New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 14, 1921, Page 5

CLIPPED WINGS By Rupert Hughes. A story of a wife and a successful star entrancingly told. (Copyright, 1916, b (Continued from THE STORY SO FAR. Arriving home after an afternoon’s drive in her new electric, Mrs. Vickers was horrifled to hear a cry of terror from the interior of her home. Rushing into the house she stumbled over the form of her son lving on the floor, her daughter hung across the arm of a chair, a young nephew was stretched out on the floor and on a divan lay the form of a neighbor’s son. A Dbeautiful girl whom she had never seen before, lay sidelong, apparently in death, on a panther skin before the.fireplace. Fearful that some dreadful catas- trophe had occurred, Mrs. Vickers was relieved to learn that the chil- dren were only playing dead, having just finished a rehearsal of “Hamlet.” The juvenile home talent produc- tion had been produced under the clever direction of Sheila Kemble, the pecocipus daughter of the great Roger Kemble. and his wife, also an actress, whose stage name was Miss Polly Farren. Shiela proves to have all the acting ability of her parents and appears to be quite a genius in organizing other children into thea- trical companies. Mrs. Vickery, who entertains old fashioned notions of the morals of actor folks, is pained to learn that her young son shows gigns of falling in love with the actress child. Later on Shella prev~ils upon her parents to permit her to go on the stage. She meets and becomes at- tached to Floyd Eldon. A fellow actor named Tuell has just died from appendicitis. “He never came out of the ether. We're going to the theater. Some- hody’s got to play Tuell’s part tonight. [ want you to. It's onmly for tonight, old man. I can coach you up today. I've called the other people.” When the detached scenes had been run over several times Batterson dis- y Harper & Bros,) Yesterday's Herald.) missed Eldon first that he might go and study. As he went he heard Batterson saying: “Help him out tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Do the best you can. To- morrow we'll have a' regular man here.” That night Eldon slipped into the dead man’s shoes. He was only a journeyman finishing another man's job. His memory worked like a ma- chine. He saw the surprise in Sheila’s eyes as he brought down the house —with so different a laughter now. He murmured to her in sudden dread: ‘“Are you guying me aghin?” “No, no,” she answered. “Go on, you're splendid!” He was hardly conscious of the sal- vo of applause that followed him. He suvpesed someone on the stage had earned it. - Batterson glared at him With amazement and growled™ “Good Lord, Eldon, who'd ‘have ever picked you for a comedian? When the other fellow gets here from New York he can play your old part.” : * e CHAPTER IV. The Sea Serpent. The last days of Sheila’s presen. - with the company were full ¢t annoy- ances. There was little opportunity for communion with Floyd. “All da. long, too, Floyd was re: hearsing his new role, and Batterson was calling himall sorts of names of the famili. -ty that implies contempt, for Eldon wes not rehearsing well. Sheila made no bones of criticising her successor. When Eldon agreed with \her she was not convinced. They narrowly escaped quarrelling during their last faw meetings. “verything collaborated to Eldon's torture.- The “Friend in Need” com- pany was moving wect in long jumps. Sheila’s letters "had farther and .far- ther to go. He sent her day letters and night letters as affectionate in tone as he had the face to submit HOT WEATHER IS HERE! Why Not Install a GAS WATER HEATER? +SPECIAL PRICES AND TERMS FOR THE NEXT 15 DAYS Claude J. Leroux Plumbing and Heating, 174 Arch Street. n Your Vacation ° { Whether you are at the shore or in the mountains, you will want to keep in touch with the folks at home. Have the HERALD Follow You While you are away the Herald’s staff of reporters will be on the job and you can get the New Britain news daily as you do when you are at home by having the paper mailed to you. Sent by mail daily,'thé sub- * scription price is the same as at home 18c a Week Send in your ordér before you leave for your vacation. to the telegraph operators. Her an- swers did not satisfy him. She was :ar busier, too, than he im- agined, for Reben was grooming her for stardom, without giving her an inkling of schemes. In dpite of its great success in Eng- land and (s substantial merits as a play, the production was a first-class