As it turned out, however, Lucinda experienced no great difficulty in
fitting herself acceptably with a ready-made costume of white linen for
cross-saddle riding, and light tan boots of soft leather.
The prospect of at last doing real work before a camera, after her long
wait since falling in with Lontaine's scheme, inspired a quiet elation.
She had already been elaborately tested and re-tested, of course, by the
cameraman under contract with Linda Lee Inc.; she had ceased to feel
self-conscious in the fierce white light of the Kliegs, and was familiar
almost to satiety with the sensation, at first so nightmarish, of
sitting in a darkened chamber and watching herself move to and fro upon
a lighted screen. This last, however, had given Lucinda confidence in
the photographic value of her good looks; and she had furthermore
learned, through measuring her unproved abilities by those of
established screen actresses daily displayed to the millions, not to be
apprehensive of scoring an utter failure when her time came to entertain
with the mobile shadow of her self audiences that had paid to be amused.
So she felt assured of doing well enough in her work with Summerlad. And
if her mood was serious, when she alighted at the hotel and gave a
bellboy her purchases, it was because she was thinking of nothing but
her immediate purpose, which was to try on her costume all complete,
with hat, boots, gloves and riding-crop, before a mirror, partly to make
sure every detail was as it should be, but mostly to satisfy herself
that she would look as fetching as she felt she must.
It wasn't till she found herself in the corridor leading to her suite
that Lucinda remembered Nelly Marquis; she hadn't given the girl two
thoughts since morning, and in all likelihood wouldn't have given her
another had she not met the bellboy returning from delivering the
parcels to her maid, and paused to tip him in front of the door to the
corner room. Then, as he thanked her and passed on, she noticed that the
door was slightly ajar, the room beyond dark with early dusk, and
finally, where the light from the corridor struck in across the
threshold, a white hand at rest upon the floor, a woman's hand, palm up,
the fingers slightly contracted, absolutely still. A startling thing to
see....
For a few seconds Lucinda stood entranced with premonitions of horror.
Then she moved to the door and rapped on it gently. There was no
response, the hand didn't stir. She called guardedly: "Miss
Marquis!"--and when nobody answered laid hold of the knob. The door met
a soft obstacle when less than half-open, and would yield no farther.
The light now disclosed an arm bare to the elbow. With a shiver Lucinda
stepped in and groped along the wall till her fingers found and turned
the switch illuminating the central chandelier.
Nelly Marquis lay supine, breathing if at all so lightly that the
movement of her bosom, beneath the ragged lace of a dingy pink silk
neglige, was imperceptible. Her lids, half lowered, showed only the
whites of rolled up eyes, her lips were parted and discoloured, her
painted pallor was more ghastly even than it had been in the morning. On
the evidence of her body's posture in relation to the partly opened
door, she had been taken suddenly ill, had rushed to call for
assistance, and had fallen in the act of turning the knob.
Lucinda shut the door, knelt, touched the girl's wrist, and found it icy
cold. But her bosom was warm, the heart in it faintly but indisputably
fluttering.
In relief and pity, she essayed to take the girl up in her arms and
carry her to the bed, but found the dead weight too great.
Casting round at random for something in the nature of a restorative,
smelling salts or the like, she saw nothing that would serve, at first,
only a disarray of garments and other belongings characteristic of
natures in which care for appearances and personal neatness has become
atrophied through one cause or another--if it ever existed. But she
noticed absently that one of the windows stood wide to the veranda, and
went to close it and draw the shade before pursuing her search.
Then, in the bathroom, she found a bottle of aggressive toilet water and
a pint flask of whiskey, half emptied.
Alternately moistening the pale lips with the whiskey and bathing the
brows and temples with the pungent water, she observed for the first
time a reddish bruise under the left eye, the mark of a blow, possibly
sustained in falling. But there was nothing nearby that the girl could
have struck to inflict such a hurt except the door-knob, and if she had
struck this with such force she must have slammed the door.
It was puzzling....
Her ministrations eventually began to take effect. The bleached lips
quivered, closed, then opened and closed several times. The woman's
lashes trembled and curtained her eyes. Lucinda went to the bathroom for
water. When she returned with half a glassful liberally laced with
whiskey, Nelly Marquis was conscious; but her eyes, with pupils
inordinately expanded, remained witless until she had drained the glass
with convulsive gulps and Lucinda had set it aside.
"Do you think you're strong enough now to get to bed, if I help?"
The girl nodded: "... _try_," she whispered. Using all her strength,
Lucinda succeeded in getting Nelly Marquis on her feet. About this time
the clouded faculties began to clear. Clinging to Lucinda's arm, Nelly
started as if in a spasm of fear, darted swift glances of terror round
the room, then turned a look of perplexity to Lucinda.
"Where is he?" the whisper demanded. "Has he--has he gone?"
"There is no one else here, nothing to be afraid of. Come: let me help
you to bed."
Recognition dawned as she spoke, with a movement of feeble fury the girl
threw Lucinda's arm away, but deprived of its support staggered to the
foot of the bed, to which she clung, quaking.
"You!" she cried--"what you doing here?"
"The door was open, I saw you lying senseless on the floor. I couldn't
go on and leave you like that. You'd have done as much for me."
"Oh! would I? A lot you know!" Her knees seemed about to buckle;
will-power alone kept Nelly Marquis from sinking; yet she persisted: "I
suppose I ought to thank you. Well: much obliged, I'm sure. Is that
enough?"
"Quite enough. I've no wish to annoy you. Only, let me suggest, you need
a doctor. May I ask the office to call one?"
"When I want a doctor, I'll call him myself. Good night."
"I'm sorry," said Lucinda simply.
With no choice other than to go, she went. But the vision she carried
away, of Nelly Marquis glaring at her with eyes malevolent, her frail
body vibrating so that it shook the bed, must have haunted Lucinda's
conscience all evening long had she let the affair drop then and there.
Returning to her room, she telephoned the office and asked for the hotel
physician. The clerk reported that the doctor was out, but promised to
advise him of her call as soon as he came in.
Upwards of an hour later a knock ushered in a quiet young man with
weary, understanding eyes, who attended gravely to what Lucinda had to
tell him.
"She seems to have taken such an inexplicable dislike to me," Lucinda
wound up, "I'm sure she won't see you if she knows you come through me.
But the girl is really ill and needs help. So, I thought, perhaps you
might find someone else in the hotel who knows her and could get her to
consent to see you."
"I fancy I know her well enough myself to excuse a friendly call," the
physician answered. "She's an old patient of mine, though she hasn't
been in Hollywood for some time, I believe."
"Then you must know what's the matter with her...."
"Yes, I know.... But it would be unprofessional to tell you, of course,
Miss Lee."
"Then tell me this much: that you can help her."
"I'm not sure of that. Not unless she's willing. To do her any real
good, I'd have to have her under observation for some weeks. And cases
like hers are peculiar, peculiarly strong-headed.... However, I'll see
if I can do anything with her now, and let you know."
Three minutes after he had left, he knocked again.
"Too late, Miss Lee," he reported. "Nelly Marquis checked out about a
quarter of an hour ago, they tell me at the desk--called for an auto and
left no address."