Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1940)

This Woman Has Loved! (Continued jrom page 70) his arm to interrupt his reading for the minute it would take her to fly upstairs and be reassured about drafts and covers in the nursery. [ For more and more that was how it was with them. He forgot the ambition for land that had been instilled in him when he was a boy and he had learned to measure a kilo's length by counting his strides. And she no longer dreamed of the way it would be when she sang in the opera house and flowers fell on the stage at her feet. Their love for each other grew greater with time and brought them back to simple things. Then, one day they had a long talk and they rebuked themselves for having allowed their love to run away with them. "You must marry that rich girl it was planned for you to marry," she told him, "and live in peace with your mother and your father on your land." "And you," he said, "must study so you can sing in the opera house. And soon you will be famous. And I will sit in the stalls beside my rich, dull wife. . . ." "Loving me still?" she whispered. "Just a little, Niklos — to take nothing she would miss from her. . . ." "I hope not," he said bitterly. "By that time I hope I will have become so dull that I will feel nothing. . . ." Three days later they were married! HER parents and two of his cousins went with them to the office of the notary. Niklos settled a little house and some land on the Hajmassey's so they would not miss the money Ilona had brought home from the theater. And he and Ilona left for the fertile countryside over which his father ruled like an ancient king. "I will be such a fine wife to you," she told him as they rode on the train, "that your mother and your father will bear with me. And when our sons are born they will be so strong and brilliant and handsome that it will be forgotten I had no rich dowry." The Savozd lands reached over four thousand acres. They counted their cows and steers by hundreds and their pigs by thousands. Niklos' parents lived in the Big House. He and Ilona were assigned a fifteenroom dwelling down the road. They gave him what was his due as their only remaining son. But beyond this they didn't go. There was no warm welcome for his bride. There were no parties to introduce her to the countryside. And had they known Ilona had hoped for these things they would have pitied her for a fool. All day Niklos was away from home — riding over the land, supervising the men in fields and barns and gardens, and doing accounts in the office. And all day Ilona waited for him to come home. At the sound of his voice the house that had been cold and forlorn sprang into splendor. Ilona would laugh at herself because she had wept. And she would discount what she had overheard the chauffeur from the Big House telling her cook . . . how the boss would not rest until she and Niklos were divorced. When Niklos came home at night and Ilona flew down the stairs and flung herself into his arms, it concerned him that even the radiance of her smile could not hide the fact that she was growing paler and that once more she had been weeping. And while he wondered how he could support life without her he asked if she was sorry she had come there with him. "I am not sorry — ever!" she told him, as she pulled off his gloves and warmed his hands and led him to the fire. "And now that you think that, I am afraid to ask you something . . . Niklos, would you mind if I studied singing and English? I have no friends here and it would occupy me if a teacher came sometimes. I am not happy when I have no work to do." He was grateful to her for planning this way of keeping occupied and of escaping the cold air of disapproval for a little while. For he knew her ardor. And he lived in fear of the hour in which she would tell him she could not stay any longer — in spite of all her protestations. I HEN one day when Ilona and Niklos had been married about a year, when things were no worse than they had been all along, the elder Savozd demanded that a divorce be arranged at once. Either this or he would disown Niklos completely. "We're going away from here," Niklos told Ilona. "We're going to live in the city. Until I find my way, we'll be poor. But that will not matter, for we'll still have each other." She did not ask him to explain the reason behind all this. She knew too well. And suddenly, although he was ten years her senior, she was the older one. "Niklos," she said, "what could you do to earn money in the city?" "At first," he told her, "just so we'll have something to eat, I'll be a chauffeur!" Her eyes traveled over his face. It was strong and lean and full of pride and confidence. These were things she loved and would preserve at any cost. It was for him she was afraid. She knew how to be poor. And she was, besides, one of those favorites of the gods who could forget the thin jingle of coins in her purse while she laughed at a Punch and Judy show in the park. "Sweet Niklos," she said. She did not try to hide her tears for she knew the kindest thing she could do was let him see her heart was breaking, too — so when she went away he would not too quickly doubt that she loved him. "Niklos, my darling — sometimes you act like such a little boy that you make me feel a very old woman. This is such a time as we must do not what we want to do but the best we can do!" His eyes lifted to ask the question. "And the best we can do . . . You must stay here," she told him, "where you will have money enough and to spare and I must go into the city where I can study and get work in the opera house so we can be independent . . . For it is only because your father knows our helplessness that he tells you what you must do — and how you must do it — and when. . . ." She left his side and walked up and down the room. Now she wasn't the yielding, tender girl he always had known. There was about her the strength and force of the matriarch she might have become had she borne sons to inherit the Savozd gold and land. Watching her, Niklos took heart and remembered what his good friend, Mrs. Hajmassey, had told him . . . that whatever Ilona would do she could do! IN Vienna Ilona lived with the Wellers. Mrs. Weller had taught her English. Hue itlei "The MASTERS tier table has so I much distinction and charm — and it's so useful, too!'' exclaimed Anne Shirley, lovely Hollywood star appearing in RKO's "Vigil in the Night." Like other successful stars, Miss Shirley has selected several of Imperial's new MASTERS Tables for her own home. y i will *'«**" tlte 12 MASTERS TABLES identified by Imperial's famous Green Shield trademark. Be first in your community to see the complete showing of Imperial's 12 new MASTERS Tables. 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