Picture Show (Nov 1919-Apr 1920)

The Victurt Show, March 13«A, 1920. THE SECRET HUSBAND Continued from page 6 parlour. A big vase of golden mimosa was placed on the table, shedding its luscious perfume of spring throughout the room. Bill Graham, with his cap pushed off his forehead and :t pipe stuck between his lips, surveyed his guest with an air of unalloyed satisfaction. " We've pulled you through all right, mister, and I'm not far wrong in what I've always said, my Sylvie's a rare nurse. There's nothink the kid can't do!" " Take no notice of him, Mr. Blake," said Sylvia hurriedly, a hot blush rushing to her cheeks. The bell tinkled in the shop, and Graham hurried off to interview a customer. " It's all very well," said Richard presently, " but I cannot go on like this indefinitely. I must get out and find something to do." For the life of her Sylvia could not understand the sudden sinking of her heart at his words. "Got a mother?" she asked hurriedly. Richard shook his head. " No father, sister, or brothers ; nobody but a very distant relation, and I don't think for one moment he'd help me, not even if he found me dying in the gutter !" Sylvia smiled, and voiced the plan she had been dreaming about the last few nights. " I wonder if you'd like to try your hand at cinema work?" she asked. " By Jove, I should think I would V Richard cried. " I did a bit of amateur ac ting in my young days. Don't know if that would be any help to me?" " I dare say it would," smiled Sylvia. " At any rate, I'll mention you to Mr. Nigel, our producer." Sylvia look an Underground train at Aldgate East, and an hour later she reached the Erox Film Studios. ' It was an immense building, with a buffet at one corner, containing coffee, tea, sandwiches, fancy pastries, and buns. The rest of the studio was arranged in compartments. There was a hall, a drawing-room, a prison cell, and various stage properties. Sylvia soon found Mr. Nigel. He was a tall, grey-haired man between forty-five and fifty, clean-shaven, with a firm mouth and grey eyes. '" May I speak to you, Mr. Nigel?" lie looked down into Sylvia's exquisite, pleading, flower-like face, and saw her, at least, so it seemed, for the first time. He took in every detail of her faultless little figure in its cheap but attractive clothing. A bunch of the yellow mimosa from the blossoms that decorated the humble parlour in the Commercial Road, was tucked into her coat. Sylvia's shy smile went straight to Nigel's heart with as sure an accuracy of aim as if Cupid had used his bow and shot an arrow straight at the target. "What can I do for you, Miss— ei?" he asked kindly, taking his big cigar Cttt of his mouth. " My name's Sylvia Graham, sir. I wonder if you would find a walking-on part for a roung man?" Imperceptibly tho interest wavered on Robert Nigel's features; he sighed and said: "Want a job for your boy, I suppose?'5' For the life of him Nigel could not keep the disappointment out of his tones. For the lirsl time in his life, romance seemed to be on the threshold. In the studios he moved in an atmosphere of men and women. Women passed in their hundreds through the doors, and passed out again, without making the slightest impression upon him. Those who knew Nigel intimately declared that he was bomb-proof against all wiles of the fair sex, that he had no heart, that his gluttony for work robbed him of every other emotion. " No, Mr. Blake's not my boy," said Sylvia. " He's a friend of dad's. • Just come home from abroad, and says he's done amateur theatricals." "They all tell that yarn, my dear," said Nigel, smiling. ' I don't Know much about it ; but he wants a job," Sylvia answered wistfully. "Is he a good-looking fellow?" Nigel's lip? closed firmly as he watched the girl's features. " He's simply splendid — (all, handsome, and such a gentleman !" Her voice quivered with enthusiasm. " He's a lucky devil to have such a champion! Bring him along to-morrow. I'll put him through his paces for your sake." Sylvia thanked him. A great bell clanged through the building, which warned her that if she did not hurry she would be late. She rau up the staircase leading to the dressingroom. "Evening logs!" one of the girls called out to her. " Mr. Nigel wasn't satisfied with the bridge scene yesterday." Sylvia slipped off her coat and skirt, hat and blouse. She went over to a mirror. Taking a brush and comb out of her little attache case, after removing the pins out of her hair, she brushed it back from her face. " You are a pretty kid !" an elderly woman exclaimed enviously. " She's a second Mary Pickford, my dears !" At this remark there was a laugh, and Sylvia coloured. Some of her fellow artistes were inclined to be jealous of her radiant personality, jealous of her figure and her flawless complexion. Sylvia rubbed some yellow grease-paint all over her face, neck, anil arms. Then she put some rouge on her cheeks and lips. She accentuated her perfectly arched eyebrows with black, and carefully darkened her eyelashes. After she had dusted herself with powder, ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL ART SUPPLEMENT IN NEXT WEEK'S WONDERFUL NUMBER. A Beautiful Photogravure of SESSUE HAVAHAWA (Size 9/t inches by 7), Also a Double Page of BIG SCENES from BRITISH SCREEN PLAYS Printed in this Beautiful Process. PAGES AND PAGES OF PICTURES The Best Fiction. The Latest News of