PEGGY IN HOLLYWOOD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1939, Page 12

PEGGY IN HOLLYWOOD

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

BY

MRS PATRICK MACGILL.

CHAPTER XIII. (Continued). At the other end, Lewisohn debated with himself as to what he should do. He had a strange feeling that Peggy was in some sort of desperate trouble; she seemed much more level-headed than the majority of the fly-by-nights, as he called them that came to Hollywood seeking film fame. She also was not the type to break the first contract she had ever had by absenting herself from the studio without leave. On the other hand, he might just be a silly old fool imagining trouble where there was none, Lewisohn told himself irritably. He called heaven to witness that he had quite enough trouble of his own, without barging into other people’s affairs. He wished that he had Rebecca, his wife, with him; he would send her along just to see that everything was all right. But she was in New York, so it was no use wasting time in wishing. Lewisohn glanced at his watch. Ten minutes past nine. Late for a call on a lady. “Peggy!” he bellowed once more through the telephone, “are you all right? If you don’t answer, I’m coming right over.” There was no reply except a queer strangled little sob that went straight to his heart. In 20 minutes he was ringing Peggy’s bell. CHAPTER XIV.

It was quite five minutes before Peggy opened the door. The hair line on her forehead was still damp from having been dipped hurriedly in cold water and only partially dried. Her eyes were still red, and the gameness with which managed a smile brought a lump to the kindly old Jew’s throat. He wrung Peggy’s hand as if he meant to wrench it from her wrist. “All alone, eh? Nobody with you at all? Do you mind if I come in for a minute?” he asked, with a diffidence that,.had Peggy known her Hollywood better, was the rarest'of attitudes for a director. For answer, Peggy resurrected another smile and motioned Oscar Lewisohn to enter. Before sitting down, he walked over to the telephone and .quietly replaced the receiver on its rest. Then, without any further ado, he came to his point. “Maybe I was a big galoot to come,” he said, with an apologetic grin that made his ugly face so attractive that Peggy instantly felt warmed and comforted, and less desperately lonely. “But I couldn’t go to sleep tonight unless I satisfied myself that everything was all right. It’s a bit tough on a nice girl finding her feet in Hollywood. Did Finklesteen get fresh? And where’s the boy friend?” Oscar Lewisohn squinted into corners as if he expected David to pop out from one of them, like a conjuror’s rabbit! “Oh! So you haven’t heard what happened last night?” said Peggy, incredulously, since Lewisohn had mentioned going to the studio and seeing Finklesteen. The director’s face instantly grew attentive. “Dish the dirt, baby—-I mean, spill the beans,” he, elucidated. , Peggy sat still so long without speaking that some of the turmoil that was taking place within her got into and tensed the atmosphere of the livingroom. Without being told, Oscar Lewisohn knew that his question knocked at a door that Peggy longed to open, but dared not. Always sensitive to what those for whom he cared were suffering, he felt the stricken look in Peggy’s face and the misery of her beautiful eyes as if she had been a young daughter of his own. He leaned forward, placed his hands

on her knees —an attitude he always adopted when trying to “put over” anything —and when he had finished talking, Peggy felt that she had gained a friend who would stand by her through thick and thin until one or the other died. “Honey, I don’t want to know what is wrong if you would rather not tell, but if there’s anything I can do—aside from money, for just now I’m busted, clean broke—l’ll sure feel it a favour to be asked to do it.” Peggy was biting on her underlip to stop its quivering. Her mind was in a maddening whirl, and the effort to control her emotion seemed worse than allowing them full rein. “I don’t know what to do, Mr. Lewisohn,” Peggy confessed, when the silence was no longer bearable. I am so worried. If I thought that I daied ” she broke off, and her already pale face grew ghastly as she jumped the mental hurdle and decided to confide in Lewisohn, who was her only friend in in the insane whirl oi Hollywood. The truth, when she gave it utterance, simply, apparently without feeling of any kind, so startled Oscai went back on him, and his grey head suddenly fell back on the chair in which he was silting, while every vestige of colour left his face, leaving it a curious grey. “David killed a man last night. Those were the words that, commonplace as is the crime of murder in Hollywood, crowded as it is with the most cosmopolitan collection oi human beings on the earth’s surface, yet, when it concerned anybody whom he actually knew, had almost as much power to shock the season film director as the sensitive girl, fresh to it all —fresh, indeed, lo life itself with her brief tally of years. “Oh, I am sorry! Here, drink this. Mr Lewisohn." Peggy held a glass of waler Io the grey lips as she made her contrite apology. Lewisohn drank the water gratelully and held out his hand, drawing Peggy to his side as if she had been the daughter he had always longed for and never had. “Sit down at that table, child, and pull yourself together. Don t forget to tell me a single thing. And. remember, honey,” the pudgy hand held Pegg.v very tightly, and the small, nondescript eyes raised lo her wide dark blue one.' were glistening as he spoke, "Oscar Lewisohn is behind you, win or lose, to the finish. Get me, dear?” “I get you so well that I think you must be the kindest man in all the world to mix yourself up in such a thing of your own accoid, said Peggy, touched and comforted beyond description. "Then tell me these two things before you start and 1 won’t interrupt you again. Where is David now, and do the police know?'’

