Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1916)

The Glory Road 113 thai the thought of it Beemed to him .1 sort of unworthy suspicion, Still thai Bcene. . . . It might have meant anything, he told himself, an excited moment of some warm discussion between them. Praise of her work, perhaps. But that was not very con yincing. And it cast no light on the reason for the picture, and the fact that it had been taken surreptitiously through the rose wall of the summer house. Paul was not afraid, but he was perplexed, lie pondered long as the taxicab rolled through the quiet park. Finally he directed the chauffeur to drive him to his hotel. In his sitting room there, a place o( .soft colors and rich furnishings, he lit a pipe and, letting a pile of work lie untouched, pondered still further. 'Then he sat down at his desk and wrote a letter to Elsie Tanner. They had long been excellent friends, having worked together even before their experience in the North, and he had written her once or twice thus since leaving California. The letter tonight was largely descriptive of his doings, and included much of the gossip and shop talk he constantly heard. But it was all written for the purpose of including two sentences casually slipped in towards the end : "I suppose everything is all right with June as usual. Living there with you it couldn't be anything else, but you know what a fool a man in love is, so drop me a line saying so." XVIII /CONSIDER the perfect moment of all ^ youth ; that sublime, brief interval radiant with promise, which divides immaturity and full ripening. It is one of Nature's lyrics tossed off amid the stress of greater works, and remains exquisite forever. It dreams into being suddenly amid the pearl and rose of dawn ; it comes upon a flower ere the blossom is full-blown ; it glorifies the gracious Spring of our own youth. Then the last of our trailing clouds of glory still cling about us, the pride of invincibility is ours, and somewhere we have gathered a matchless equipment — confidence, ideals, buoyancy, tirelessness. A miracle has taken place within us so that suddenly we have eyes that see and ears that hear. Dead white scxlessness is gone and the world glows with colors, and is lull of strange beauties and sensibilities. Curi osilies gnaw us, new and wild elixirs course in our blood, and the imagination never rests. The chrism of the moment was upon Blaine Drake. Fifteen now, there seemed to unite in her the perfect moment of all the dawns of the world, and of every expanding Bower. The warm lingers of development had lovingly shaped her and made her woman; she lived in imagination, not reality ; her spirit was a butterfly about to meet the winds of the world. And she loved Romey Stark. Everything she did, all she said, took form and substance from thought of him, was measured by the question of his approval. "Would he like this? Was that worthy of him?" It was almost the devotion of a religieusc, and was tinged by that mystical eroticism. But it was physical, too. They had worked in one picture during the action of which he had swept her into his arms and kissed her, and she had never forgotten that, could not forget it. She lived that moment over and over, giving her imagination rein at night when Elsie, dead to illusion, it seemed, lay sleeping prosaically beside her. But in his presence what a difference ! All the blood seemed to rush to her heart, her mouth became dry, her pulses pounded. She could only giggle and give vent to monosyllables, or, her cheeks like wild roses, sit watching him with great eyes. Sometimes he would come and sit beside her and talk in his characteristic, teasing way: "Getting prettier every day, ain't you ! 'Tain't legal, kid. You get twenty years for that in California ! Believe me, all kinds of things are likely to happen if you don't quit. Some night I'll just naturally bean you with a stockin' full of 'dobe dust and carry you off to my cave in the mountains. So you look out !" Elaine dreamed of that cave in the mountains. But if he sat down beside any other girl in the company and dared so much as look pleasant while doing so, then the sun went out for Elaine. Was he interested in her? What was between them? Tortured by jealousy, she tried to find out how he spent his leisure hours.