Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood 41 I'd have you know I'm twenty-four/ ' she said. " And that's old for a fluffy little thing like me. Yes, I had real good parts when I was seventeen or eighteen. And I thought to myself: * I'm going right to the top/ But I soon learned. This is where they teach you where you get off, and nothing charged for the lesson either. Still, I think we Americans learn to take things philosophically. It doesn't matter to me so much. I just do this now to amuse myself and to pay for my smart frocks. You see I'm married, and we'd be real well off if my husband's oil-well would only pay. . . ." " But an oil-well," we cried ; " doesn't that mean a fortune? " " So they tell you in the story-books," she said. " But things are often different in real life, aren't they? You see, there's too much oil at present. All the tanks and all the storages are full. But oil isn't like coal. It runs. I mean, if we've got a well here and somebody else's got a well there and there's another well there, we are all pumping out of the same underground tank, so to speak. If my husband didn't pump, why, then his neighbours would pump his share as well. So we have to pump and pump, and it just pays expenses, that's all. And there's lots of folks who think : ' If only I had an oil-well ! ' I tell you it makes me cry sometimes to see all that money running away." " But couldn't all the wells in one plot combine to stop pumping till the times are better? " " Of course we could," said Silver-gilt. " But my husband says : ' It is like war.' Nobody will stop first." We returned to the stage. We had finished our turn, but we had to stay till the day was over. Here and there on rough benches extras were whiling the time away with bridge ; in a level corner some couples were dancing when the band played. In another corner a young man in a dress [206]