Picture Show (Oct 1920 - Apr 1921)

19 ROMANCES OF FAMOUS FILM FOLK The Second of This Delightful Serie9, Telling of tKe Meeting and Marriage of Bryant Washburn and Mabel Chidester — = By GRACE KINGSLEY ====== Picture Show, February 19th, 1921. "THE FALSE ROAD." lCon^%!rm " Won't be a minute, Betty," said Mike. " There's some in the next room." " W ell, shut the door and knock before you come in," said Betty. " I don't want any Of the others to sec me here. They might tell Minnie." "You're a good thinker, kid," said Mike. As soon as lie was gone out, Betty went to the, drawer where she knew he kept his drugs and knockout drops, used by the. gang in doping their victims. In a trice she had found the phial she wanted, and emptied some drops into Mike's wineglass. When the crook returned, Betty was sitting on Uie arm of his easy-chair, swinging her legs. Then she began to flatter Mike, and insisted on being his cup-bearer. So intent w:TS she on playing her part, that she did not notice the door open gently, and the face of Chauffeur Charlie peep in. He closed the door silently, and when he got out into the passage he gave a low whistle. " Guess Minnie will be pleased to hear of this," he muttered. The crook chauffeur had long worshipped 'Frisco Minnie, and he saw here a plan to get into her favour. In the meantime the drugged wine had got to Mike's head. He made several attempts to throw off the drug, but at last, to Betty's relief, he dropped back in his chair. After assuring herself that Mike was thoroughly under the influence of the drug, Betty went to work on the safe. She had got it open, and had the notes she had taken from Starbuck in her hand, when the door was flung open, and 'Frisco Minnie stood before her. Betty made a dash to get past her, but Minnie shut the door behind her, and turned the key in the lock. Then she shook Mike and aroused him. The crook was still dizzy from the effects of the drug, but the open safe and the two women told him ill he wanted to know. " You Jezebel ! " lie hissed, lurching towards Betty. " Yes, a fine end to your pretty love scene, Mike ! " sneered Minnie. " Oh, I know all about it ! Betty fooled you so she could rob you. You get those notes from her, and we'll talk about the other business later ! " Betty dived under the table. Neither Mike norMinnie saw her make a quick movement with the envelope she held in her hand. She looked scared to death when Mike dragged her out. Snatching the envelope from her hand, Mike told Minnie to open the door. " Now get ! " he cried. " And you can thank your stars you're a woman, or I'd have filled you full of lead ! " Betty nce.'cl ni second order. She flew through the door, and as she passed out she heard Minnie giving the faithless A. ike awhile lot of names, that were as stinging as they were truthful. " Hope they keep that up a little while till I make my getaway ! " muttered Betty, as she dashed up to Roger's room. He was all ready, and Betty dragged him out on to the passage. " I've got it, but there's no time to talk," she said. Once outside Betty pressed a bundle of notes into his hands. " Minnie caught me with the safe open ! " she said hurriedly. " I hid the notes while she was waking Mike, whom I had drugged, and put a newspaper in the envelope which had contained the notes. Mike will get the trick when Minnie has finished telling him what she thinks about him. Meet me at Central Station to-morrow at six. We'd better separate now." Roger realised that this was no time to talk, and lie liolted. They met the next day as arranged. Roger had taken two tickets to White Harbour, and they got in the train without noticing any of the gang. " I'm beginning to feel good already," said Betty, as the train started. They were alone in the compartment — Roger had seen to that. " You'll feel better when you've tried the straight game a bit," said Roger. There was a long interval, in which Roger held Betty in his arms, and told her in about fifty different ways how much lie loved her. Then they argued as to which loved the most, and by the time they had decided it was a draw, they had arrived at White Harbour. ' \s they walked from the station Roger stopped suddenly. * " Do you know, Betty, it is Christmas Eve ! " " So it is ! " laughed Betty. " Just fancy, Roger. What a title for a movie I 'The Crook Turns Santa Claus ! ' " And, as though to add to a setting to the part they wore playing, the snow began to fall. It was a happy party that sat round the table at the Starbuck Cottage that night. Roger made a clean breast of the whole story, and while he and Betty asked to be forgiven, old Mr. Starbuck pointed to the calendar. " On the eve of Christmas, it is the duty of all Christians to forgive. Both of you have atoned for your errors, and the straight road lies before you. May you both be very, very happy." {Adapted, by permission, from ttie photo-play ealurwg ENID BENNETT as Betty.) ft. I J BRYANT WASHBURN and his little son. Read