Эптон Синклер - Oil!

Bunny would call Vee Tracy on the telephone, at the studio or at her bungalow, and she was always ready for a lark. They would go to one of the restaurants where the screen folk dined, and then to one of the theatres where the same folk were pictured, and she would tell him about the private lives of these people—stories even stranger than the ones made up for them. Very soon the screen world was putting one and one together in its gossip. Vee Tracy had picked up a millionaire, an oil prince—oh, millions and millions! And it was romantic, too, he was said to be a Bolshevik! The glances and tones of voice that Bunny encountered gave new echoes of the haunting question—“Why not?”

Sitting on the beach, half dug into the sand, and staring out over the blue water, Vee told him something about her life. “I’m no spring chicken, Bunny, don’t imagine it. When I came into this game, I had my own way to make, and I paid the price, like every other girl. You’ll hear them lie about it, but don’t be fooled; there are no women producers, and no saints among the men.”

Bunny thought it over. “Can’t they be satisfied with finding a good actress?”

“She can be a good actress in the daytime, and a good mistress at night; the man can have both, and he takes them.”

“It sounds rather ghastly,” said the other.

“I’ll tell you how it is, there’s such fierce competition in this game, if you’re going to get ahead, nothing else matters, nothing else is real. I know it was that way with me; I hung round the doors of the studios—I was only fifteen—and I starved and yearned, till I’d have slept with the devil to get inside.”

She sat, staring before her, and Bunny, watching her out of the corner of his eye, saw that her face was grim.

“There’s this to remember too,” she added; “a girl meets a man that has a wad of money, and can take her out in a big car, and buy her a good meal, and a lot of pretty clothes, and set her up in a bungalow, and he’s a mighty big man to her, it’s easy to think he’s something wonderful. It’s all right for moralists to sniff, that don’t know anything about it; but the plain truth is, the man that came with the cash and offered me my first real start in a picture—he was just about the same as a god to me, and it was only decent to give him what he wanted. I had to live with him a few months, before I knew he was a fat-headed fool.”

There was a silence. “I suppose,” said Vee, “you’re wondering why I tell you this. I’m safe now, I’ve got some money in the bank, and I might set up for a lady—put on swank and forget the ugly past. If I’d told you I was an innocent virgin, how would you have known? But I said to myself, ‘By God, if having money means anything to me, it means I don’t have to lie any more.’”

Said Bunny: “I know a man that says that. It made a great impression on me. I’d never known anybody like it before.”

“Well, it makes you into a kind of savage. I’ve got an awful reputation in the picture world—has anybody told you?”

“Not very much,” he answered.

She looked at him sharply. “What have they told you? All about Robbie Warden, I suppose?”

“Hardly all,” he smiled. “I heard you’d been in love with him, and that you’d sort of been in mourning ever since.”

“I made a fool of myself twice over a man; Robbie was the last time, and believe me, it’s going to stay the last. He put up the money for the best picture I ever made, and he was handsome as a god, and he begged me to marry him, and I really meant to do it; but all the time he was fooling with two or three other women, and one of them shot him, so that was the end of my bright young dream. No, I’m not in mourning, I’m in rejoicing because I missed a lot of trouble. But if I’m a bit cynical about love, and a bit unrefined in my language, you can figure it out.”

And Vee shook the mountain of sand off her bare legs and stood up. “Here’s how I keep off the fat,” she said, and put her hands down on the sand where it was wet and firm, and stood the rest of herself upon them, her slender white limbs going straight up, and her face, upside down, laughing at Bunny; in that position she walked by slow handsteps down to the water, and then threw herself over in the other half of a handspring, and lighted on her feet and dashed into the breakers. “Come on in! The water’s fine!”

Bunny thought over this conversation, and learned from it his usual lesson of humility. Vee had had to fight for her success; whereas he had never had to fight for anything. If he wanted a moving picture career, Dad would arrange it for him, the studio doors would fly open. And the same with any other sort of career he could think of. How could he afford to pass judgment on anybody?

Also, while he listened to Vee Tracy, he had the memory of Eunice Hoyt to keep him humble. No, people didn’t know what was right about sex; or at any rate, if they did, they didn’t make it clear. It was disagreeable to have to think about so many other men; but then, too, it helped to clear the atmosphere. She wouldn’t expect to marry him right off; there were marriages among the screen people, but apparently not until they had made sure they were happy. Also, it enabled Bunny to be certain that Vee would not be shocked by the knowledge that she was haunting his dreams.

They were at the Monastery, and had been dancing, and went out upon one of the loggias, or platforms, or terraces, or whatever you call the outside of a cathedral. There was a moon shining down—the same that had shone on Bunny and Eunice, and on Bunny and Nina Goodrich. There was organ music inside, and the scent of flowers outside, and Bunny was thinking to himself, “What am I going to do about this?” It couldn’t go on, that was certain; he had got so that he was trembling all over. And yet, somehow, he seemed to be tongue-tied. So far, all the girls had had to propose to him, and it was quite absurd. What the dickens was the matter with him?

In a faltering voice he suggested, “Let’s dance.” Vee stood up, and he stood up; they had danced out onto this loggia, or terrace or platform, and now they would dance back, and he would be, literally, just where he had been before. No, that wouldn’t do! He had a sudden fit of desperation; and instead of the particular kind of embrace which has to do with dancing, he put his arms about her in a way that made it impossible for her to dance. This was a crude procedure, no credit to a junior classman and leader of fashion in a high-toned university. Bunny knew it, and was in a panic. She would not understand—she would be angry, and send him away!

But no, she was not angry; and somehow, she was able to understand. There is an old saying, that fingers were made before forks, and in the same way it is true that embraces were made a long time before words. Bunny became aware that his clasp was being returned—and by a pair of capable arms, that were able to hold a girl upside down in the air and carry her into the surf! It was all right! “Oh, Vee!” he whispered. “Then you do care for me!” Her lips met his, and they stood there in the moonlight, locked together, while the organ music rose to a shout.

“Vee, I was so scared!” And she laughed. “You silly boy!” But suddenly she drew back her head.

“Bunny, I want to talk to you. There’s something I must say. Let me go, and sit down, please—no, in that chair over there! I want us to talk quietly.”

There was fear in her voice, and he did what she asked. “What is it, Vee?”

“I want us to be sensible, and know what we’re doing. It seems to me hardly anybody I know can be happy in love, and I swore to God I never would get into it again.”