CHINA MAIL
FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 3, 1937
HE stood on the corner of the
tion. She was smart with cheap smartness, and she pos- sessed, definitely, that elusive quality known as sex-appeal. had, too, the urgency of the f heroine whose success depends to a great extent on the effec' created on the minds of juvenile audiences; that urgency which knows just when and how to walk with the correct swing of the hips, and that expression of quiet curiosity that takes in every man on the street-
She knew just how clever she was, and she knew to the last degree exactly what effect she created in the mind of the en- quiring male passer-by. She con- sidered that she was clever. As she herself would have put it she "knew a thing or two.”
Possibly it was because she did know this that she was wonder- ing a little about her present ad- venture wondering whether she had been as clever as usual, or, whether she who had specialis- ed for years in leading men "up the garden"was not now being led to the garden herself!
And, as usual, he was late. He was always late, always vaguely casual, rather as if nothing real- Iv mattered and herself least of of all.
He certainly wasn't hurrying himself. she thought as her heel tapped on the pavement, impati- ently, and almost in surprise. After her excited telephone call she would have thought him only too ready to keep the appoint- went!
She could not tell why she had a passion for him. He, like her-
self. саше from problematical
social
a very strata, the and " from
moment he had realised that she, whose
it profession was to at tract, could be attracted, he had taken her money. bullied and tan- talised her, while she despised him and herself..
Then she saw him walking to- wards her; a picture of sleek hair and sulky expression.
"Have you got it?" was his greeting. Needless to say he did not raise his hat, and also needless to say he accompanied the greeting with a sharp side- ways look at the attractive ankles of a woman who was pass- ing, and who, true to form, gave him in return one of those quick, searching looks which men of his type invariably get from any woman.
All at once the difficulties she had not thought of presented themselves.
"Well," she was suddenly him- ble. "Not exactly, but as good as. As soon as we get to Paria, it'll fetch hard cash. I know what it's worth!" She patted her handbag affectionately. "It'll give us that high old time you spoke of, al- right!”
"You've got it there" his eyes were greedy and his glance WAY not lost on her shrewdness...
"Tll show it to you when we get to the flat. I've got the tickets
waiting
diately on the
A LOVE MATCH
"Don't be silly," she answered "T'd got to go back for my things, hadn't I? Can't travel like this!" Sulkily he got into a taxi with her
"Thought the last time you tried it on you'd made the old boy suspicious?" he commented
She smiled suddenly.
She was thinking how easy it had been. "He" Hubert Mortin, her "friend, expected her at his flat every evening at about seven She entertained him then, with and bright prepared chatter, mixed him a cocktail while he bathed and changed. They then "had dinner, or upon other occa- sions he took her out to a quiet grill room or a Soho restaurant. where he would be unlikely to come into contact with his busi- ness associates or be seen by acquaintances of his wife.
Some months of this perman- ent arrangement and she had
Short Story
"I left him such a note 1 said I got round purpose, wrote it while he his bath He didn't ki was doing Id face when he reads it!”
see his
She giggled again and slipped her arm through that of the man beside her, as she swayed the taxi's motion.
I said in the note that if he tried to make a fuss, I'd got plenty of letters his wife 'ud like to see I don't think!”
His eyes were upon her, sus- picious but greedy.
"I told you you could make a clean-up if you used your wits!" he said. “A fime girl like you shouldn't waste her time on an old fool like that?"
She squeezed his arm
"I shan't waste any more. Not now I've got you!"
With a screech of brakes the taxi pulled up outside a dingy
She went to the sideboard ga
poured some
the spirit
squirted soda into a glass.
"Let's drink to our new life" she said, and there was
a wistfulness in the tone voice. "I don't believe you'll to me all the same, not if son one else comes along las
It was obvious that she hoped for a tradiction, but he was wasting no time on trivialities
"Aw, cut it out. What have you got? I want to see where stand before cat loose
you
She opened her bag, keeping at Little distance from "Seeing's believing, isn't it?" she asked sarcastically.
There was a watery ray of sun- shine proclaiming the dustiness of the sordidly shabby room. On the diamonds it flickered until they gleamed wickedly almost mockingly. "That ought to be enough, don't you think?" said. More than you're worth. only I'm the fool!*
He stretched out his hand. “No you don't she drew back, stufing the brooch back into her handbag Wait till we get to
By Princess Paul Paris!
Troubetzkoy
attained an almost wifely inti macy with him. She knew where he put his keys, where was his concealed safe, and, almost its contents.
On one shelf was some of his wife's jewellery. Like herself it was solid, valuable, though of not much artistic merit. There was only one piece which had. made Lila's mouth water as she mentally valued it, a large plaque brooch, of emerald cut dia- monds, which Mortin had taken over for a bad debt.
The plaque brooch fascinated her. It was valuable, it would fetch money. It would mean free- dom for herself and the man whom she considered she loved. or who in any event possessed. such an amazing attraction in her eyes, even although she real- ly. in her heart, disliked and des- pised him
Lila giggled.
block of flats. She had half a crown clutched in her hand, with it she paid the driver.
ere
She turned her back on him and went into her bedroom to fetch her suitcase, which she had already packed. From the dress- ing table she took a green folder. As she picked it up she looked at herself in the glass before her. She wondered vaguely just how her already fading beauty would lest. She was well aware that it was not her remnants of good looks or her attractiveness in any shape or form that bringing him to heel. It was merely the money that the sale of the diamonds would bring.
was
He followed after her neither. opening the door for her moving his hat when she her own flat.
Inside he condescended to take. his hat off. He threw it in a corn er and then looked round curi- ously. Eventually his eye fell on
And how long would that last? the whisky decanter, standing on the edge of the cheap sideboard,
Certainly not long when she which, oddly enough, was hair membered his flair for spend full. He walked over to it, picked lots of money other people's up a glass, and helped himself.
money for showing off, for giv- Then he walked to the othering other people a good time pro- table and gave himself a cigarette She watched him during these movements, wondering why it was that he had never not on any occasion since she had known him--offered to buy her even cup of coffee.
"Let's have a look at it." he said greedily.
in
he had not to
ay for
himself.
She pulled herself together. It was no good getting down in the mouth anyway, she thought. She had started this business and she had to make the best of it.
"Here we are, tickets and all,”
(Continued on Page
SOM
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