Haven of Rest Hospital and the police Peggy shook her head. “He is in the don't know —at least, at three o’clock this afternoon they did not,” she said, meticulously. "Miss Orth paid 5,000 dollars to hush it up.” * Oscar Lewisohn had said that he would not interrupt, but at the mention of the "hush money” paid, he leaped up from his chair and almost knocked Peggy over by the violence with which he pushed it back. “That she-devil of a woman! I’d like to wring her darned neck!” he spluttered and raged, holding his hands above his head in the manner peculiar to his race when roused. Forcing himself to some semblance of calmness, he sat down and listened to every word of Peggy’s story, told without deviation just as she had received from Opal Orth. Now and again he made notes in a little black book and asked her pointed questions which, if she could not answer, she told why—simply that she did not know. For a long time after Peggy was finished, Lewisohn sat hunched up in his chair, gnawing savagely at an unlighted cigar, his rapier keen mind dealing with every phase of the situation in turn. “Of course, this painted jane—Orth she calls herself, don’t she? —is in love with your boy, or thinks she is. All she’ll ever know about love won’t amount to much,” he said, shrewdly. “Yes,” admitted Peggy. “But she’s not going to buy my man with 5,000 dollars. I’ve got just that much, and I’m sending her the cheque tonight,” said Peggy, her white face flaming. The clock struck twelve as Peggy spoke. Oscar Lewisohn smiled tolerantly and his manner portrayed his respect for Peggy’s litle store of wealth, the truth being that he himself only possessed four dollars in all the world at the moment. “Attagirl!” he chuckled, his face, lighting up for a brief second. “Give her all she needs in the way of a fight .... but that 5,000 dollars stays where it is, honey. I’d lose my sleep for a .week if I thought you sent her even five cents! By the way, which bank is it in?” Peggy told him. He nodded his satisfaction. “Gee! It’s a big comfort to me to know you are so well fixed, Peggy,” Lewisohn told her, looking as pleased as if somebody had made him a present of the money for himself. Peggy was at the telephone dialling the Haven of Rest number. “This is Miss Rooney inquiring for Mr Whitley. How is he, please?” she asked, and the black vulcanite of the telephone receiver made a white ring around her ear because of the nervous pressure upon it. Dr Murphy, tried to get you several times, but there was no reply, .Mr Whitley took a turn for the better an nour ago . ...” “Oh, thank God*! He is better, Mr Lewisohn—David is better—his nurse says so.” Peggy’s cup of joy was full and running over; and Oscar Lewisohn was almost as deeply affected. His ugly face was wreathed, in the smile that made it almost attractive as he took Peggy’s hand between both his own, and patted it as if she had been a' little girl. “There’s going to be a happy ending to all this, honey, and don’t you forget it,” he assured her, so emphatically that for the time being Peggy believed. him and felt her load lighten. “Keep everything you know under your l\at, and above all don’t go near Finklesteen’s gang. And keep as far away from the Orth woman as if she had the small-pox,” he admonished Peggy, as he prepared to leave. "They won’t split because of their own share in the thing—they could all bq roped in as accessories after the fact —but above all keep that 5,000 dollars where it is. No boloney, mind!”

Promising that there should be be “no boloney,” Peggy let her visitor out at quarter past 12, and for another halt hour stood at her window looking out into the star-pierced, velvet blackness of the night, wondering what would be the end of the tangled skein that existence had suddenly become. But, because she had found a friend, she went to bed strangely comforted. CHAPTER XV. “Have you. missed me, darling? Doctor Murphy thought it better that I should not come yesterday because of your sleepless night.” Peggy bent over David and their lips met in a long kiss that was inflntcly more pain than pleasure. The ■oses that Peggy brought were strewn jver the bed; they hac] rushed into me another’s arms so that there had oeen no chance to place them in a vase of water. Their red beauty reminded David of jlood and he shuddered. “Miss you? I was famished for you. It did me more harm than good for .he doctor to forbid you." he said holding her as if he meant never to let her go. “Did the doctor say that, the spot on the lung was gone?” asked Peggy, anxiously, when the long kiss was over. . David nodded. “It was nothing." he said,, briefly. Then, as if making up his mind to something, he went on. “I couldn't stay here on your money. Peggy"—a solid gold watch, his parents’ 21st birthday gift, had been sold to pay for three weeks' accommodation in the “Haven of Rest”—and he was beginning to feel that it was time the affair at. Long Beach on the gambling ship was thoroughly sifted and disposed of in a .proper manner. Lying in bed for 21 days had shown him the affair in its proper perspective, ft would hurt his 'family’s pride when the newspapers wrote up the story, but their pride was a small thing compared with the issue at stake. Having come almost to the end of his money, David had decided upon a course of action which would take effect immediately. He dreaded telling Peggy—she had so many private worries of her own, so much in Hollywood had failed to fulfill its promise. He chose a moment when conversation had lulled to bring up the subject. “Peggy, I'm leaving here tomorrow, dear," he told her tenderly. “But why, darling? Aren’t you comfortable enough?” Peggy regarded the hospital as a veritable “Haven of Rest.” "Oh . . . yes.” (To be Continued),