New Britain herald., 1927-02-12
$H0LLYW00D GIRly y;$::; ;;:;::;; $; :;:;:
 E

| "She must have lost her mind, Mrs. Mangan," she said solemnly. She's been awfully blue and melancholy ever since she was 1 burned that time. She knew she l couldn't go back 10 the pictures l for a long time, and it made her awfully unhappy She hated man. ! icuring-' She sighed. remember ing how Stella had told her only q few days before how empty life seemed away from the studios.
 T suppose she was trying to tell me how empty everything seemed to her" she went on think ing. T suppose shes been getting ready to do away with herself for days-trying to nerve herself for it." How lonely people were, really. keeping their thoughts to themselves even when they tried 10 tell them to other people, Every lody was like that, really. Living in a lonely little world, silently asking for sympathy. and under standing, and hardly ever get ting it.
 At half past one Mrs. Mangan locked up the house, and she and Robbie went upstairs 10 bed.
 That is, Mrs. Mangan went to Iceland, let us hope. to sleep. Poor woman. she needed sleep. She felt, she said. as if she'd been drawn through a llnot-ho back wards,
 But Robbie was further from sleep than she ever had been in her life.
 She undressed and got into bed. She tried 10 go to sleep. But she couldn't forget Stclla's face, and yhc couldn't stop thinking about the letter that was hidden under the rug. over by the door. What was in that letter" What had Stella had 10 say to Gus Mac Cloud. during the last minutes of her lonely unhappy life? Would that letter tell why sine had not cared 10 live any longer? And had Gus anything to do with it"
 The questions went around and around in Boobies brain, like num- hers in roulette wheel - dizzily. swiftly, but coming again and again.
 Finally she could stand it no longer. She was the soul of honor, but She was also woman. And women have been madly curi- ous ever since the time Pandora opened the alabaster box.
 She switched on the light in her room. and flung back the rug. Sit ting on her little bare heels she read the letter that Stella had written 10 Gus. The letter that made a good many things perfectly clear to her.
 CHAPTER NXXVI
 The letter was not the hySteri- cal scrawl that Robbie had ex- pected to see. It was not the kind of letter anyone would expect suicide to sit down and write.
 Stella had used an indelble pen cil, and here and there purple mark showed where tear had fallen on the paper and blurred the writing.
 Dear Gus" she had written. Maybe you'll tear up this letter the way you've torn up most Of the others I've written to you in the last three years. Maybe not Any way. I'll be where I won't know or care this time. That's something.
 Dear, don't think I blame you for not liking me any moro. know you cant help it. You just got over it--ard l didn't It seems to me there hasn't been a minute for the last six years when haven't thought of you, Gus.
 Don't get t into your head that I'm getting rid of myself because you've stopped caring about me. That's only part of it. The thing that's really got 10 me is my fail ure in the pictures. I've been slipping for a long time-and now that I'm burned. l just know I'll never get anywhere in them. I'm just giving up. l don't see any thing ahead of me but the kind of work l don't lille-and it's New Years eve and everybody's out having q good time. Everybody but me, Gus.
 Tt made me feel pretty low a while ago to see this Robbie girl getting herself all dolled up to go up to your house. I watched you start away with her in your car, and l felt pretty rotten, let me tell you.
 'But that isn't why I'm going to take this poison that l bought to- night. I've been trying to screw lp my couray- tO do if for y-pakc