
emit, and it amused Templeton to see how ut
terly composed she was. 1t was as if she
held herself aloof from the entire assemblage,
even Rolf himself, nor did she enter into the
gay abandon and reckless hilarity of the eve
ming. Every one was drinking, but Gloria
refused the bubbling punch when the Japa-
nese servant paused at her side. She wanted
to be clear-headed and to observe everything
that was going on about her, and yet she was
clever enough not to anita gonize the others
by being superior.
Rolf had planned to carry her off to the
looked for her she was gone. Rolf was
angry and for the first time in his life some
what uncomfortable at the memory of GER
tain salient points of his party. Betty Mer-
rick had had too much punch, as had many
others in the crowd, only Betty showed it
more plainly. There had been a wild chase
through the grounds, with the girls pretend
ing they were nymphs. 1t angered Rolf that
she should remember these things, as if for
the first time viewing them through the eyes
Of an outsider. But next day he received
little note from Gloria apologizing for her
abrupt leave-taking and thanking him for his
hospitality
cts so much better to slip quietly away"
she wrote in her scrawling handwriting
| THAT was why 1 didn't seek you out to say
goodnight"
Her note had all the intangible remoteness
of her personality, and Rolf was more than
ever determined to know her.