Picture Show (Nov 1919-Apr 1920)

8 Tlu Picture Show, April 10?/,, 1920. THE SECRET HUSBAND, from page 6 ) Alarmed by her silence _he became even more ardent in his wooing. "I loved you from the first moment I saw you," he declared, '* and up to then I hadn't wasted time with women. To be candid, I was always a little shy of them, although my work threw me amongst so many. But with you it was different ; you appealed to me in a way that I never conceived. I felt instinctively that -you were the one soul for whom I'd always been searching, and that if you would not give yourself to me I should go lonely through life to the end of my days." Nigel's passionate outpourings troubled Sylvia. She never realised until then how difficult it is to wound and hurt a man who is so trustful that he will dare to lay bare the innermost thoughts of his soul. Tears came to her eyes. She longed to tell him the truth, that she was bound hand and foot by every human tie to Richard. That she was bound by her great love and by the legal tie of marriage ! That she was a bride — yet not a wife — and that her husband had vanished as completely out of her life as if he had never existed. But she was obliged to remain silent; it was more important than ever now Richard was in danger. She could guard him best by keeping her mouth closed. Her voice trembled as she said : ''I cannot marry you, Mr. Nigel." " I know the reason," he said hoarsely. "You are afraid of my grey hairs! Is it youth that you want, little one?" "No! Oh, no!" she said vehemently. " Why, you are quite young. I'd never noticed " " Then, if I'm not too old for you," he interrupted, "I shall not take 'No' for an ' answer. I'm going to make you love me. I've such a belief in the power of the mind, in the power of love, if you like, that I shall never rest until you feel for me as I feel for you." They turned back and entered the motorcar. Neither Nigel nor Sylvia were much inclined for conversation on the return joucney to Capel Curig, and the following morning they travelled to London with the rest of the company. Sylvia took up her abode with Miss Do Motte's landlady, just a couple of tiny rooms, in a house near the Charing Cross Road. She was obsessed with two ideas, the one to solve the mystery of Dick, .the second to succeed with her work. She paid an early visit to her old home, hoping to find some communication from Richard waiting for her. The Emporium was already occupied by the new people. The woman nodded her head when Sylvia asked eagerly if there were any letters. Sylvia turned sadly away from the spot hallowed by so many memories. Her eyes were blinded with tears when she climbed on to the top of a 'bus that bore her back from whence she came. She glanced up into the starlit sky, and she murmured despairingly below her breath : " Oh, dear Heaven, shall I never see my Dick again;" " The Glimpse." OX that momentous morning when John Baird went to Pansy and told her that Richard Ferris had been brought to him by two policemen, the blood seemed to freeze in her veins. John Baird had questioned her in an offhand but nevertheless searching manner. He explained that Sir Richard Ferris was driving ini a taxi with a -woman, when they collided with a motor lorry. That he was suffering from concussion and shock, and that l he woman, who was uninjured, had told the police to take Ferris to Baird's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. "Do. you know." Baird had said, "for one mad moment the thought occurred to me t hut you were the woman. But you did not go out after I left last night?" Pansy had felt an abyss yawning at her feet. The ghastly scene in the little Emporium came before her for the hundredth lime. One false step might plunge her into the hideous limelight of the newspaper columns. " Of course I didn't go out," she had said sharply. "It's a most baffling case," Baird had continued, frowning. "For one thing, the poor chap has lost his memory." " Lest his memory !" Pansy gasped. " He doesn't remember a single incident before the accident, how he had lived, or anything, except that he'd just -arrived in England !" * Will he never be the same again?" " The doctors say a normal, quiet life are his best aids to recovery. It will do him good to see a bright young thing like you. I'll bring him round soon." Meanwhile, Richard had become convalescent. He took very kindly to his new life. John Baird's strong, vigorous companionship helped him back to health more quickly than a dozen fashionable physicians. But ho was still suffering from loss of memory. " Shock caused if, a shock may give it back to him," all the specialists had agreed. Nerve troubles were insidious maladies, the medic£ world were still more or less baffled by them, even the most brilliant men were slightly diffident in their opinion, drugs were not altogether successful, and certainly not a permanent cure. So Richard could not speak of his past life. At the back of his mind he had a dim recollection of a dream girl, with hair like the sun, eyes like blue flowers, and lips like the petals of a rose. Good food, well-cut clothes, had turned him IfttKijiveekcr The opening chapters of TOM MIX'S OWN LIFE STORY, entitled "In the Kingdom of Adventure." The first of BILL HART'S CAMPFIRE TALKS. Beginning with this week Bill Hart edits a page