Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Los Angeles — T{eal Estate He looked at her and blew a breath of disbelief. He knew all about Europe. It was a lousy place, except for the drink. She was ' kidding ' him. . . . " Anyway, you don't have to live on it," he said at last. " Just invest and watch your money grow." Jo was feeling desperate. The Ford had now been standing for a quarter of an hour in the sun, and the interior was like an oven. So she fixed on ^200 as a suitable price. He turned at once from the bigger lots and drove her to a corner which looked suitable as a refuse-ground for tin cans. It seemed to Jo that, when built, all these houses would be like animals sitting on their haunches three steps up, with their forepaws stretched down to the ground. Such houses abound in Hollywood. From the road they look like bungalows, but from the opposite hill they show as three or four-storey buildings, plenty of stairs for the tired housewife, and in the garden the owners would have to become like the fabulous Rocky Mountain goat that grows its legs on one side longer than the other. There were sites that would have needed a climb of fifty or a hundred steps from the road. Jo explained that this would hardly be suitable for a husband with a heart. " Oh, the architects will see to all that," said the excowboy ; but he didn't explain how. Then Jo found that any house built on the estate must be designed by the company's architect, and either in the Frencti-cfidteau, the old-English-cottage, or the Mexican-villa style. " If you're able to do a bit of climbing," he said, " we might go up this hill and look down at some nice lots that have trees already on them." Jo, who realized that the man had been putting her to slow and deliberate torture in order to confuse her mind and make her commit herself, now counted on her revenge. " Right ho ! " she said, and went up that hill at a pace [61]