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A Three-hundred-thousand-dollar Gamble
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the guardianship of a manager who placed his own financial interest above theirs. Marguerite's affairs were mismanaged, and she was permitted to run up huge bills, until her credit was ex' hausted.
At that point, John, seeing her helplessness and being gifted with practical business sense, took charge of her. He had the guardianship papers annulled, rearranged h e r expenditure allowance, and m a n aged her earnings so competently t h a t , within a year, every bill was paid. Her funds from then on were wisely invested. To his expert advice she owes, also, the motion-picture contracts which provided a steady increase in her salary.
He acted both as her personal protector and as manager of her career, and she feels, as she has often remarked to intimate friends, that everything she has or is she owes to his guidance.
No one knows the reason for her indecision about accepting his proposals of marriage. She has never seemed even mo mentarily interested in any one else, and there has certainly been for stubborn John no other girl.
A quiet, tenacious fellow, his work, though it lacks great fire, has been of sufficient merit to guarantee him steady appearances and to lead to ^ his present contract with Metropolitan ; and he has saved and shrewdly invested until he is reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in pictures.
With equal perseverance, he set out to win the girl he wanted. Her whims and fancies, in jewelry trinkets and perfumes and flowers, he studied, that every gift might carry a particular appeal, and every thought be for her comfort or joy.
Their romance differs from most of Hollywood's long love affairs in that it has held firm a thread so delicate and fragile. Usu
There is a magnificent view from the balconies, and Hollywood may be seen in the distance.
ally, after the first glamour passes, a man's desire is clipped. At first, illusion clothes defects. There is that flirtatious byplay, that challenge of the eyes, which makes an inner flame leap up and turns heads just a little dizzy.
Then — either a sudden quarrel breaks the thing up, or there is the expected march to the altar, or else it drifts into one of those long-friendship lanes that so seldom lead to the matrimonial path. When companionship and understanding come in the door, too often love flies out the window. There is such a thing, for lovers, as knowing each other too well, and romance drops from the peaks of ecstasy to the irritating, humdrum level of everyday, from blissful dreams to petty squabbles.
Curiously, the Bowers-De la Motte romance has never lost its glamour, even for Hollywood's skeptical eyes. He fairly adores her. To him she remains the frail little Midge — a Persian kitten, meant to be cuddled and spoiled.
Her childish helplessness is a tacit dependence upon his strength. She defers to his opinions ; to her he is still the broad-shouldered, good-lookContinued on page 109