Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Los Angeles— T^eal Estate bustling entry as a managing matron. " Good day ! " she said, taking enough breath to swim eighteen strokes under water. " I have surveyed your property, weighed its merits, considered my capital, have noted down my favourite, must consult my husband, would like to have its number and name, am anxious to know furthermore how liable we should be for rates, taxes, lamp-posts, gutters, roadways, sidewalks, gas, electric light, water, and drains. After that if we decide to live in California we may consider that lot. If not, nothing will induce us to invest. Put my name down to have it reserved for a few days? No, I think I'll take my chance. Thank you ! " The high-pressure salesman looked a little dazed. He gave Jo a few details, glossing glibly over the lamp-posts and so on. She swaggered out. "How quick you've been 1 " cried the assembled victims under the bamboos. The ex-cowboy whispered uneasily to a strong-jawed real estate confrere. "Why," thought Jo, " should I sit here any longer and be bored ? " The old landladies were nodding with sleep. A kind of dreary hypnotism was evidently being practised. The real estate men had probably taken lessons from the magnetic personalities who advertised in the Saturday Evening Post and other papers : "You want success " — pictures of men with hawk-like eyes and commanding fingers. Evidently there were other methods — that of sex appeal, for instance. The rough-rider picked a long strand of grass and playfully tickled the end of Jo's nose. As if accustomed to have the end of her nose tickled by strangers, Jo made no comment. Luckily she did not sneeze, for that would have created too intimate a bond. The sheikh method was hardly proving successful, but the man belonged to the large insensitive majority which does not know when to stop. A few minutes later he remarked : [63]