disaster. Sheile’s notices were of the “however” sort, crediting her. with ability and charm. & The slow death of a play is a mis- erable process. hile it was dying Reben set the company rehearsing “Vour Uncle Dudley,” which caught the public and the critics at just the sht moment. It wis a hopeless suc- cecs. All the raptures v ere for Sheila. She was lauded as the success of the year. i Meanwhile Reben was convinced tlat the time was near to launch Sheila as a, star. Her success in a charzcter role of peculiarly Ameri- can traits 12d him to abandon the ef- fort to find a foreign success to float her in. One evening, during the second entr’acte, he led a tall and scholarly Icoking young man back stage, and introduced him to Sheila as Eugene Vickery, who had written a play which it might be worth while to pro- duce with her as the star. The three went to supper together aft.r. the theater and: Sheila’s eyes glistered as Vickery recounted his own boyish am- bitiods to write her a play. Then he described his retrieval of her during the riot at Leroy and she blished to remember that she had owed/Eidon a letter for a long time. Then Vickery explained that Win- field had gone to her defense and not to her offense, and she felt a pang of remorse.. She had a queer thrill, too, from Vickery's statement that Win- field had vowed to meet her some day and square himself with.her; also to meet “that actor” some day and square himself with him. When Vickery began to talk of the play he had written for her Sheila could see nothing but her opportun- ity and that strange self an actor visualizes in a new role. But finally she was bewildered and suddenly skid: “I never could tell anything frarh a scenario. The play is written out isn't it?” 7 “Oh, yes,” said Vickery. "“May I send it to your hotel?” Before Sheila could ahswer Reben broke in sharply: “At my office—at 3 tomorrow—if that suits you, Miss Kemble:” Sheila said that it suited her per- feotly: ¥ “That's settled, then, Mr. Vickery. Tomotrow—my office,—3 a'clock.” There was sharp dismissal in . his tone. As Vickery scrambled through the tables to the door Sheila said: “Nice boy.” ‘ “‘So you seem growled. She stared at him, troubled at his manner. It aroused in her a sus- picion., She was afraid of it and of him. “Just put me in a cab,” said Sheila. He spoke to the driver and got in with her. g 3 J “‘Sheila, you're a wonderful girl,” he said. “This man Vickery felt fascin- ation when you were a child and never forgot you. He's trying to put something of you into. his play. If he succeeds we’ll all get rich. “Now I'm already as big a manager as you'll ever be a star. I can give you advantages nobody else can give you. The question is what are you willing to do for me?” . “Why, T'll do all I can—of course, Mr. Reben. I'll work like a slave. I'll try to -make you all the money I'm able to.” “I—I want you to—to marry me, Sheila! We could be married secret- ly. No one need know.” “You can’t keep such a thing se- cret.” / : “They never found out that. Sonia Eccleston was married to her man- ager. 1 saw her with their child in Switzerland.” “Then it was true!” she exclaimed. “I've heard so many people say so.” “It's true,” he said triumphantly. “Our marriage could ke kept just as secret as that.” “Just about,”” she laughed. Already the atmosphere was so cleared that she was ridiculing him, and he had staked his last coin he had never risked before. The door of the cab was opened by the porter of Sheila’s hotel. With a sharp “Good night!” she leaped out and left him. to think,”” Reben s 7 CHAPTER VX. A Flag of Truce. J Sheila wept herself out so complete- ly that she slept till 1 o’clock the next afternoon. At half past 3 the tele- phone rang. Reben’s voice: Are you il?” “Why no! Why?” “You had an appointment here at 3. We're waiting.” “But you don't want to.see me, do you?” “And why not?” “But last night—" “Last night I was talking to you about persona! affairs. This is busi- ness. Hop in a cab and come on over. I'll explain.” Reben was alone. “Last night 1 made a fool of my- self,” he said. “Today I'm a busi- ness :aan again. I made you a propo- sition or two. You declined both. 1t you “That you Sheila? “I'm not going to marry anybody, I tell you.” “You promise me that?” “Not for a long time, anyway.” “Sheila, I'm a business man; you're a business woman. I'll play fair with you if youw'll play fair with me. Wil you stand by me, Sheila, as man to man—on your honor as a gentleman? Shake hands on it.” They shook hands. Now