Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

894 mounced as if it were spelled with an @ rather than ane. Bahkley. Like that. It suited his aristocratic and supercilious ap- pearance. Lucia had often cast adoring eyes upon him in the salon of Madame Murphy, which he sometimes entered in the company of one or more of her patrons. He was un- like other men who found themselves in that feminine retreat. Others were nervous and ill at ease; he enjoyed it. He was entirely conscious of the admiring glances of the women there, but he was even more aware of his own attractiveness. Lucia thought he was wonderful. The day after she had moved into her new room she started for his studio. She didn’t care whether she won a place in the firmament of celluloid celebrities or not, but she was going to try to win an admiring glance from Reginald. She had saved enough money to spend two months enjoying the effects of her new beauty upon Hollywood, but the best way to interest Reginald was to try for a place in the cast of one ‘of his pictures. In Madame Murphy’s salon he had never given her a glance. Her adoration had been unrequited, if not scorned. There was a tinge of feminine resentment in her plan to bring him to her feet and to hear his compliments in her ears. She had heard enough about the inside of studios from the girls whose hair she had dressed to be familiar with the routine. At the studio she headed directly for the door that was labeled “‘ Casting Director.”’ She had wisely chosen an hour when there were few other ‘applicants besieging that harassed. and temperamental individual. Besides, exercising her common sense and the ex- perience she had had in securing other jobs, she had carefully planned a line of attack. She was a novice only in her inexpe- rience. Without knocking she entered the office of the casting director, who sat at a flat- topped desk looking cynically at a pile of photographs. He looked up as she entered. “ Well?” he grunted. “Listen, old dear,” said Lucia, with a daring she had never possessed until she had aequired the crown of gold, “ give me a couple of minutes and tell me straight! It ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. will save you a lot of time in the long run, because if you don’t I'll have to hang around here pestering you for a job until you call the police and have me put out. How about it?” She smiled boldly and took off her hat, murmuring “ Gee, it’s hot?” The director’s interest was won by the revelation of blond curls that followed the removal of the plain sailor. ‘ Go ahead, sister!” he grinned. ‘“ What’s on your mind?” Lucia Lyons sat down and crossed her legs. “* Well, it’s like this,” she explained. “ I’m a poor hard-working show girl—you know, chorus, cheap burlesque and all that. Once I thought I had a voice, but I doubt it. I’ve never been hit by the movie bug, be- cause I know I can’t act. When they give me a part with two speaking lines I get Stage fright. But my show busted in Phoenix—I’m stranded and broke. Now tell me straight, is there any chance in the movies? I can’t act and I knowit. I don’t photograph like ‘a million dollars, and may- be I wouldn’t—what do you call it?—regis- ter worth thirty cents. But I’ve got a mop of fuzz on the bean. See!” With a deft and experienced gesture she let down her hair. Its glorious golden curls fell in sparkling waves below her waist. Tendrils crept over her brow and fell softly down her cheeks. The casting director gasped. There wasn’t a head of hair like it on the lot! And the girl was there, too. She wasn’t one of those tiresome correspondence school graduates, or a small town runaway child. She was a show girl, with no illusions and no hope. He had trouped himself in the old days and he knew the life. He admired the kid’s courage. ‘“That’s all I’ve got, I guess,” went on Lucia, aware of his admiring interest. “Will it pay the old room rent and buy me chop suey? Is it worth an extra’s job? Or shall I cut it off and sell it for mattress stuffing?” “You'll do, kid!” said the casting direc- tor. ‘I like your line of talk. Good Lord, it’s great to have a sensible child come in here occasionally. I can’t give you any- comicloool C©