in Bovs' Cinema." The life story of MARIE WALCAMP, told in anecdotes and photographs. THE FIGHTING DUFFER, a new series of Boxing Stories ; and all the usual pages and pages of fiction, photographs, jokes, etc., etc. h\t\extweek;r Picture Jkow Another splendid Art Supplement in Photogravure, including a Beautiful Art Photogravure of ANTONIO MORENO, size 16 by 10 ins. A wonderful love scene, WYNDHAM STAND ING and ELSIE FERGUSON in "The W itness for the Defence." A page of pictures of VIOLA DANA and all the usual features and the latest cinema news into a magnificent specimen of manhood. He had been inundated with invitations from matchmaking mammas, for Sir Richard Ferris was reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom. " I believe in re-incarnaticn," he confided one day to Baird. " It's rather a common belief in these days," said Baird, with a shrug of his shoulders. " As far as I'm concerned I keep an open mind on the subject. What are your grounds of belief?" "My grounds of belief !" Richard laughed. " I'm always thinking of a girl." " Really !" Baird became interested. He immediately began to think he was getting on the trail of the mysterious woman who had sent Ferris to him. " She's elusive, like a phantom," Richard wer.i'on whimsically. "I feel she was fond of me — more fond of me than I was of her — and yet .now I wish I could meet her. Whilst I've been ill, I suppose I've had more time for reflection than I used to have. Do you know, Baird, the man who is whole-heartedly loved by a woman, not for what he has, but just because he's his stupid old self, is a douced lucky devil !" '• I quite agree," Baii d retorted. " I'm one of the lucky chaps, Ferris. I'm engagtd. I'd like you to meet her mow you're stronger." " I'd love to, old chap. You gay old dog ! Fancy your being engaged !" " Why not?" said Baird shortly. " No reason at all," Ferris laughed. " Take me along this afternoon to meet hei." Pansy was reading, and Nina knitting some silky-looking garment of the jumper species, when John Baird and Sir Richaid Ferris were announced. "Richard was introduced to Pansy and Mrs. Duprez. Pansy's colour had fled. Nina saw her agitation, and the thought flashed through her mind : "Those two are not strangers," and she made up her mind to watch events, without betraying her curiosity. As for Richard, he felt exactly as if he were in a trance. Pansy was familiar to him, air.d yet not wholly so, nor so real, oddly enough, as the dream girl with the golden locks, of whom his mind was so constantly obsessed. When Pansy found herself alone with Richard for a few moments he suddenly startled her by saying : " There's something familiar about you, Miss Vivian. I hate strangers. You don't seem to be one." " That's nice of you," she said. "Do you know," he said earnestly, "I feel that you — of all people in the world — might help me to remember." " I'll do my best," she said swiftly. The next moment Baird and Nina rejoined them. " I want to have a talk with you, Pansy, if you can give me a little of your time. Nina, will you take Sir Richard for a run in the park ; his car is outside ? You don't mind, old chap — eh?" " Delighted, I'm sure," said Richard, who saw that Baird wanted Pansy all fo himself. " But I make a condition, and that is that you all dine with me to-morrow night at the Carlotta." "I should love to!" Pansy cried. " That's all right," laughed Ferns gcodhumouredly. #" What do you want ?" asked Pansy a little breathlessly, directly the door closed behind Nina and Ferris. " Dearest, I've been so patient," Baird said earnestly, placing his hands on her shoulders. ", I'm not growing any younger. I want my wife badly, more than I can tell you in words. It isn't fair, sweetheart, to keep me waiting like this." Pansy realised she was in a tight corner, so 'she adopted her old metheds. She flattered him, kissed him lightbz, cried, and looked ravishing, begging him to be patient with his " wee baby." Once again he succumbed to her charm, blamed himself for his brutal impatience, left -her deeply penitent, swearing that he would wait for her through eternity. The following day Sylvia signed a three years' contract with the Erox Film Company Ltd. Hen work had been so convincing, that, as Nigel had predicted, the offer" was made on the completion on " A Girl's Choice." To celebrate the event of the signing of Sylvia* s contract with the Erox Company, Nigel insisted on giving a dinner-party to the principals of " A Girl's Choice " at the Carlotta. Sylvia wore a simple black evening gown, which showed up the burnished gold of her luxuriant hair, and the satin-like sheen, of her faultless skin. In spite of herself Sylvia was fascinated by the gay scene. Suddenly she gave a smothered, startled cry. Nigel followed her glance. Two men had come in, one slightly grey, the other tall, fine, distinguished-locking, and by his side there was an exceedingly pretty girl in rose tissue. The younger man suddenly turned and looked across the room. It was Dick — Sylvia's own Dick ! Then she heard Nigel speaking, but his voice sounded a thousand miles away. " I see you have spotted the likeness, too. That's the man you brought to the studios one day. The man who is wanted for the murder of your father !" (Another instalment of this thrilling story in next week's issue,)