Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 105: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VANITY HAIR. thing today, right off, but I’ll promise you something. We’re making a big spectacle with a lot of fairy tale scenes in it—fairies, princesses, nymphs, dryads, all that kind of bunk. Your hair will fit in there, I think. Of course, it’s only atmosphere, but it will last for a couple of weeks at seven and a half a day. How about it?” ‘“‘ How about it? Oh, boy, I can still eat! Thanks. When do we start?”’ “Day after to-morrow, at nine o’clock. Give me your name and address and tele- phone number. And say, if you’re fiat, I can let you have a couple of days’ advance.” He reached for his pocket. “No, thanks just the same. I’ve still got a few pennies. Whose picture is it?” “ All-star feature,” he replied, as she wrote down her name and address. “ Gloria Mansfield and Reginald Berkeley are play- ing the leads.” ‘And Lucia Lyons,” she added, tossing the filled-in blank to the man. “ So-long, and thanks a lot.” Hil. Lucia did not become a star overnight. Neither did she advance beyond the atmos- phere class. But, thanks to the casting director, whose friendship she had made, she was kept working on an average of five days out of every week. At seven dollars and a half per diem she was earning twice as much as Madame Murphy had paid her. And she had succeeded in her ambition. Men and women admired her hair, praised her beauty. Wherever she appeared she attracted attention, either envious or ad- miring. She became known as the girl with the hair. Casting directors saw and re- membered her; she was always wanted to add her loveliness to elaborate scenes. She bought clothes lavishly and moved from her inexpensive room into a diminu- tive bungalow court apartment, where she could be alone and could sometimes relapse into her proper person, just for the sake of contrast. It was a delightful secret joke, and she often chuckled over it. It would have been nicer if she had some one she could confide in, but that of course was impossible. The deception she was prac- 895 ticing made close friendships dangerous; she had many acquaintances but no real friends. She was just a little lonely. In public she had always to be on guard, play- ing the part she had chosen for herself, that of a rather sophisticated show girl who had been stranded and had entered the movies. But, inside, she wasn’t at all that kind of a girl. The casting director remained her best friend, but he was the last person in whom she would confide her delicious secret, and with him, more than with any one else, she had to be what she had at first pretended to be. She was thankful for the protective col- Oring of her pose when she met Reginald Berkeley. From the first day on the set, when he saw her hair let down over her shoulders in the fairy tale scenes of the spectacle, his admiring eyes had rested upon her more and more often. Other ladies of greater fame and equal beauty filled most of his time, but he never missed an opportunity to flatter and ogle Lucia. At first Lucia was flattered, almost over- come indeed by the man’s suave and practiced manner, but she had been quickly disillusioned one day when she had over- heard him addressing another girl in the same company in the identical words he had used to her. Besides, she had listened to many caustic appraisals of her idol. The other girls knew him for a vain and vapid egoist. Lucia re« moved, his photograph from her collection, and held him at arm’s length with the bold cynicism of the show girl she pretended to be. Just when William Bailey, milkman, en- tered her existence, is not known. Every morning at eight o’clock he left a pint of milk and a half-pint of cream at the rear door of Lucia’s bungalow. Once a month he collected his bill. The first time he saw the girl she was not wearing her beautiful wig. She was herself, as only she could look, but her eyes twinkled with the sup- pressed jest of her existence, and the green kimono she wore was in itself an intriguing garment. After that first meeting, Lucia relieved her loneliness by appearing at the door and taking the bottles from him every comicloool C©