I Lost My Girlish Laughter
Page 18
“So—you admit it? When Anders told me, I couldn’t believe him. He was feeling so good he thought he’d put in a word for Madge. I suppose it’s the least he could do for her after she threw herself at him…and God knows what else…”
“Brand!” says Jim sharply. “I don’t think you understand. Madge is going to be my wife.”
I am only now acutely aware of the fact that we are the center of attraction and all eyes are turned on us. I see Selma pushing her way through the crowd toward us.
“For a naïve little girl,” says Brand to me, “you do all right for yourself. Are you getting an affidavit from Bruce, Jim?”
Jim lunges forward. Selma screams. Brand’s stooges whip behind Jim and hold him forcibly and a flashlight explodes!
When the atmosphere clears, Jim has been released and Mr. Brand is facing him with the thoughtful air of a man betrayed.
“To think, Jim,” he philosophizes, “that you would try to strike me after everything I’ve done for you. I can’t understand it. It’s not like you.”
“I don’t approve of it myself,” says Jim. “I was only going to show you how a hero really behaves. I’ve made you one so often I thought I’d demonstrate for future purposes—when I won’t be there.”
“I was coming to that,” says S. B. sadly. “When I put my trust in people, I expect them not to misuse it. I trusted Madge—I trusted you, and you’ve both betrayed me. All my life I’m going to remember this and I hope that wherever you are and whatever you do, you’ll remember that you let me down!”
I hear a voice—Stella Carsons’s—cackle, “I think that’s beautiful.”
Love,
Maggie
MISS AGNES LAWRENCE SEPTEMBER 4
KANSAS CITY MO
THINGS NOT AS BAD AS THEY APPEAR IN NEWSPAPERS STOP ANYHOW HE IS GOING TO MARRY ME STOP HE SENDS HIS LOVE STOP SO DO I
MADGE
THE GOSSIPEL TRUTH
Sidney Skolsky
September 4
The tender sentiments broadcast by a certain prominent producer in a Hollywood nightclub several nights ago, and swallowed whole by the colony, are a laugh. The victims involved, two of the swellest people I know, are now happily married in spite of it. Glad to have you back in the fold with us, Jim. How does it feel to make an honest living?
Silvia Schulman Lardner Los Angeles, 1938
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