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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1922)
The Sunday, Dee I MAGAZINE SECTION I [ {_1 ■ -- VOL. 52—NO. 26. OMAHA", SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 10, 1922. FIVE CENTS Introducing JMUsS ClcMCy o=<g>-=« 7J// Owen Oliver : All Alone liosaleen Started Around the World, but Who Can Tell Where Lies Journey's End? This Tells What Happened in Honolulu. WHEN Ronaleen Clancy started off. bs herself, around th.- world (you'd be surprised to know how many of 'em do it, these duysli— she col lected letters of introduction with avidity, f ’ Points of contact in alien lands. She might need them and she mightn't. in case she did—there they were!— I {another classic phra.se)—in case site didn't—letters can a! i ivs blow overboard or otherwise get themselves lost. 1 ^ She had one to a movie star in Hollywood—three to i newspaper people in Han Francisco (she was, of course, a newspaper person herself—late of the Kansas f ity Star) i „ne to an American admiral in Shanghai, one to a Japanese r viscount in Toklo, one to a fabulous Chinese merchant in > Peking, one to an English army officer in Simla—vistas I attached, in cadi case, of the most delicious adventure - and Rosaleen also collected adventures. It Is nowadays among girls not an uncommon foible If one may believe ^ press and pulpit. looked like a picture and needed not even Mr. Fortescue s instant appreciation to know it. Tea was in a kind of sunroom, gorgeously done in flower ed chintz, willow furniture, ivy climbing out of earthen jars .and canaries tr.lkng in tall wooden cages. Celeste wore a confection of white lace and not quite so many peails as at the studio; still, enough for all practical purposes. There were eight or ten other people, mostly' cinema stars, differing from one another only in glory* - and the tea was high. However, the tea party of Celeste and Mr. Fortescue is of moment to this chronicle chiefly because it was there that Roraleen met Mrs. Hewitt and acquired us the jewel of her collection a letter—"to the most interesting man in Honolulu.” Mrs. Hewitt, strainingly visualized by Rosaleen many a time thereafter, was a tall, willowy, soinls-r beauty* In black, with black lace dripping from the brim of a ro mantic looking hat straight across her eyes, which were at once challenging and moody. She seemed to be on excel lent terms with the planets about her, calling most of them by their first names and answering intimately to her own _Irene, it was— yet a species of difference remained, not obvious but penetrating. There was about her none of the tlnaelly glamour which ,Rosaleen delightedly perceived iij the rest. She seemed. a wide, adoralle mouth. "Always meant to go Home day," she said. "Hast year I came into a hit ot ntone\ ho I ti«d up loose ends, tool; my toot in mv hand and here l am.” Sim went on to tell about the letters. I have bushels of 'oni to people all over tin* shop. I shan't be utterly stranded anywhere, you see. For the ivst l like traveling— t'll g» t no end of stuff for meditation in mv old age anil reall.v a girl does pretty mtieh anything u man does, now a days —don't you think? No leason why site shouldn't!" Mrs. Hewitt looked out through the black cobwebs that fell from the brim of her hat and drew a siglt- of envy perhaps. "You brave little thing!” she said. "I wish it were I." "What do you do?” asked Uosaleen, curiously. She passed both her bravery and the matter of h»*r stature un* questioned—"You—you don't—you aren't in pictures are you?” "Why?" asked Mrs. Hewitt "why shouldn’t I be?" "You seem more like people. All this"—Uosaleen in dicated the seene before her with whimsical uncertainty« —"it’s like something on the screen. Somehow 1 think oC it in cut-ins—'And while the long, bright afternoon wore itself away amid the clatter of tea cups and the tinkle of spoons . . .*M "That's what T do," said Mrs. Hewitt, with a twist of ■ - ■ ■■ - ■ _ 11 % • ..... ...i; tiaii.i aii.J wtt.i mult up aeum. I'll,- movie Mar, tirst to he encountered, proved amass ingly enjoyable. A luscious, fair haired creature dowered incredibly in the matter of eyelashes, features and form. Even beneath a mask of makeup, even above an ermine coat, a plastron of live orchids ami many pearls, she showed a naturalness ami a spontaneity one might scarcely have expected. "Tommy Jarvis—yeah!” she, murmured dulcetly, with Tommy Jarvis’ ingratiating scrawl in one hand—"he’s a good scout—I always liked him. Gave me a wonderful party i last time i was in N’Vork . . . glad to meet any friend ” 0( Tommy’s . - • Miss Clancy, meet Mr.. Fortescue- • he’s my leading man!” Miss Clancy met Mr. Fortescue with delight tempered by awe. Mr. Fortescue was at the moment impersonating an American naval officer (Rosaleen had taken her letter straight to the studio for