“The managers of the Hyperfilm Company will think you have done them dirt, but I'll explain that you are not really responsible. You've seen a million dollars, and you're razzle-dazzled. They'll want a bit of that million, I suppose, as liquidated damages, but I'll try to keep them down.” Kedzie was at bay in her terror. She struck back. “Tell 'em they won't get a cent if they try to play the hog.” “They don't have hogs on Fifth Avenue, Anita. Don't forget that. Well, good-by and good luck.” This was more like an eviction than a desertion. Kedzie felt a little softening of her heart toward the old homestead. “I'm sure I'm much obliged for all you've done for me.” Ferriday roared his scorn. She went on: “I am. Honest-ly! And I hope I haven't caused you too much inconvenience.” Ferriday betrayed how much he was hurt by his violent efforts to conceal it. “Not at all. It happens that I've just found another little girl to take your place. This one drifted in among the extras, just as you did, and she's a dream. I'll show her to the managers, and they may be so glad to get her they won't charge you a cent. In fact, if you say the word, I might manage it so that they would pay you something to cancel your contract.” This was quite too cruel. It crushed the tears out of Kedzie's eyes, and she had no fight left in her. She simply stammered: “No, thank you. Don't bother. Well, good-by.” “Good-by, Anita--good luck!” He let her make her way out of his office alone. She had to skirt the studio. From behind a canvas wall over which the Cooper-Hewitt tubes rained a quivering blue glare came the words of the assistant director: “Now choke her, Hazlitt! Harder! Register despair, Miss Hardy. Try to scream and can't! That's good. Now, Walsh, jump in to the rescue. Slug him. Knock his bean off. 'S enough! Fall, Hazlitt. Now gather up Miss Hardy, Walsh. Register devotion, gratitude, adoration--now you got it. Turn on your lamps full power, dearie! Wow! Bully! A couple of tears, please. That's the stuff. You'll be the queen of the world. Weep a little more. Real tears. That's it! Now clinch for the fade-out. Cut!” Kedzie tiptoed away. She felt as Eve must have felt sneaking out of Eden and hearing the nightingales wrangling and the leopards at play. CHAPTER XXVI We must fly fast and keep on flying if we would escape from our pasts. Ambition, adventure, or sheer luck may carry us forward out of them as in a cavalry-foray over strange frontiers, but sooner or later we must wait for our wagons or fall back to them. Kedzie's past was catching up with her. It is a glorious thing when one's past comes up loaded with food, munitions, good deeds, charities, mercies, valued friendships. But poor little Kedzie's little past included one incompetent and unacknowledged husband and two village parents.