Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1920 - Feb 1921)

Cinderella's Twin 63 There was a scene, of course. Mrs. Valentine was icily severe ; Boggs, who had rushed in a second too late, was purple with suppressed vituperation. And trembling with fear. Connie raised tear-filled eyes to Prentice Blue, who had rushed to the rescue. She couldn't have told exactly what he said, but she did know that he scrabbled the remains of the roast back onto the platter, turned Mrs. Valentine's anger into amusement, and quelled Boggs with a glance. She tried to thank him, but the words 'stuck in her throat, and she could only look at him.. And he, patting her on the shoulder as she turned to go back down to her lonely kitchen, got a vivid impression of a little face as touchingly sweet as a wild rose that has been out in a June shower. Connie had plans for that evening, plans which she had made some weeks before. For it was the night of Helen Flint's birthday ball, and the mere fact that Helen Flint's father was a millionaire wasn't going to keep Connie away from the party. To be sure, she could go only as far as the awning that reached from the curb to the ornate front door of the Flint mansion, but that would be far enough for her. She could see the guests hurry up the walk, could catch the faint suggestion of perfume and hear the light, amused laughter of those other young people as they drifted past her into the enchanted world just beyond. She hurried up Fifth Avenue, with the gleam of lights reflected in the wet pavements, and the shouts of chauffeurs and hoarse commands of the extra policemen adding to the confusion at the entrance of the Flint home. But the crowd meant nothing to Connie ; she wormed her way through it and up to the very edge of the red carpet that stretched from curb to stairs, her eyes glued to the throng of favored ones. There was one girl, no prettier than she, whose silver frock peeped from beneath a rose-colored coat that would move through Connie's dreams for weeks to come. There was a girl in orchid tulle, with a great wrap of soft, white fur swathed about her— — "Want to go to the ball?" Connie whirled around, trembling at the hand on her shoulder and the gruff voice that had awakened her from her dreams. She'd so often imagined just such an occurrence ; now, if the voice had belonged to a funny little witch, and pumpkin coach had stood just beyond, the situation would not have seemed more unreal. "If you'll just come this way," went on the burly man who had spoken to her. "That's it — right over to this machine. You see, I'm playing a trick on my friend Martin, who's giving the party — and I want you to help me." Preposterous, of course. But when you're lonely, and you have filled your heart with dreams, and longed for them to come true, it doesn't seem strange to have them suddenly work out. At least, it didn't to Connie ; it just seemed natural. So when she found a very pretty and very much excited young woman in the car, and was driven to an apartment where the young wom^n slipped out of her own filmy pink dress and adjusted it so that it fitted Connie's slim little body, that young person took it all as a matter of course. She didn't even ask for an explanation. Even if she had, the truth would not have been forthcoming — for Dugeen. expert crook that he was, would never have told her that he had planned "Cinderella's Twin" \\ ritten from the Metro production based on the story by Luther Reed, and played by the following cast : Connie McGill Viola Dana Prentice Blue W allace McDonald Boggs Calvert Carter Dugeen Edward Connelly The Ladv Ruth Stonehouse to get away with the birthday gifts that old Mr. Flint's daughter Helen had placed on display in her little sitting room. Xor would he have told Connie that "The Lady," the girl who was helping her dress, was to have gone to the ball and arranged for him to enter the house, but had been frightened out of her wits when she saw "Busy" Kelly lounging about near the entrance. Kelly had met her before; in fact, the last time she went to jail he had acted as her escort. Under such circumstances she felt, quite naturally, that it might be embarrassing to meet him again, especially when she was pretending to be one of the guests at a function where she had no right to be. And so Connie went to the ball — a transformed Connie, in dainty little silver slippers which The Lady had hunted out of a bottom drawer when she found that her own were too big for the little Cinderella. One of them wasn't quite comfortable, but Connie wou'd have worn them if they'd been filled with needles that stuck straight into her. She was so happy that she would hardly have noticed it. She hadn't stopped to remember that she didn't even know her hostess by sight, but Fate stepped in and took care of her there. A shortsighted dowager who entered the dressing room just as she did hailed Connie as the daughter of an old school friend who lived in Baltimore and performed introductions right and left, and Connie, ecstatically happy, took this development as just one more gift provided by the gods of chance and played her part. Winsome, lovely, radiantly happy, she split her dances between a dozen partners, and even when Prentice Blue claimed her and then refused to give her up she just took it as part of the wondejful dream. By the time they had sat out three dances together they were old friends ; when they had sat out two more Connie wondered if there had ever been a time when they hadn't known each other. As for Blue, he hadn't yet discovered what it was about the girl that seemed so familiar ; he was sure that he had seen her before, somewhere, but he couldn't tell where. And then, as suddenly as in that fairly tale of old. a clock struck twelve. Memories of Dugeen and his instructions crowded into Connie's mind, and she turned panic-stricken eyes on Blue. His watch confirmed the clock's tragic announcement. Midnight had come, and Connie McGill's wee bit of happiness was over. Stammering confused excuses to Blue, she turned and ran for the dressing room where she had left her cloak. To throw it around her and slip into the adjoining room took but a second ; there sh^ opened the window that was iu*' above the roof of the porch, and scuttled out of the room and down to the front door. Blue was waiting for her there, and fol^wed her as she flew down the red carpeted walk to the car that waited for her. "Good-by, Prince Charming," she faltered, as she stepped on the running-board and then turned to give him her hand. "Oh. but you're not going to leave me this way, Cinderella." he protested. "Surely you " "I'm not Cinderella — I'm just her twin." she told him, her voice shaky with sobs. The chautteur started the car just then, and she scrambled into it; not until the door had slammed behind her did she realize that