Radio age (Jan 1927-Jan 1928)

10 RADIO AGE for JulyAugust, 1927 " 'It, of course, would be impossible for us to talk to reporter for publication/ " said His Highness, " 'but after you are bucked up a bit we would regard it as a favor if you would have a one-step.' " "Oo 00! And a few minutes before those debs and sub debs and old ladies in young clothes had been regarding Miss Amy Graves as about as important as a sparrow's birthday! I stood up and the Prince and I walked over to an open window and it wasn't long before I said I was a hundred percent and off we glided. The Prince said I danced extremely well and I said he wasn't so bad himself and he laughed and after the dance he ordered an ice and we sat at a little table and chatted and finally I excused myself for I had got my interview, a Bronx, a parfait and I enjoyed the unanimous hatred of all the sisters in the Fortunatus blue book and I was so happy!" Silence in the ante room and Daly wondered if Miss Sims had walked out on Miss Graves. "No," said a sonorous voice, suggestive of Ethel Barrymore's, "No, we never met again." Daly managed to throttle a laugh down to a gurgle, but Miss Graves had heard and she cried joyfully: "The conference is breaking up." Daly appeared at the door. "Come in, please," he said, and then he blushed very much like Mr. Asbury Lunt might have blushed, and exclaimed weakly, "0, it's you." "In person," she said, and throwing a triumphant glance at the thoroughly bewildered Miss Sims, the young lady bowed gracefully as Daly stepped aside and motioned her to precede him into the private office. XIII Seated on opposite sides of the big flat desk they looked at one another without speaking. The girl who had been chattering so briskly a moment ago now seemed at a loss for a word. Daly, with indifferent success, tried to suppress a smile. "You ordered me fired," she said at last. "Is that so amusing?" "Pardon," he said, very soberly, "I was thinking of your affair with the Prince of Wales." "I'm serious," she protested. "Stub Graham told me why you ordered me off the staff and I have gone to a lot of trouble getting in here to thank you." "I hope you're not going to be sarcastic." "Not a syllable," she exclaimed. "I want to thank you for paying me the finest compliment I ever had too good looking to be turned loose on a helpless newspaper staff!" Daly glanced at Miss Graves and although his appraisal of her was properly swift she was modestly aware of it and the color rose in her cheeks. Daly wondered if she knew that her oval face, framed by the chic green turban and softened by vagrant curls of auburn hair and illuminated by eyes that were pools of flickering blue light, was a face among thousands, millions. He wondered if she realized how exquisitely her tailored suit and open collared silk blouse caressed the lines of her lithe, slender body. Lips, lashes and eyebrows that gloried in freedom from rouge and pencil. A Da Vinci nose, chiselled in warm Italian marble. A throat — suddenly he looked up from the letter opener with which he had been toying. It was his turn to speak. "Are you going to take a train East tonight?" She looked at him in astonishment. "What has that to do with it?" she asked. Daly pulled himself together. It occurred to him that the publisher of the Fortunatus Gazette was too rapidly becoming pop-eyed over a little girl reporter. What a laugh that situation would get in the Gazette plant, from the press room in the sub basement to radio station on the roof. "Merely this," he said, bringing his eyes around boldly to meet hers. "I hadn't considered that my instructions to Graham might mean really serious consequences to you and I wouldn't want to be the one to drive you out of town looking for work. Perhaps we're making too much of a small matter. I'll tell Graham I've changed my mind." A shadow deepened the blue in her eyes. She hadn't come to hear him say that. Considering the matter, she did not know that she had wished him to say it. But of course she couldn't tell him that. Couldn't permit him to guess it, even. She arose and made a move toward the outer room. He followed and stood with his hand on the edge of the door. He was a tall figure and there was nothing lacking now in poise or dignity. She looked up. "I suppose," she said, "that I should thank you now for giving me back the job, although, if you will remember, I didn't ask you to do so. And I suppose, too, I should withdraw my thanks for the compliment you seem to have withdrawn." Daly closed the door softly and stood facing her. "I have withdrawn nothing." "It's a little bewildering but in that case I'm going to thank you for everything, many, many times, and I'm sure that ought to cover it." "We haven't been honest about anything," he said. "Not since you came in. Suppose we stop fencing and begin all over again and tell the truth." "It would be interesting," she replied. "Let's start with the conference; as a matter of fact were you in conference?" "No, I was not. But how about the Prince of Wales? Did he tell you you were a bit of all right and buy you an ice?" "No." "We are two terrible, terrible liars, Miss Graves. Now the next question: Why did you come here to see me?" "Let me get this straight. Are we both pledged to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?" "Absolutely." "Then, being the man, you should plunge first. As a matter of fact why did you fire me?" She was looking up at him, her face flushed, but