Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction
He came to life the next morning, shivering under his blankets. It
must be cold outside. He glanced at his watch and reached for another
blanket, throwing it over himself and tucking it in at the foot. Then
he lay down again to screen a tense bit of action that had occurred late
the night before. He had plunged through the streets for an hour,
after leaving the pool, striving to recover from the twin shocks he had
suffered. Then, returning to his hotel, he became aware that The Hazards
of Hortense were still on. He could hear the roar of the aeroplane
propeller and see the lights over the low buildings that lined his
street.
Miserably he was drawn back to the spot where the most important of all
his visions had been rent to tatters. He went to the end of the pool
where he had stood before. Mr. Rosenblatt-hardly could he bring his mind
to utter the hideous syllables-was still dissatisfied with the sea’s
might. He wanted bigger billows and meant to have them if the company
stayed on the set all night. He was saying as much with peevish
inflections. Merton stood warming himself over the fire that still
glowed in the brazier.
To him from somewhere beyond the scaffold came now the Montague girl and
Jimmie. The girl was in her blanket, and Jimmie bore a pitcher, two
tin cups, and a package of sandwiches. They came to the fire and Jimmie
poured coffee for the girl. He produced sugar from a pocket.
“Help yourself, James,” said the girl, and Jimmie poured coffee for
himself. They ate sandwiches as they drank. Merton drew a little back
from the fire. The scent of the hot coffee threatened to make him forget
he was not only a successful screen actor but a gentleman.
“Did you have to do it again?” he asked.
“I had to do it twice again,” said the girl from over her tin cup.
“They’re developing the strips now, then they’ll run them in the
projection room, and they won’t suit Sig one little bit, and I’ll have
to do it some more. I’ll be swimming here till daylight doth appear.”
She now shot that familiar glance of appraisal at Merton. “Have a
sandwich and some coffee, Kid-give him your cup, Jimmie.”
It was Merton Gill’s great moment, a heart-gripping climax to a
two-days’ drama that had at no time lacked tension. Superbly he arose to
it. Consecrated to his art, Clifford Armytage gave the public something
better and finer. He drew himself up and spoke lightly, clearly, with
careless ease:
“No, thanks-I couldn’t eat a mouthful.” The smile with which he
accompanied the simple words might be enigmatic, it might hint of secret
sorrows, but it was plain enough that these could not ever so distantly
relate to a need for food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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