Reel Life (Sep 1914 - Mar 1915)

REEL LIFE Seventeen "June in the Role of Peacemaker From the Reliance Serial By George Randolph Chester and Lillian Chester JUNE'S escape from the gambling house had been well effected. She reached Mrs. O'Keefe's safely. There she and Marie had a long talk. The little French maid perched herself on the window ledge, looking idly down the street. While she sat there, Officers Dowd, Toole and Moran, on their way to the station house to report for duty, stopped for a minute's talk with Mrs. O'Keefe. Soon they felt the presence of Marie in the window above, and all grinned happily up at her. "They're good friends of mine," the widow of the most popular patrolman on New York's police force told the officers, "and they do not wish to be found. Do you understand?" Mrs. O'Keefe's acquaintances "understood'' so well that several times in the course of the next few hours Ned Warner and Gilbert Blye, making inquiries in the neighborhood, were sent in exactly the wrong direction. At last the man with the black Vandyke became suspicious. Then he was convinced that June was being harbored somewhere in the vicinity. As on former occasions of the sort, he betook himself first to Charles Cunningham, and then to Tommy Thomas. The girl received instructions and departed in an automobile. Before hunting for June, Tommy Thomas drove to the magnificent estate of Mrs. Villard, a young and handsome woman of excellent character — but lonely. "I've got a real idea for you," she told Mrs. Villard, showing her June's portrait in the back of the watch Blye had given her. "This young lady is looking for a position and she'd make you an excellent companion. Why not let me send her to you?" The matter was arranged, and Tommy motored back to New York. The next forenoon, driving round the suspected neighborhood, she had the good fortune to see June come out of Mrs. O'Keefe's. The rest was smooth sailing. Soon June was on her way to Mrs. Villard 's. That same afternoon she was initiated into her new life, when, with the mistress of the estate, she made the rounds of that lady's tenants according to a daily schedule which the charitable soul never neglected. Everywhere June found happy folk and well-ordered homes, except in the squalid cottage CAST June Warner Norma Phillips Ned Warner J. W. Johnston Gilbert Blye Arthur Donaldson Tommy Thomas Marguerite Loveridge Marie Evelyn Dumo Charles Cunningham Charles Mason Edwards Ezra Walck Al Groggs Arthur Forbes Lou Groggs '. Ida James Father Joseph Fay Neighbor Grace Ady Mrs. Villard Elizabeth Drew Daughter , Mildred Cheshire Director, Oscar Eagle Episode Six of "Runaway June" of the Groggs'. That afternoon was pay day in the factory where Groggs worked. As usual, Groggs put most of his money into liquor — before going home to face his wife. June, dressing for dinner, heard the sounds of smashing pots and the shrill voice of Mrs. Groggs lambasting her drunken husband. She hastened to the house. Groggs roused himself long enough to tell June what he thought of her interference. And then June let herself go. All the excitement attendant upon her recent tribulations vented itself in fiery denunciation of this wastrel. It had a strange result ; for it sobered Groggs. He gave her his word of honor that he would reform. Greatly relieved, she made her way back to the house, realizing that here was but another symptom of the man-wife-money problem which so beset her. There was no end to it. And with every new incident it became more complicated. Was there no way to solve this eternal problem? Was the woman always to be the plaything — the parasite — wholly dependent for all she received upon some man's bounty? The rank injustice of it made June toss her pretty head angrily. And yet on every side, in every class and strata of society, she saw that the same thing held true. Alodern woman, whether the wife of millionaire or mucker, was, in the last analysis, as much the man's property — the subject of his stupid whims — as her ancient sister had been in the days, when the human race lived a precarious life in caves and tree-tops. For the stone club and physical strength, man had substituted the power of his pocket-book — that was the only difference. And with these resentful thoughts in her head June entered the house. She was just in time to meet the guests as they entered the dining-room. June found herself seated at the right of Charles Cunningham and across from her sat Tommy Thomas. A three-cornered badinage ensued which greatly delighted her until — She happened to look up — and beheld, framed in the velvet curtains of the room, the sombre visage of Gilbert Blye. The next minute it was withdrawn. She could not even feel sure, that she had not imagined it was there. June Meets Charles Cunningham at Mrs. Villard's Soiree