Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1916)

112 Photoplay Magazine The room rang with delight. "Hey, Stannard, sign Holt for life." "Compared to him Romeo lived in the ice age." "Didn't look at the camera once." Then the Voice of Authority : "Say, Jake," to the editor, "how did that thing get in? Holt trying to kid us?" "I guess so. It was so good I thought I'd run it for the crowd." "Well, kill it." "Yes, sir.'-' By this time the reel had switched to some other news event and the incident was rapidly being forgotten. In a few minutes Paul got up quietly and made his way out of the room. Taking the elevator from the deserted front office he descended to the •street. There he turned towards Broadway. IT was a warm June night, and the air was laden with the odors of warm asphalt and motor oil vapor. All the theatres had "gone in" and the crowds were thinned for the time, but the streets were light as day and in the northern sky a distant sign with its streamers of color suggested a new aurora borealis. Paul considered the project of Avalking to his hotel, but he was tired and decided against it. He signalled a passing taxicab and got in. Duty and interest in the showing had alike departed. He was puzzled and disturbed. He could not get the extraordinary picture of June and Holt out of his mind. He had a feeling of something queer about it, something not bona fide. The general assumption that it was a joke did not satisfy him. The poor lighting and photography suggested a picture taken under unnecessary difficulties ; nor was there anything about Holt's actions which suggested that he was making a fool of himself for the amusement of the Eastern Graphics. Paul's puzzled suspicion was suddenly illuminated when he remembered June's swift, anxious glance towards the doonvav of the summer-house in the middle of the scene, a flash whose significance seemed to have escaped the other observers. It was just such a glance, indicating fear of discovery, that a girl might have given under those circumstances, and it proved to Paul that neither June nor Holt was conscious of beinir under the camera's eye. Paul's rather heavy brows drew down as he realized this. It meant that the emotions he had witnessed were genuine, not assumed. Instantly the whole matter took on deeper significance. Recalling June's expression, he experienced for a moment a shocking fear that chilled him to the marrow, but which he instantly put away from him. That was nonsense ! But his uneasiness was not dispelled. The question persisted : "What could have been happening to result in such a scene as that between them?" By this time the cab had reached Seventysecond Street, and Paul leaning forward directed the chauffeur to drive through Central Park. They turned east and at Eighth Avenue entered the comparative quiet and leafy darkness of the West Drive. Cars with round, dull eyes passed constantly, the arc lights beside the road made patches of vivid green among the tree leaves, white figures on the grass or the benches were dimly visible. Manlike. Paul's interest flashed to Holt. What was he to June? What part had he been taking in her life since their separation? He remembered meeting the man once, and, as far as he could recall the impression had been a favorable one. But of his personality and life he knew nothing, and that was the vital point. He tried, by recalling June's letters, to widen his knowledge. All he could remember were a few casual references to occasions when Holt had appeared on "location," or had been the host at some social gathering of the company. He was further reassured by remembering that her later correspondence had been filled almost entirely with the details of her new work with Briscoe, and her varying enthusiasms, hopes and fears. Still, what could have led to that scene, with its obviouslv sincere emotion? ""TEMPLE trusted June completely, an •*■ honor which she shared alone with Briscoe, for Paul, though an idealist at heart, knew life for the cruel, ruthless thing it is. He no more doubted her than he doubted himself. But as time had passed he had grown to forget the difference in their ages and experience, and especially in their equipment to meet the life of their profession. He did recall this now in a vacrue way, but so sjreat was his faith in her