Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

92 A Girl Comes to Hollywood Continued from page 55 where all women not beauties stayed out of sight, she would have liked to lie low till after the metamorphosis. Still, she couldn't resist accepting Malcolm's invitation to the preview, one of the season's best, with a long-run film at a gorgeous new theater. "In a day or two," she went on, "I'll ask you to come on one of your early nights and have supper in my drawing-room at the Ambassador, with Malcolm and me. Then you can tell me about yourself !" Malcolm frowned at this, but didn't speak; and the girl, thanking Lady Gates politely, inwardly resolved to reveal less than nothing of her own affairs. "I wonder what he has said to her about me?" the girl asked herself. She knew in her heart that Malcolm admired her, but she hadn't gone quite so far as to dwell on the thought of love. She was hardly aware that some such emotion for him was hovering, like a butterfly over a flower in a strange garden, in the region of her heart. If she had known, she would have scolded herself for a fool, because her errand in Hollywood was the one important thing in her life, and it would perhaps prevent her from dreaming of happy love — ever. The next afternoon was that of Lady Gates' appointment with the Prophetess. Lopez was prompt in arriving at the Ambassador, and Lady Gates, who had hardly slept for thinking of what she might be told, was ready and waiting. Her car carried the two smoothly to that "wrong side" of Hollywood, where the professional dancer lived. But even the wrong side of Hollywood has charm. The bungalow which Lopez had rented, as the best he could afford, was in a gay little street of many other bungalows, each utterly different from its neighbor, all shaded by palms or pepper trees and possessing unfenced lawns. Lopez's dwelling — not so near his neighbor's as to hear them brushing their teeth, or taking a bath — was the best in the street. It was larger than the rest; that is, it must have contained at least five fair-sized rooms ; and it had the semidetached studio which he had described to Lady Gates. The architecture was Spanish Mexican, as he explained now. "We .are expected," Lopez said, "so I can take you straight in to Madame Blank. She will receive no one else this afternoon. Your car will have to wait for you perhaps an hour." He opened the door with a key, and they entered a vestibule hung with brocades, and a mirror with a carved frame. A knock at an inner door brought the answer, "Come in !" spoken in a low and somehow impressive voice. Katherine Gates' heart began to thump, she hardly knew why. Even in the vestibule there was a faint fragrance of incense. As Lopez gently opened the door, a wave of amber-scented smoke poured out from a mysterious region of blue dusk. For a moment the lady from Leeds felt that she was half blind and completely dazed in this perfumed twilight; but presently a few pieces of furniture took shape, and she saw a reclining form swathed, rather than draped, in white ; a long, lazy, graceful shape on a divan of deep purple or black. Behind its head were piled dark, velvety cushions, on which eyes, accustoming themselves to dimness, caught here and there a gleam of gold and silver embroidery. Over the face of the woman in white was fastened a white veil which left her eyes uncovered, and was draped over the head, completely covering the hair. The eyes that looked up to hers, thought Lady Gates, were wells of ink ; and the hand, half revealed under a flowing sleeve, as it reached for her own plump, gloved fingers, was white as the sleeve itself ; long, thin rather than slender, and with polished nails that were like pale coral on ivory. Lopez invited the guest to be seated in a chair already placed in front of the divan. "This is Lady Gates, of whom you have told me, Marco," announced the low, contralto voice. "I do not ask you the question, for I know from the touch of her hand it is so. Now, Lady Gates, take off your gloves — both gloves. I wish to read not one, but the two hands. Each tells something different." "Don't — won't — you need more light?" stammered her ladyship. "No," answered the voice ; "this place is light for me." The figure on the divan sat up, bent over the extended hands — first one, then the other, and studied them. Lady Gates was informed that she had "never known love ; never known real happiness," and that a message to her soul from beyond had brought her here to the sunshine to find both." "It's too late for me to have love, or the kind of happiness that goes with it, Madame Blank," she sighed, more freely than she might have spoken had not Lopez slipped discreetly out of the room. "No," replied the Veiled Prophetess. "What you have come to find, you can find, if you know how." But I don't know how!" expostulated Lady Gates. "Can you tell me how to perform miracles ?" "Let us see," said Madame Blank. "The time has come to consult my crystal. You will give me, before you leave, the date of your birth and other details, so that I can consult the stars for you. But to-day it shall be the crystal." She did not rise from the divan, but pressing a buttonlike ornament on the wall, a small door opened, and she drew out a swinging shelf. This was covered with black, and throwing aside a piece of black-velvet drapery, a crystal ball on a black stand was revealed. Into the gleaming globe she gazed, her eyes above the veil more like wells of ink than ever, in their concentration. "I see you," she almost whispered. "Yes, it is you ! But the image is different from you as you are now. I see a figure, not slight as a girls's, no, yet shapely and slender enough to be attractive. You are dressed for a dance. It must be a dance, for you tap your foot as if keeping time to music ! You have on a peach-colored gown patterned with brilliants. A princess might wear it ! You have on beautiful jewels. Your hair is cut short and waved " "Gray hair like mine — short?'" groaned Lady Gates. "Hush! Do not speak. It breaks the continuity. Your hair, in the crystal, is not gray. It is the color of copper — beautiful. Your eyebrows and lashes are black, your eyes large and bright. You have not a line on your face. You have a full chin, but it is young. You seem not more than thirty, or thirty-five at most. Men ask you for dances. You are very happy. One man comes — dark, handsome, like Marco Lopez. You trust him, as well you may, for I feel that he is fine and noble, though not understood or appreciated by many men, because of his profession. You go with him. You dance lightly and beautifully. He is much interested in you. His eyes show it. He speaks. You listen. You are so gay ! Ah, now the crystal is clouded. That means nothing of unhappiness. But the picture is complete." "Oh! If it could be a true one!" breathed Lady Gates, with the almost agonied earnestness of prayer. "Of course it can be a true picture. The crystal never lies," said Madame Blank. "I can tell you precisely what to do, so that what seems like magic illusion may become real." TO BE CONTINUED.