Picture Show (May-Oct 1919)

Th(. Picture Show, Octol<r IKh, 1919. RIDER An adaptation of the romantic racing story now being filmed by the Broadwest Film Company, in which Violet Hopson, Stewart Rome, and Gregory Scott play the leading characters. " I am Mr. Cunningham.' RE.\D THIS FIRST. MARJORIE DENTON, a beautiful and lovable gill of twenty-five is left in sole charge of the Denton racing stables by the death of her father. Unfortunately the old man leaves a lot of outstanding debts behind, but, with the true courage typical of the British woman, Majorie determines to carry on and pay off these debt,s. Her aunt Cynthia, a kind and sports-loving woman, comes to live with her, and together they set out to put the Denton stables on a new footing. Marjorie's pride is Jupiter, a beautiful horse who has every prospect of doing big things. Nearby lives Sir Reginald Buckley, who js in love with Marjorie and proposes to her, but JIarjorie tloes not love him, except as a friend, and althousli she refuses him, ho determines to gain her affections. Marjorie is pressed for an outstanding racing debt of her father's owing to Billbrook, the bookmaker, andthough slic is not legally bound to pay, she decides that it is a debt of lionour, and sends something on" account. Pressed for money, Marjorie decided to enter Jupiter for a selling race, as she realises that nothing else can be done, and she mast have money from .somewhere. The lUtlo racing town is set agog with excitement by the arrival of a wealthy Australian gentleman named Frank Cunningham, with a valuable string of horses. Marjorie makes up her mind to tUslike him, believing him to be a newly rich, impossible sort of man, and, as she describes him to a stranger she meets on the downs, " wearing a yellow waistcoat, big diamonds, with an accent you could cut with a knife." Jupiter wins the race, and JIarjorie tries to buy liim in, but the price rises too high for her, and her favourite is knocked down at 650 guineas. Brokenhearted at the loss of the liorse she loves, Marjorie nKjuires the naine of the buyer, and she harbours another grudge against the Australian when she Icarus that he, Frank Cunningham, has bought hini. Jupiter Comes Back. IT was the week after Gatwick races and Marjorie Denton was feeling tired of battling against poverty. The loss of Jupiter had destroyed all her hopes o£ making; a fortune on tho turf, and she was asking lierself whether it was worth while trying any longer to make the stablos pay. Ah to Mr. Cunningham, she did not c.Tre what his motive had been in bidding for the horse. All she know was that he had got him and she cherished a bitter resentment against this man who had so much luck, yet liad taken away from her tlie one hope of rebuilding her fortunes. She was in thi.5 mood when, one morning, one of the lads came running up to her in great excitement. " What do you think, mi.ss ? .Jupiter has como home. He must have run away from his new place." Tlio sound of the name of her favourite made Marjorio's blood race. She must see him before they came for him. She ru.shed to the stables and was greeted with a whinny of welcome from her pot who recogni.sed her footsteps long before she rcaclied tlio box. " Oh, you dea." ! " cried tlie girl, hugging him round the neck. " You know it was not my fault you had to go." .^nd the' intelligent animal tried his best to assure her of his faith in his old mistress. He laid his muzzle on her shoulder, but every now and again he cocked his ears and cast a backward glance at the road as if afraid his new owner would be after him. '" Taken French leave, miss," said old Tom Harris. " I expect they'll be coining after him soon. I could kick myself for liaving persuaded you to put him in that selling r.ue." " Never mind, Tom," said Marjorie. " You did it for tho best. We were the victims of bad luck. How 1 wish we could keep him ; but we shall haver to send over to Mr. Cimninghain s place and tell them Jupiter is here. He looks quite -thin, Tom. Surely they cannot have been starving him or ill-treating him ? " " Xo fear, miss. I don't like Mr. Cunningham for having got our beautj', but from all I hear of him he's much too fond of horses to ill-use them. Fine horeemaii, too, they say ho is." While Marjorie was enjoying the company of }>er old favourite, Mr. Cunningham, having discovered that Jupiter had returned to his old quarters, had followed him and was being received by aunt Cynthia, who sent one of the servants to tell her niece tliat Mr. Cunningham had called to see her. When Marjorie entered the drawing-room slie saw the man who had helped her with her horde's girth on the Downs talking to her aunt. " Good-day', Mr. Nobody of Nowhere," she sai<l pleasantly. Then, turning to her avmt, she said : " Where is Mr. Cunningham ? " " I am Mr. Cunningham," answered the young man, with a quizzical smile. " I don't wear a yellow waistcoat nor big diamonds, and if I had a wife I am afraid I should not beat her." Poor