This First. IN an old and none too clean Essanay studio in Chicago a pair of brown eyes looked suddenly into a very brilliant pair of blue eyes. It was love at first sight, and the owner of the brown orbs was Bryant Washburn ; whilst the more brilliant ones belonged to Mabel Chidester, then at the age known as sweet seventeen." Last week we left them talking rather shyly to each other on topics such as the weather, but below you will learn how their acquaintanceship ripened into something greater. Bryant Asks If He May Call. " A RE you working to-day ? " asked Mabel ; J-\ and this gave Bryant a chance to show off a bit. So he airily exclaimed : " Well, I'm not working to-morrow ! I've been working three straight weeks without any rest, and " But just then lie caught sight of his director. " That is " — he coughed — that is I have " And Mabel Chidester laughed. It was a clear, rippling, spontaneous laugh that you just couldn't get away from, so full of mirth that Bryant couldn't do a thing but join in. That laugh broke the ice entirely, and established another real bond between them, the bond of a common sense of humour. Without which, you may remember, George Eliot says no married couple can ever be really at one. And then Bryant os!<ctl if lie might call. It was pretty sudden, Til admit. But not for nothing bapd Mabel Chidester's ancestors braved the perils of the deep in the Mayflower, and as Bryant had asked it most respect fully, yet. in somewhat the same anient manner in which an ancient Puritan, knowing he had no time to los.', might suddenly have asked the ladv of his heart to go to America with him, Mabel told him that he might. But if you think she let Bryant know just how she felt about him, you're mistaken. Tin first time he called there was another young man already in the Chidester drawing-room, ami Mabel made no effort v hatevcr to get rid of him. And the second time he called, another young man was there. But as Bryant gradually got to calling oftener. and taking Mabel to parties and theatres, gradually all the other young men faded out of her horizon. Their First Home. ONE clay when the two were out for a stroll, Bryant insisted on leading Mabel into a certain street. It was anice, homey street, with a lot of good-looking flats faring on it. '" We're going to make a call," said Bryant. With that he led the way right up to a certain door, and instead of ringing the bell, took a key out of his pocket, Unlocked the door, threw it. open, told Mabel to enter, and when they we.ro inside a snug little flat, he put his arm around her — I don't know whether for the first time or not — and inquired very tenderly : " Dear, do you think you can stand it to live in a four-room flat ? " It's all very well to tell how the girl kissed him, when it's a fiction tale ; but somehow when it's real people — well, anyhow, I'm going to let. you imagine that part. At any rate, she didn't say " no." And just two weeks later they were married. " But he left me to break the news to father and mother that I was going to marry an actor," declared Mabel Washburn, with an injured little pout that was belied by the twinkle in her eye. As a matter of fact, after the first plunge of acquaintanceship was made, father and mother Chidester thought there was just nobody liko Bryant Washburn. And they think so yet. " But during my courtship I had to go home every night at ten o'clock ! " exclaimed Bryant. " That was father Chidester's cruel rule. Even the night before we were married they sent mo home at the same old fatal hour." Bryant Wa-shburn and Mabel Chidester that was spent the very nicest evenings in the whole world alone together in their new home. You remember " Skinner's Dress Suit " and " Honey " ? It was just like that all over again with them. Mabel learned to cook nicely, and when Bryant came home it wasn't to a funny actors' boarding-house, but to a lovely young wife and a nicely cooked dinner. " And then one day " as the subtitles say — see business of making booties, robes, and other funny little thingumys. Because Sonny was coming ! He came one bright autumn morning. Of course, his real name is Bryant, but nobody ever calls him that. Sonny was born in the little flat, and proved an admirable infant. He never cried at night or got a pain in his stomach that made his dad have to sit up with him and lose his beauty. sleep — his dad's. I mean — Sonny himself made no pretensions to beauty at the time. But Bryant's salary had to be stretched to meet the new needs. He worked and worked along for two years. Like Honey, in " Skinner's Dress Suit," Mabel thought he ought to have his salary raised — raised a lot. So she set out to learn what was wrong, why a man with Bryant's genius wasn't getting his name in electrics everywhere. Finally they decided together it was the stories he was doing. To be sure, they were as good as anybody's stories, but not, Mabel was sure, good enough for Bryant. (To be concluded next week.)