fo~ young Shakespeare. Joey, show Mr. Vickery in, and then I don't want to be disturbed by anybody for anything.” “When he finished the reading his play Vickery was exhaust- ed. Reben was silent a long and cr_elly anxious while. Then he spoke harshly: “‘Frankly, Mr. Vickery, I don't think your play is right. The idea is there, but you haven't got it. Maybe you can fix it up. - “I—I've been think, 'Sheila—Miss Kemble, ‘that it might be a good idea to try this out in a stock company. Then Mr. Vickery could see its faults.” Sheila protested: ‘‘Oh, but I couldn't let' anybody else play that first,” “You could join the tompany as a guest for a week anrd play the part yourself.” “Fine!” Sheila exclaimed. “I've been planning to put in a good, hard sum- mer in stock.” ' When Vickery had gone Reben spoke more confidently of the play. “I'll tell you a man I've had in mind for the lead. He’s young, hand- some, educated, tall and athletic and a gentleman. “And 'who's all that?” said Sheila. “Young fellow named—er—Elmore —mno, Eldon; that’s it. You: must know him. He was with you in ‘The Friend in Need' company.” “Oh, yes,” Sheila ‘murmured. remember him perfectly.” “How do you think he would do?" “I think he would be splendid.” Eldon found Sheila subtly changed. She was the same sweet, sympathetic, helpful Sheila that had been his comrade in art, but he could not re- capture the Sheila that had shared his dreams of love. ‘“We've no time for flirting or phil- andering, or whatever it was we were doing in Chicago,” said Sheila. “I'm too busy, and so are you.” ordeal of “r . xe CHAPTER VI. Sheila’s hours in the play mill aver- aged 14 a day. She grew haggard and petulant. Eldon feared. fof her health. One stifiling afternoon he begged her to take a drive with him between matinee and night out to Lotus Land, 2. pleasure park where one could look at water and eat in an arbor. begged off because she was t‘:)l; bs:;. She had no sooner finished the re- fusal than he saw her face light up; he- saw her run to meet a lank, lugu- P“°“5 young man; he heard Sheila invite the newcomer to “buggy ride” with her to Lotus Land and take din- ner outdoors!., Eldon dashed away in a rage of Jealousy. The next morning at re- hearsal, he said with laborious sar- casm: “Where's you friend this morning ?”* “He went back to town.” “How lonely you must feel!” Sheila was startled at the twang of jealousy she had heard in Rgben’s voice when she and Vickery first’ met. A “Vickery found it so tedious to make Journey frem Braywood to Clinton qrery time he wanted to ask Sheila’s vice on a'difficulty that he sudden- ly sppeared in Clinton with. all his baggage. [N P s Eldon noted that Shefla, who had rarely been able to spare a moment with him, found numberless oppor- tunities to co: 1t with this play- wright. Her reason was thut she found Vickery strangely attractive as well as strangely irritating. Sheila felt that it had been only common decency to repel Reben even by force of arms. To hold Eldon at a distance had seemed to her to be her duty till she made sure that she loved him as he plainly loved her. But to fend off Vickery's love stemed to her a sin. She was quench- ing a fine flery spirit. Her feeling was much more than liking; yet somehow it was not quite loving. So the young woman debated in her heart ‘the merits of the rival claim- ants. She resolved that whoever it might be that she married, he needn’t expect Her to go on acting. This pretty well cleared her slate of suitors, for Reben, as well as the other two, had never suggested any- thing except her continuance in her career. As if a woman had no right to rest! Eventually Vickery's play was ready for production. At least, as Reben told him Job’s-comfortingly: “We've all worked at it till we don’t know what it's about. We've changed everything in it, so let’s put it on and get rid of it.” The weather of the rehearsal week for the Vickery play was barbarously hot. Reben found so much fault with everything that Vickery was ready for the asylum. Sheila simply had to comfort him through the crisis. Eldon complicated the matters by doveloping into a fiend of jealousy. He told Sheila he had a mind to thrgw the play. The distracted girl tried to tide him over the ordeal by adopt- ing him and mothering him as well with melting looks and rapturous compliments, And these reacted again on the jealous author. Reben resent- e. Sheila’s graciousness to both EI- don and Vickery and demanded some homage for the lonely manager. CHAPTER VIIL Recalling Winfleld. When the next merning’s rehearsal was over the director told Sheila that she need not stay to rehearse the next week’s bill, sincq Reben had asked him to release her from further work. That night they house was good. After the last curtain a number of townspeople went back on the stage to tell Sheila how much they liked the play, and especially her work. Beyond the knot surrounding her |, she saw Vickery ‘standing with a towering big fellow, evidently watch- ing to present him. Then she saw _———————————, RENT A TYPEWRITER Special Rates for Summer Months. 