"Not even after discovering I'd fallen in love with another man?"
"Not even after that. Somehow casual women don't mean anything to me any more—I mean, casual flirtations. They're too damn stupid—silly waste of time. I guess I had to be squiffy as I used to be most of the time, not to be bored by them. Oh! I'm not saying I shan't ever fall in love again, just as you have; but when I do, it will be the real thing, Linda—not the simple cussedness that makes a child play with a gun because he knows it's loaded."
"This is all very interesting, I'm sure. But after all, it doesn't explain—now, does it?"
"It explains why I followed you out here the first trip, why I had to see you in another man's arms, kissing him, and then hear all the small-town gossip about you two before I'd believe...."
"There is gossip, then?"
"What do you think? According to all reports, you've been going it, rather, you and this chap Summerlad—'stepping out together,' as they say in Hollywood."
Lucinda affected a shrug of indifference: Bel mustn't guess she cared what people said.
"But I am still waiting to hear why you've come out this time; what it means when you hire quarters here in the studio where I am working daily, and pretend you're going into the producing business. You may be able to make Zinn believe that tale; at least, he won't ask embarrassing questions so long as you put money in his pocket; but you can hardly expect me—!"
"You're wrong there, Linda. I'm just as much in earnest about becoming a producer of good motion-pictures as you are about becoming a star. I got a little look into the game that fascinated me, in those two days while I was killing time, waiting for the night you'd set for our talk. You ought to be able to understand: you were fascinated yourself at first sight."
"But you—! Bellamy Druce dabbling in the motion-picture business!"