"You couldn't, Lynn. And--you won't be wise if you count on me."
"You don't mind my loving you, Linda?"
"No. I think it makes me happy."
"Then I'm going to count on you--unless you want me to think you're
merely amusing yourself."
"But you don't think that. So be patient."
"I'm not at all sure patience and love are even related."
"Then I'm afraid the only kind of love you know is not the kind that
lasts."
"If so, I'm glad I've known none that lasted; that leaves me free to be
truly in love with you."
"That's rather clever of you, Lynn, almost too clever."
"I've got to be clever, I guess, to make you love me."
"Lynn, I'm afraid you're artful. Yes--and much too experienced! You'd
better go now before you talk me into something that isn't real and....
If you do love me, you aren't wanting anything else."
"You'd really like to get rid of me?"
"For tonight, yes. I need to be alone to think--about you."
"Fair enough--if that's a promise."
"It's a promise."
Lucinda stood up, a maneuvre that lifted Summerlad unwillingly out of
his chair. He took her hand and sketched an intention of using it to
draw her to him. But she laughed quietly, shaking her head.
"Good night, my dear."
"I've never tried to kiss you, Linda...."
"And won't, I know, till I want you to."
"Confound you! That's what I get for giving you an opening to put me on
my honour."
"It's more than you'd have got--or deserved--if you hadn't."
His lips barely failed to find her hand; Lucinda had drawn away in the
nick of time.
"Don't go before you've answered my question, Lynn."
"Question?"
"What I'm to do about these unlucky young women?"
"Hoped you'd forgotten them."
"I can't."
"You've got too soft a heart, I'm afraid, Linda. I don't see why you
always let it rule your head--except about me."
"Perhaps it's a good sign, though."
"I'm sure I don't know how to advise you. Obviously you can't turn Linda
Lee Inc. into a refuge for misguided females."
"There's one girl in especial I'm worried about, Lynn. She seems so ill
and wretched. And even so, she's pretty. I'm sure a little happiness
would make her radiant. Why can't we find or make a chance for her
somewhere?"
"Once you start that sort of thing, the whole pack will be on your back,
they won't give you a minute's peace. But if you insist.... What's her
type?"
"Olive brune; about my height; and the loveliest, most tragic eyes...."
"Any experience?"
"Yes. She told me she'd been working in the East, but her health broke
down and the doctors advised California. She'd been out here before, I
gathered, but not in pictures. At least--I'm not sure--that's what I
understood. She only got in last night, and they put her at my table in
the dining-room, so we met at luncheon today."
"Lost no time boning you for a job----"
"She didn't suggest anything of the sort. I don't believe she's heard
yet about my having my own company. All she said was, she hoped she
wouldn't have too much trouble finding work, she needed it so
desperately."
"Well, since you make a point of it, I'll see what I can do--speak to
Zinn about her. What's her name?"
"Miss Marquis--Nelly Marquis, I think she said."
Summerlad had just then opened his cigarette case. After a thoughtful
pause he shut it with a snap, neglecting to help himself to a cigarette,
and replaced it in his pocket. Then becoming sensible of the query in
Lucinda's attitude, he asked in a dull voice: "What name did you say?"
"Nelly Marquis. Why? Do you know her?"
"I know a good deal about her. Rather a bad lot, I'm afraid. Look here,
Linda: I wish you'd drop her."
"Don't be stupid, Lynn."
"I'm not. I mean it. I can't very well tell you what I know, but I do
wish you'd take my word for it and cut this woman out. She's really not
the sort you can afford to get mixed up with."
"You're sure, Lynn? You really want me to understand she is--what you're
trying to avoid saying?"
"Yes--and worse. I'm in earnest, Linda. I think you might trust me.
After all, I ought to know my way about Hollywood, I've lived in it long
enough."
"Of course I trust you, Lynn. I'm sorry though. I felt so sorry for her,
she didn't seem one of the usual sort."
"She isn't." Summerlad gave a curt, meaning laugh. "But you said you
wanted to get rid of me, and I think I'd better go before the old
curiosity gets in its fine work and you ask me questions I wouldn't want
to answer."
He possessed himself of Lucinda's hands again and kissed them ardently,
while she looked on with lenient eyes, more than half in love already.
Why, then, must she persist in hanging fire with him? Was it merely
crude, primordial instinct prompting her to withstand the male till his
will prevailed? Or was there something wanting in the man, some lack
divined by a sense in her subtle, anonymous, and inarticulate?
Infinitely perplexed, Lucinda lingered on where Summerlad had left her,
near the far end of the veranda, where it rounded the rotund corner of
the hotel. Here there was always shade by day, thanks to a screen of
subtropical foliage, by night a deeper gloom than elsewhere on the
veranda, and at all times a better show of privacy.
The engine roared as Summerlad's car swung down the drive, then changed
its tune to a thick drone as it took the boulevard, heading away for
Beverly Hills. Still Lucinda rested as she was, absently observing the
play of street lights on leaves whose stir was all but imperceptible in
the softly flowing air.
Impossible to understand herself, to read her own heart, make up her
mind....
A thin trickle of sound violated the mid-evening hush, a broken and
gusty beating of stifled sobs that for a time she heard without
attention, then of a sudden identified.
Windows of guest-rooms looked out on the veranda, but Lucinda had made
sure these were closed and lightless before permitting Summerlad's
wooing to become ardent. The semi-round room on the corner, however, had
French windows let in at an angle which she could not see. After a
moment she moved quietly to investigate, and discovered that one of
these was open, that the sobbing had its source in a shapeless heap upon
the floor in the darkness beyond.
Entering and kneeling, Lucinda touched gently the shoulder of the
stricken woman. "Please!" she begged. "Can I do anything?"
In a convulsive tremor the woman choked off her sobs and lifted her
face to stare vacantly. Enough light seeped in from the street to reveal
the features of Nelly Marquis.