“What's your peculiar charm?”
“I'd put it up to him as a business proposition. I'd say, 'The moving-picture field is the greatest gold-field in the world.' I'd tell him how many hundred thousand theaters there are in the world, all of them eager for your pictures and only needing to be told about them. I'd tell him that for every dollar he put in he'd take out ten, in addition to furthering the artistic glory of the most beautiful genius on the dramatic horizon. I'd show him how he couldn't lose.”
“But you just said—”
“Oh, I know, but we can't put on the screen everything we say in the projection-room. And it is a fact that there is big money in the movies.”
“There must be,” said Kedzie, “if as much has been sunk in 'em as you say.”
“Yes, and it's all there for the right man to dig up if he only goes about it intelligently. Let me talk to him.”
Kedzie thought hard. Then she said: “No! Not yet! You'd only scare him away. I'll do my best to get him interested in me, and you do your best to get him interested in the business; and then when the time is just right we can talk turkey. But not now, Ferri, not yet.”
“You're as wise as you are beautiful,” said Ferriday, again. “I can't see your beauty, but your wisdom shines in the dark. We'll do great things together, Anita.”
His arm tightened around her, reminding her that she was still in his elbow. Before she was quite alive to his purpose his lips touched her cheek.
“Don't do that!” she snapped. “How dare you!”