presentation), and it did seem humanly pos sible. that anything so Apollonian as Mr. Fortescue could have a utilitarian side as well. However, Mr. Fortescue was cordial. "fllad to know you,” he said, pleasantly. "Maybe Miss Clancy’d like to watch us work for a while, Celeste . . . they’re yellin’ for you on the set . . .” Rosaleen was enchanted to watch them work. She fol- - lowed like a child in fairyland and sat happily through two hours of prismatic emotion, thickly applied. Afterward Celeste and Mr. Fortescue drove Rosaleen hack to her hotel in a priceless purple limousine and made an engagement to tea at Celeste’s own jnarble halls next day. "Maybe n few others.” said Celeste, vaguely; "come along fc about 1:30.” Hi-r goodbye wen; friendly and sincere. Without the •"""Tofik eup-—without at least a good part of it—she showed voluptuous freshness, unexpectedly young. Rosaleen liked her She- liked Mr. Fortescue as well, tlhe went to toa the n.-v'.r ,jHy v,ith the hanpleat anticipations, and wore her sweetest frock by way of feminine tribute to the occasion. The sweetest frock v-as perwinkle blue, vastly effective with Rosaleen’p Irish eves and shining black hair. There J,as also U hat which was all that h should he. Rosaleen however reluctantly, a real person with real contacts and re actions . . . one had met at least her sort before. • As for Celeste and Mr. Fortescue—strangers from the other side of the looking glass! Friendly and free as they undoubtedly were, they moved in a world of their own, a world where pretense was realer than reality; where mnsks were more natural than the faces they covered; a mad world, tuned forever to concert pitch. Mrs. Hewitt, for all her deliberate black luces and cut jet earrings, was undeniably the sort of person with whom one might have gone to school, whose books one’s brother might have carried. She drifted toward Rosaleen in unconscious proof there of. They found themselves shortly marooned on a gayly cushioned settee behind a palm. In the party but uncon querably not of it. "Celeste says,” she began, "that you’re going on to the Orient. How nice! You know some one out there?" "Not a soul,” admitted Resaleen, blithely, "as yet!" “And you’re going alone?" "Dike the cat that walked in the wild wet woods," said Rosaleen. Mrs. Hewitt murmured, "There’s a film play with that name-t-That Cat That Walked Alone.” "Quadru—or biped?" inquired Rosaleen, sweetly. The other woman laughed. A throatv contralto an nouncement of mirth not overly sincere in Its effect. "Don’t you like women? Neither do I." "O, t don’t mind ’em!" said Rosaleen, largely. "So long as I don’t have to live with 'em." "You’re frank,” said Mrs. Hewitt, lanquidly. "Tell me some more about yourself . . . why are you .jfojng ^ t j>‘ China alone? Aren’t you young for tjiat Sbrt'.of th^tjjt",| "I’m 2t>,” said Rosaleen. „ "M " "A mere nothing," sighed fh4 1rftM&r!'<J1 1)1,1 "And I’m going around Wdtw "i1 China" .osjfsn m l 11 ■ Pj olnrsHOurf "Around the wotfd?'',Y^1t^!Whtl{^ri^’M^ft8V',!, •An,ii !,nB Rosaleen grfniV^d‘*eH£h^ihif1y'? Wi*-Wrfd‘•il'Mte t'AMK m tf her delicately scarlet lips—"i write—things like th;.t Sub titles and scenarios and what not.” “I regard you with reverence," said Rosaleen. It It—« ah—remunerative?" ‘•Fairly,” said Mrs. Hewitt. "And most amusing " She did not, however, look it. ”1 was sure you were a celebrity of some sort," said Rosaleen. "If I come back broke from my long look see and come to you for a job will you help me to one like yours? I know 1 could write cut-ins by the yard—I love ’em." "Come back and see!” said Mrs Hewitt. They talked a w hile. longer. It was not until Rosaleen stood to say good by that the matter of the letter came up quite suddenly, "Have you any to people in Honolulu?" asked Mrs. Hewitt, suddenly. “Letters. I mean." "No— I haven't,” said Rosaleen. "Unfortunately. How over, 1 dare say I shall manage without 'em." 'How long shall you be there?" "Two weeks or thereabouts." Should you like one?" “Oh, Immensely! It's awfully good of you . "I'll give you one,” said Mrs Hewitt, smiling falutt> “to the most Interesting man in Honolulu, if you like." “O, please!" cried Rosaleen; "it sounds Intriguing." She had a queer, sharp feeling that Mrs. Hewitt had been some time deciding In her own mind whether to offer the letter or not. That she, Rosaleen. was perhaps more a means of communication than an end. "The most interest ing man In Honolulu”—hadn't a quiver marred that velvet phrase? Or had it? * "I should adore It," said Rosaleen, cannily pinning the ft "to your hotel," said Mrs. Hewitt rising ,.* ,vrKl Tteiiyttfc" W" SatT ‘Francisco tomorrow*' morning.' S* '4'; 'Wlfcwit “fMfght." , '*'l/ijf;>or",pehWi‘> WA-rut^d."'' There' no more root, <,;V>r cMfrt-sktl.flt hth "Rotwleen ,-e H,'UW’tW!,fcer-'hiAeC ,T "' V «.1,<w*4vrt Her’-Hi* 1*>t1 •'?**-'« i-',l *