Arizona sun., 1948-10-29
MFICTIONcoRMER
WEATHER AHEAD
The reminded Ho of someone he knew-u brilliant
whose life hod been DESTROYED by selfish beautiful
By JOHN III. HOSE

trips to the coast to give his per-
sonal attention to some of the real
ly important clients.
''It was on one of those trips that
he met Elsa Armstrong. Did you
ever see a bouganvillea in bloom,
Stu? Or a hibiscus? That's what
she was like. A lovely, fragile
beauty, and that's an inadequate de-
scription. But she was smart, too.
Smart -. and tough when it came
to getting places" Harvey twirled
the iced tea glass, clinking the ice
cubes against it's hard surface as he
reminisced. Then he continued,
'She wasn't an actress; even in
those days talent was an important
item, but Elsa's only talent con-
sisted in looking so beautiful it hurt.
Strangely enough, she didn't want
to be a star. Elsa was hunting
something entirely different. She
wanted money and position. Mark
had both, and Elsa took him like
Grant took Richmond. The first
thing I knew, I was back in New
York and Mark had taken charge
on the coast. Or rather, Mark was
on the coast and Elsa had taken
charge.
IT lost track of events then, un-
til one day the auditor came to me
with the remark that Mr.. Stevens
personal account was in terrible
shape. Together we went over it.
I decided that the auditors origi-
nal evaluation was strictly an un-
derstatement. The bills Mark had
okayed seemed to indicate that he
alone was trying to support half Of
California's frlrriers and jewelers..
A few days later I began to hear
complaints from different accounts
that their affairs on the coast were
not being handled properly. de-
cided to fly out and see what went
on.
Mark met me at the airport.
He was ah, well definite
ly not in the best Of condition. He
was unshaven and mussed. The
meeting was most embarrassing
for me, and I piled Mark into a
cab and directed the driver to
Marks home in Beverly Hills. He
passed out on the way, and when
we got there, I had one rugged
time getting him upstairs and into
bed, even with the sympathetic and
capable help Of the cabbie. This
done, I returned to Hollywood and
the office.
There, / began to ask questions.
The answers weren't pretty. Mark
hadn't been in the place in weeks.
But his bills had. His and Elsa's,
that is. Oh, she had a personal
account, too. It figured on the books
as his, which explained why we in
the East didn't know about it. I
decided to see Elsa.
''She wasn't available at home,
so I started to make the rounds
in pursuit, finally catching up with
her at The Players She wasn't
alone. sent word to her table that
1 would like to see her, and in a
few minutes she joined me.
II told you she was beautiful,
Stu. When she sat down beside me,
I almost forgot what I had wanted
to talk to her about. She was loaded
with diamond doo-dads, and in ach
one / could see Marks money re-
fected. That snapped me out of the
trance and into the purpose of our
tete-atete.
II told you she was tough, too.
Brother! She was hard as nails.
No, she'd not seen Mark in a month.
Why? After all, a girl has to look
out for her future. And Mark had
been troublesome. Stuffy about her
friends. I asked if the guy she was
with belonged in that category. She
merely shrugged. got the idea. I
rather pointedly asked her how
come, if she and Mark were
-