Photoplay (Jan-Sep 1937)

tion. I love you. Paul. You understand last night was only a comedy." I have never been able to see any mystery about it — nor anything mysterious or difficult to understand about that note which lay beside his dead body. I believe and told Jean then that I believed that she knew exactly what the note meant. And I have always believed that Paul, if he could have known what his death and that note did to Jean, if he could have come back when the frightful mental anguish that drove him to death was over, would have wanted it all told no matter what it meant to 1 him. For he was the kindest man who ever lived and, except rin mental torment that wiped out all thought, he could not have done so cruel a thing to the girl he idolized. And so now that they are both gone, it seems a simple thing to read — though Jean would allow a thousand misunderstandings rather than speak one word that would touch the name of her dead husband with that "abject humiliation" of which he wrote. He had done her a "frightful wrong." For when he married her he had denied her wifehood and motherhood and he knew it and she did not. It was no fair bargain, for Jean did not know. I will tell you now, for her sake, why I am so sure of that. You see it happened that I did know. For Barbara LaMarr was the dearest friend I ever had — and Paul Bern had once wanted to marry Barbara. But he was fairer with Barbara, he told her the truth, and asked her to form with him a mental and spiritual marriage. And Barbara, who was a wise and worldly woman, told [please turn to page 1 26] The bond between mother and daughter was no ordinary tie. Even Jean's surprise elopement with Hal Rosson couldn't destroy this mother's true understanding of her "Baby"