Marjorie flushed with mortification. All her unreasoning prejudice against Cunningham vanished when she realised that he was not at all like she had pictured. She looked at her aunt to remind her that she had told her the fib about the Australian, and then turned to her visitor. " I intended to tell you how much I hated you for having out -bid me in the sale of .Jupiter, but I must apologise to you instead for my rudeness the other morning. I suppose you have come -for .Jupiter ? " " Yes," replied tho Australian, with a winning smile. " I am afraid he does not like me as much as I like liim. But I can't be angry with him for ninning away. Had I been in liis place I should have done the same." JIarjorie could not take cfTenee at the obvious ccmpliment. It was so sincere and she was conscious of a feeling of joy at meeting the sti"anger again. They talked for a little while, and then •Marjorie oflered to take liim to the stables to leelaim the horse. " You had a perfect right to buy him," she said, as she stood stroking .Jiipiter's neck, " but you will understand how sorry I was to lose him. You see, my father gave him to me when I was a little girl for a birthday present, and I practically trained him myself." " Had I known that I would not have bid for him," said Cunningham quietly. " There arc so many people who simply look at a racehorse as a moans of making monej', and have no real love for animals." " Yes," agreed Marjorie, " but I am sure you like animals for themselves." Then, fctjing she had said too much, she added . hastily : " All I ask is that I may 1)6 uUowed to come over and see liim sometimes." ■' I shall be delighted, and I am sure Jupiter will be," said the Australian, raising his hat as he took liold of the horse's headstall and le<l him out of the box. " Good-bye. I may hojie to see you again soon." Jupiter went quietly, but not without many a backward glance at his former mistress. When Marjorie returned to the house, she burst in upon her aunt with an indignant protest. " How could you tell me that horrible story about the yellow waistcoat. I think he's splendid. Quite the nicest nlan 'I have met. ■ We are to go over and look at his stables soon. ' Aunt Cynthia said nothing, but she thought a lot. That night Marjorie and her aunt went to a dinner party at Sir Reginald Buckley's house. It was a very bright affair, and came as a welcome relief to the mistress of Denton Hall, who was getting tired of .spending her evenings poring over debts which she could not pay. She found herself in the conservatory with her host after dinner, and the conversation turned on nuing. "I think you are doing. splendidly carrying on as yoti are," .said Sir Reginald. Not many girls would have the pluck to do it.'' " It's very hard sometimes," said JIarjorie, with a sigh. " Things were not exactly as they might have been when dad died. There's an awful lot of debts hanging o\er the old place." The baronet was silent for some moments. Then he suddenly said : " Why don't you let me help you, Mifs Denton ? It's only a question of a little "capital until things turn romid. After all, even if you have refused to marry me, remember we are neighbours and, I hope, friends always." " Oh, I couldn't think of it," replied Marjorie quickly. "It's very kind of you to offer to help, but I must manage ?on;ehcw.'' "It would bo quite a business deal," persisted the baronet. '" I think you wculd be w ise to accept my offer. You c aA't carry cn without capital." The girl realised the tmtli of tliis statement, and in the end she accepted a loan of £2,000. for which she gave an I.O.U., but there was a vague foreboding in her mind when she took the money. Her fears would have been r?a]ised had si e heard a conversation between Sir Reginald Buckley' and Billbrook, the bookmaker, over the telephone the next morning. '" I want you to keep pressing Miss Denton f'lr that eld racing debt of. her father's," said the baronet. "Tell her she will have to send another in.stalmcnt on at once or you will take proceedings. She has got the money." " You hear that," he said, turning to one c£liis quests who was helping himself to a largo whisky-and-soda. " You said I would have no chance with her, Goddard. What de yuu think now ? " Gcddr.rd was too" deep in Sir Keginald's debt to offer any lemonstance at the. baronet's scoundrelly tactics. " Pretty smart, P.eggie," he said, " but dor/'t forget you have not got her yet. She's j'lsr like her father. You may break, but you will never bend her." "Won't I," chuckled the baronet. "You'll see. She is pajHng Billbrook with the money I am lending her and very soon she will be in my power. To pay her debts she'll have to marry me. And now I'm going to get to work tn that fool Cunningham. I hate that man, and I mean to break him. Fancy a man paying six hundred aiid fifty for a tubed horse." " Don't be so certain he's a fool," advHsed Goddaixl quietly. " He had not that reputation in Australia." [Continued on page 8).