The New Movie Magazine (Dec 1929-May 1930)

fully ahead of them. They came to a large square room with a heavy beamed ceiling. Beauvais tapestries hung i lie walls, but the tapestries were so frayed and worn that what had once been noble stags drinking at a limpid stream were now palsied creatures, paralyzed in moth-eaten tracks, with their heads extended into a cowpath. Flat slabs of stone made the floor of the room, and the slabs were set none too evenly. In the center was a dark and massive table, while in the corner of the room stood a suit of armor, patiently on guard, aring with eyes that never were. "What's this?" asked Pike, " — the armor room?" "It's the dining-room," replied Mrs. Peters. "Isn't it wonderful — so old and full of atmosphere." "Full of rheumatism, is more like it," said Pike. "Give me the Cherokee Cafe every time." But Mrs. Peters saw it in no such way. It was splendid, the background she wished, but her woman's instinct was busy. Already she was planning changes. "What's that?" asked Pike, pointing to a pile of bricks placed neatly in a basket. In the winter, the servant explained, the bricks were warmed and placed under the feet of the people at the table. "Think of settin' around with your teeth chattering and trying to keep warm with a red brick under your feet ! I'll bet there's never been a baron in this place who ever lived to see his grandchildren. If this is a sample of the way the big bugs of France live, why, they don't know what living is ! In comparison to a rich As they advanced across the floor Pike gave a start, for in the dim light a man seemed to be lying across the foot of his bed. Even after the noise of ^beir entrance it continued to lie there supinely with its thin ghostly legs falling sharply over the edge of the bed. And yet it was not a man, for no human being, alive or dead, could take that impossible position. "What's that?" demanded Pike. "That's your new evening suit." And then as Pike came closer he saw that it was so. Mrs. Peters had sent a suit to the tailor and had had this black, depressing object made, as she said she would. "Honest, honey," said Pike, as he stood regarding the depressing sight, "I don't want a dress suit." "Yes you do, Pike." "You ain't goin' to make a monkey out of me for the sake of a lot of people I never saw before, are you?" Mrs. Peters was adamant. "You've got to put it on every night, and especially when the Marquis is here. You know, it's a real treat to meet him." "Say, it's a circus," returned the irrepressible Pike. There was a slight movement in the door and a noiseless figure was standing in it. The man appeared to be about forty years old and was dressed in solemn black, with a small black tie, and now he stood with his hands at his side as if in some stiff military pose. His eyes were set straight ahead of him and he neither spoke nor moved, but continued to stand as solemn and as silent as a shadow. "Who's that?" asked Pike. The Grand Duke startled Pike by kissing him farewell. "I wish I could invite you to my country," he said, "but I have none." man's home in Oklahoma, one of these chateaux is about as comfortable as a union depot. Danged if I don't believe I'd take a good steam-heated, electrically-lighted union depot before I would one of these round-houses." The big moment came when Pike and Mrs. Peters walked across the great high-domed interior of the chateau. This was too much for Pike and pausing he began to sing out as if it were indeed a union station — "All aboard the Missouri Pacific for Claremore and "There you go again," exclaimed Mrs. Peters, "they'll chink we're crazy." Pike was to have a bigger surprise when the two went up to their bedroom, for it was the largest bedroom Pike had ever seen. He stood regarding its great size, and then commented : "I'll bet you it's a drive and two niblick shots from that door to this bed." "Francois," answered Mrs. Peters calmly. "Who's Francois?" "Your valet,"'she replied. "He has just laid out your dinner clothes." "What in the world do I want with a valet?" demanded the astonished Pike as he surveyed the ominous shadow. "To help you do things," said Mrs. Peters. "Hell's huckleberry ! I ain't got a thing in the world to do, and now you go and hire an able-bodied man to helD me do it. What's his name, again?" "Francois." Pike wrapped his tongue around it. "I'm going to call him Gus," he said. "I won't have him long," he added privately. Pike's eyes leaped over him uneasily. He could have walked up to the Premier of France, or to the president 92