Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-27
"I do. Now tell me"

"T do. Now tell me-"
| He studied her for some moments.
Then he told her of his visit to the
headquarters of the drug ring. He
withheld nothing. She patted his head
and kissed him absently.
You're dear kid" she said. But
you must go now. Tomorrow night
we open in your play-and you must
rest. I. too"
THE HOUR of Louis Benet's fears
and hopes came galloping and
frightened him as badly as
though a team of runaway horses
were coming down upon him. This
together with his lack of talent
worked havoc with the poor actor.
In scenes meant to thrill the
audience he reused only gales of de
risive laughter. Under the waves of
derision went also Nine. Leah. When
the final curtain went down, she ran
off to her apartment, giving Louis only
a savage look and a muttered oath in
Italian.
The poor fellow. Mortified at his
failure, never needed the consolation
of love so badly in his life. He
knocked and knocked at her door
until she flung it open furiously.
| w Ldt LuC dGtli dO YOU "dIlts
she rasped. Get out of here orr I'll
have the police come and throw you
out of the theater, you-!" Scabrous
| insults poured from her carmined lips
and she tried to slam the door shut.
But Louis quietly put his foot in
side. 81 am coming in," he said. II
want to talk to YOU
Actually he forced himself in,
| turned the key in the door, put it in
his pocket and with strange light
in his eyes confronted her.
"Sit down, Leah" he said softly.
| And somehow she had to obey. "Sit
down and tell me. Don't you really
love me?''
She sat down on divan, threw
her head back and laughed until the
tears came to her eyes.
II love you? You? Why. you poor
joke! Only you're too stupid to recog-
niZe a joke on yourself. /, Leah
| Carbutti, owner of the theater and
everything in it, love you? A poor
worm / kept only because it cost so
little to keep you? No. my great
| artist. l do not love you. I never
can look at you without my lips curl
ing with contempt.
| And / would not have kept up
this joke, but for Monsieur X of the
service de surete, who wanted to
worm out Of you information about
the cocaine ring! 1t was he who
proposed this joke. But now / am
tired Of it and of you. Get out of
here"'
Louis had turned red and white by
| turns. Then he sank to a chair. His
! head was bowed. His shoulders be
| gan TO shake. But soon to Nine
| Carbuttfs establishment she saw that
he was shaking with laughter. Soon,
too, he began to roar, tears streaming
from his eyes, his words coming in
gasps.
"A joke! Why, of course. a joke!
| The best joke / ever heard of, the
greatest joke / ever experienced!
Help me laugh, Leah. or--or / diew
For he was laughing at the great
est joke in the world--life to those
who no longer care for It,
1t took some time before he man.
aged to control himself sufficiently to
obey her furious order for him TO get
out of her sight forever. He went,
and she locked the door on him. She
saw him still shaking with laughter.
1t came out months later that next
morning he read two items in a news
paper which interested him tremend-
ously. One was short but biting re
view of his ridiculous playing of
the hero in the new piece at Nine.
Carbutti's theater, joke worth going
| to see, the critic said.
The other item, a front-page affair,
| told Of the sensational arrest and
| rounding up of the chiefs of the drug
! ring, Of the raid on the office Of a
| hitherto respectable bank, of the fight
| that took place there, in which one of
| the drug gang was killed, and two
| gangsters and two policemen were
| wounded.
| Three days later another sensa
ton appeared on the front pages.
Nine. Carbutti had been murdered.