3 months for $7.50, all makes except Royal model 10 and Underwood model 5, three months for $9.00. New Britain Typewriter Exchange 72 West Main Street Telephone 612 THE OLD HOME TOWN ——— FER I—1 HomE G T \ “NNWG, F—— BRUNO" jglik:~ = == ‘t THE HOT SUN AND THREE, HOLES IN HIS OLD HAT PLAYED A FUNNY TRICK ON DODE BURKHARDS BALD HEAD-— Eldon shaking hands with the strang- er. It was Bret Winfield. Vickery had absently the two, swallowing both names. The two powerful hands met in,a warm clutch that threatened to become a test' of grip. Winfield poured ’ut his homage. " “You're sure some comedian, Mr.— Mr.—" “Eldon,” supplied Eldon. Winfield turned white and red in streaks and said: “Eldon? Your name's Eldon?” Eldon nodded. “Are you the Eldon ‘that knocked a fellow low about my size some 10 yards for touchdown across the foot- lights once?"” 4 Eldon blushed to find his prowess fame, and said: ““Yes. Once.” “Well, I'm the fellow,” said Win- fleld. “I've been looking for you ever since. I promised myself the pleas- u.:3 of beating you up.” - Eldon laughed. “Well, here I am. But I've been wantingito apologize to you. I took an unfair advantage of you.”” “I guess it's all off. I couldn’t slug a man that made Me laugh so hard. Shake!” He put out his hand and the ene- introduced | mies gripped a truce. Then Vickery called him to where Sheila, having rid herself of her admirers, was mak- ing ready to leave the stage. “Miss Kemple, I want to present my old friend, Mr. Bret Winfitld. He's been dying to meet you again for a long while.” : She stared up at Winfield and cried: “This isn’t the man who—" “I'm_the Uftle. fellow,” said Win- field. “I scared gou pretty ‘badly, I'm afraid. But Vickery tells me he told you my intentions were honorable. I've come t6 apologize.” “OK, please don’t! I made an awful idiot of myself, but I was afraid you were going to—to—well, kidnap me.” “I wish I could now.” “Kidnap me?” -Sheila gasped. “You're too darned ,nice to waste your gifts on the public.” “And. what ought I to do them?” He spoke very earnestly. them in a nice, quiet home. I tell you, if I had you I'd lock you up where 'the crowds couldn’t see you!” Sheila put back her head and laughed at the utter ridiculousness of such insolence, dnd then her . laugh stopped short. The word “home” got her by the throat. But she had hurt Winfield\by her laughter. Under the with “Invest heelba: $1695 £. 0. b. South Bend , BY STANLEY FICESH GASOLINE raillery of it he muttered a curt “‘Good night” and.rejoined Eldon and Vickery. That night Sheila, with no morning rehearsal ahead, left orders not to be called, so it was well toward the matinee hour next day when she ven- turned -out Yor a leisurely stroll. J She had. not gon2 far when she heard her name called from a motor car checked at the curb. She turned to see Eugene Vickery waving his cap at her. Bret Winfleld, at the wheel, was bowing bareheaded. They invited her to hope in for a ride. “Where did you get the machine?” she asked. “It's his—Bret's—Mr. Winfield's,” said Vickery. “Do you know I think I've discovered on2 thing. It's the first act, you know—" . (Continued Tomorrow.) IGHT in weight and smart in appearance, the LIGHT-SIX Coupe Roadster is the ideal car for physicians, salesmen and others who want a sturdy, dependable, economical two-passenger car of the enclosed type. Its wonderful value, at the new low price of $1695, is due to its complete manufacture by Studebaker in the newest and most modern automobile plant in the world. This is a Studebaker Year M. Irving Jester, 193 Arch St. NEW PRICES OF STUDEBAKER CARS BIG-SIX TOURING CAR f. 0. b. Fagtones, effective June Ist, 1921 Touring Cars and:Roadsters . LIGHT-SIX 2.PASS. ROADSTER . $1300 LIGHT-SIX SPI Coupes and Sedans LIGHT-SIX 2-PASS. COUPE ROADSTER 5-PASS. SED. X 4-PASS. AN SR . COUPE . . X §-PASS. SEDAN . UPE SPECI BIG-SIX 4-PASS. CO! BIG -SIX 7-PASS. SEDAN T ALL STUDEBAKER CARS ARE EQUIPPED WITH CORD TIRES