Evening star., 1936-07-25
CHAPTER XIV.

TINE Monday following that
hideous night at the hospital
Patsy sailed for Italy. Kitty
i Cavendish hadn't shot Victor.
Patsy knew in her heart that her own
terrified screams had saved his life.
even If they had upset the whole
hospital.
But the humiliating part Of it all
was that no one except DR.. Roger
Tate, the young inferno, believed her
story. The nurse at the table in the
ward said it was q fantastic yarn
born of the strain she had been
through that day.
The corridor superintendent in
sisted 1t was impossible for any one
to pass into the ward without her
seeing them. Patsy had argued, had
cried little, but she could not con-
vince them that she was not obsessed.
1t had helped little when DR.. Tate
had tried to soothe her by saying:
Its altogether possible. Miss War
field. Anything could happen to .
man like Victor Caldwell"
Yet, as she had left the hospital,
DR.. Tate escorting her to the taxi
and telling her he had heard her sing
at the Valance Club and would be
honored If she would grant q poor
medico like him a date Che really
wasn't quite unknown, he had assured
her, because Of the very small incision
he made for an appendectomy he had
won the title of Buttonhole Tate)-
she had known that all the other
members Of the staff Of that hospital
believed in their hearts that she was
either an imaginative, hysterical fool,
a downright liar or the victim Of a
complex that made her want to be-
come the center of q small panic.
And that had made her writhe!
She would, Patsy thought, probably
never know how Kitty Cavendish-got
away that night or why she had
wanted to kill Victor. The hall win
dow opening out on the fire escape
had been up from the sill. She re-
membered that because she had looked
through 1t and had thought that the
two trees on the adjoining grounds
leaned together like silent lovers. That
probably was Kitty's unseen escape.
But as for the motive for the at
tempted murder-Patsy had no idea.
The day before Patsy sailed Court
ney Valance flew in from Hollywood,
very bronzed by the sun of Malibu
Beach, his gray temples spreading In
silver stripes over his dark head. Patsy
went to see him at his office and told
him about Victor, asked him to place
detectives at the hospital to guard
Victor. and when he got well-if he
did-would he give him work at the
Valance Club or, at least, a helping
hand. Valance would have walked
on his ears to Siberia If Patsy had
asked him to, so he agreed. Not,
however, without telling her how dam
gerous it was to become connected
with any man who was involved with
the underworld, even If that man was
not q murderer, gangster or member
Of that shadowy group.
And so it was with a depressed spirit
that Patsy left her native land for two
years of study and concerts on the
continent.
Grandfather, Marcia, Ted, Tippy,
Dmetrief1, Charlotte Fellows, Dr. Cole
Proctor and Courtney Valance all
were at the pier to see her of, laden
with fruit, flowers, books and letters
Of bon voyage.
Two years later she returned with
her family and intimate friends
crowded In the background by the
fanfare Of newspaper men, repre-
sentatives from music magazines, pho
tographers who kept swapping pic
lures. For now she was Miss Patsy
Warneld, the prima donna, who had
brought European galleries to their
feet with shouts of Bis! Bis!" or
"Bravo!'
The brilliant and beautiful young
coloratura, whose Bell Song" from
"Lakme" would be remembered as
long as the minked ladies and top
hated gentlemen of the boxes remem-
bered anything at all. She was Miss
Patsy Warfield. who had stolen the
coquettish manner of Filina in Mig
non" and had lifted the Temperament
tai depths from the mad scene of
Lucia di Lammermoor," mixing
them ideally so that she had a per-
sonality that became a great star.
And yet she was, after all, the same
Patsy who had sailed out of New York
two years before. Her amazing sue
cess at the Teatro Verdi in Florence,
the Opera Comique in Paris, the Royal
Theater in Rome, La Scala in Milan
and at most of the great opera houses
on the continent-had changed her
very little. She was the same girl
who had stood, like a prisoner await
ing her executioner, like . patient
waiting to hear that she had only "A
hours to live, before the greatest i'm
presario in all Europe. She was the
same girl who had shivered and paled
when the ferocious, swarthy Rinaldo
had barked: What have you been