"Well, what price Mrs. Bellamy Druce in the same galley?"
"No, Bel: frankly, I don't believe you. You're here with some wild idea you can influence me to do what you wish—whatever that is, since you say you've given up wanting me to come back to you."
"Oh, as to that—absolutely!"
"Then why must you set up your shop here, where we can't help running into each other half a dozen times a day?"
"Because there isn't another inch of stage to be hired in all Los Angeles today. I've had a man looking round for me ever since my first visit, he's tried every place. The only thing I could do to avoid renting from Zinn was to build, and that meant a longer wait than I wanted. Ask anybody who knows the local studio situation, if you doubt what I say."
"So you didn't come out this time with any idea of seeing me at all, Bel?"
"Of course, I did. I had to see you. Things couldn't rest as they were, especially after you'd taken up with this Summerlad. I'm assuming you're serious in that quarter, of course."
"And what has that to do—?"
"Just this: I don't like it. As I say, if you want to run around with a movie actor, that's your affair; but so long as you remain my wife, it's my affair, too. Don't forget it's my name you're trailing through the muck of this sink-hole of scandal."
She flamed at him—"Bel!"—but he wouldn't heed.