the Cinema World. Your Chance to Win a Big Money Prize. The Next List of Questions in Our £500 Voting Competition. See your Photogravure Supplement is in your copy of THE PICTURE SHOW Next Week. she arranged her hair loosely across her forehead and in a bunch of soft curls just above the nape of her neck. A dresser hooked up her simple yellow satin gown. A few minutes later she was in the studio again. Robert Nigel was leaning against the doorway, his cigar iu his mouth, his head bent over his manuscript. Outwardly he showed no trace of interest in anything beyond the paper in bis hands, but if one had been able to look into his face, one would have seen an alert, tense, waiting expression. Directly Sylvia came in front of him he called her to him. " I hear that so far you've only done walking on work, .Miss Graham?" Yes," said Sylvia timidly. " I've got a small part for you in our next production. Here it is; take it home and read it carefully." " Oh, Mr. Nigel, it is good of you !" she cried, clasping her little hands enthusiast ically. " I do want to get on !" " You will, if you take lips from me," he said . decidedly. "There's not an ambition in life that cannot be realised if one digs one's teeth into it — that is, if one definitely decides not to let go until the goal is reached." Sylvia looked up into the strong face, awed by the dominant personality and determination of (he man. " Now to work," lie said, walking away. Whilst Sylvia was planning things for Dick, he was trying to look after Bill Graham's emporium. Bill had received an urgent telegram about a parrot from a big store in the West End. Richard had declared himself strong enough to look after the shop duiing Graham's absence. He was only too anxious to do something for Bill and his daughter after all their kindness to him. He had not been left alone for long when a smart motor drew up to the door. A girl stepped out and entered the shop. She was a small, vivacious brunette. She did not hide her amazement to find Richard Blake, a man obviously of her ov«i world, in such incongruous surroundings. " I've come to see the man who keeps this shop," she said. " Mr. Graham's out. I'm in charge for the moment," Richard answered awkwardly. " I've come about this," she said, handing Richard a letter. He read it through quickly. It was from Graham to Mr. Baird telling him that he had just such a monkey as he required, for sale. " I'll show you the monkey, ' said Richard gravely. Now that the crisis had come, no one knew what it cost him to part with VumYurn, his companion of many adventures. " Mr. Baird is my greatest friend," the girl lold Richard, omitting to add that John Baird was also the man she had promised to marry. " He is going to give me a monkey for a birthday present, but I never thought i should find such a perfectly adorable angel as this one." She laughed with delight when Yum-Yurn's little fingers clutched at her delicate, gloved hand. " Will you kindly have it sent to me ? My name is Vivian — Pansy Vivian." She gave an address in Sloane Street. " Mr. liaird will send a cheque. Good-bye !" The next moment she was whirled away in her car. When Sylvia came home that night sho was bubbling over with excitement. She told Richard and her father of her gocd fortune. She had got a small pail, and that the following day Richaid was to go to the studios with her. The nest morning, on reaching the Erox Studios, Sylyia introduced Richard to Nigel. Richard's well-made figure, his fair, closely cropped, wavy hair, his finely-cut features and distinguished bearing, struck Nigel with a sense of foreboding. This man sooner or .later must piove a rival; he was already a potential lover ! Within a month Richard found himself cast for a small part. He had to make desperate love to a girl — and she was not Sylvia ! As the scene was proceeding, Nigel stood at Sylvia's side. He saw every gamut of emotion cross her features. Richard made love in at. ardent fashion, as if he had served an apprenticeship to the art from the day of his birth. It hurt. Sylvia could have cried out aloud. She heard Nigel suddenly give an order. The great bell clanged to stop the actors and photographer. "He's hopeless!" said Nigel. "Sorry to disappoint you, Miss Graham." For the first time in his life, Nigel allowed his heart, and not his head, to control his actions. He hated Richard. " It's a pity," said Sylvia, in a low voice. " The old story. Miss Graham. One must be cruel to be kind!" And with that remark Nigel left her. Sylvia ran upstairs to the dressing-room, and soon changed into her outdoor clothes. She slipped away from the studios, and reached home an hour before Richard. Directly he walked into the parlour sho knew what had happened. There was an air of hopeless dejection about him. He met her questioning glance, and said: "I'm no good. Got the bool ! Says I cannot act for nuts !" "It's not true!" said Sylvia passionately, and then she slopped. She was not sorry, she was glad, lwxause it cut into her very soul to watch Richard in a love scene with another girl. " Dad. couldn't you give Mr. Blake a job here?" she called. Bill Graham came into the parlour. His coat was off, his shirt-sleeves rolled back, a big pan of bird-seed was in his left hand. "Not 'alf!" said he. "Should see the cheque I had from Baird for the monkey ! Going to give you commission cm sales, my