She pouted and said, “Don’t say that.”
“Isn’t it true?”
“Certainly not.”
“Why not?”
She lowered her eyes and said slowly, “I don’t think any women who ever came in contact with your powerful personality would readily forget you.”
“Our contact,” he said dryly, “has been rather remote and somewhat difficult to obtain.”
“Which,” she countered swiftly, raising her eyes to his, “is the main reason I will never forget it. Ben Trask is a wonder when it comes to working things. He’s good at diplomacy and at fighting. He can be either high-hat, belligerent, or very suave. He turned loose everything he had on you and it never even dented your armor. When Trask came back and told me that I had to submit to questioning, he was licked. The man was all washed up. I was literally thunderstruck. It’s the only time I’ve ever known him to make a complete and ignominious failure. I’d have remembered you even if I’d never seen you. And this has been far from a pleasant experience, you know.”
“The meeting with me?” he asked, eyes studying hers.
“Not that,” she said, smiling, “you know I didn’t mean it that way. I meant the worry and the anxiety.”
“Why the worry, if you merely met this man in such a casual manner?”
“Because,” she said, “he was killed. That was a shock to me. Whenever you talk with anyone and then learn of his death, you’re shocked. And, I may as well confess, there was a purely selfish reason. Competition is so keen among the stars that we must have a one hundred percent potential audience in order to get by. In other words, it takes all sorts of people to make a world. There are reformers, crusaders, fundamentalists, profligates, intellectual people, and dumbbells. Whenever we do anything which antagonizes any one particular class, we narrow our potential audience by just that much.
“For that reason, no matter how great a star’s success may be, she never dares to let people get to gossiping about her. Moreover, because, in the past, scandals have been hushed up by the use of money and influence, whenever an actress’s name is connected with anything out of the ordinary, the public always feels that the real facts were hushed up. No matter how complete the subsequent vindication may be, there are always the ‘wise’ ones who will smirk and wink to show that they weren’t fooled any.
“If my name is connected with that of a murdered man, the big majority of newspaper readers would always remember the one item of gossip and entirely discount everything that might be said by way of explanation. People all over the country would glance at each other across the dinner tables and say, ‘Well, I see Shirley Arden’s company managed to quash the investigation on the Madison City murder all right. I wonder how much it cost them?’ ”
Selby said slowly, “I see.”
“So,” she said, laughing, “you can understand my attitude and something of my anxiety.”
Selby nodded. “Well,” he said, “I guess that about covers everything.”
She got to her feet, gave him her hand and said, “Will you believe me when I say that it was a real pleasure to have met you, Mr. Selby?”
“Thank you,” he said. “And, by the way, where did you get the five one-thousand-dollar bills which you gave this minister?”
He was watching her as a hawk watches a moving clump of grass in front of a rabbit burrow. Coming as it did, his question took her by surprise. He saw her shoulders heave as she gave a quick gasp, but her face didn’t change its expression by so much as the twitching of a muscle. She raised gravely questioning eyes to his and said in a low, level voice, “Five one-thousand-dollar bills? Surely, Mr. Selby, you’re making some mistake.”
“I don’t think I am,” he told her. “I think you gave this man five one-thousand-dollar bills.”
“Oh, but I didn’t.”
“You didn’t?”
“Why, of course not! Why, whatever put any such idea as that into your head?”
“I had an idea that you might have done so.”
“Why, he was just a poor country minister. I’ll venture to say he’s working on a salary of less than a hundred dollars a month, and probably gets that paid partially in produce. That coat he was wearing was shiny, and worn quite thin at the elbows. Everything about him spoke of the pinch of insufficient finances. His collar was frayed, his shoes had been half-soled at least once, perhaps twice. His shirt had been mended around the neck, his tie was all frazzled at the edges.”
“You seem to remember a lot about him,” Selby said thoughtfully, “for one who has forgotten so much.”
She laughed and said, “Once more I must ask you to indulge in consideration for my psychological processes, Mr. Selby. Men who tell me how much they admire my acting are quite numerous, but it’s not very often one comes in contact with a man who’s so completely genuine, so wholeheartedly sincere as this man. Naturally, as a woman, I noticed his clothes.”
“And you didn’t give him any money?”
“Why, certainly not. Good heavens, if you had only read that scenario.”
“I did read it,” he told her.
She laughed and said, “Well, that’s the answer to your question.”
Selby said slowly, “I may want to question you again. I’m not going to bother you to come up here, but I may come to see you. Where can I find you?”
“You can get me on the lot. Simply ask for Mr. Trask.”
“And get another run-around?” he asked.
She laughed and said, “Not from Ben. He knows when he’s licked.”
“And you’ll be where I can reach you through the studio?”
“At any time. I’ll leave word with the operator to connect you with Mr. Trask and Benny will see that you get in touch with me... In fact, I’d really like to. You know, in our world of make-believe it’s not often one comes in contact with a personality which has no pretense.”
His eyes showed the question in his mind.
“You see,” she said, rushing into swift speech, “it isn’t that we’re four-flushers so much as we’re actors and actresses, and we deal in worlds of acting. Simulating emotion becomes easy. Therefore, frequently one finds it easier to pretend surprise or regret or interest, or perhaps anger, than to solve the situation by some other method. One unconsciously uses one’s natural weapons, just as a deer escapes danger by flight and a porcupine by thrusting out its quills.”
He laughed and said, “Well, Miss Philosopher, do you classify me as a deer or a porcupine?”
“As a very prickly porcupine,” she said. “When your quills are out, Mr. Selby, you’re exceedingly difficult to deal with.”
“Well,” he told her, “I’ll try and be more tractable in the future.”
“And if you’re in Hollywood, you will give me a ring?”
“If anything else turns up about which I want to question you, yes.”
“And must it be an official visit?”
“Surely,” he said, puzzled, “you didn’t mean otherwise?”
“Why not? I told you that I meet so few men who have no pretense in their make-up that it’s refreshing to meet someone who hits straight from the shoulder and never backs up.”
“Aren’t you depending a lot upon rather a hasty judgment of character?” he asked.
She laughed again and said, “If you could only have seen yourself standing with your legs spread apart, and your chin pushed forward! You looked like a man who expects to have to wade right through an avalanche and who is perfectly willing to do it.”