Page:Minnie Flynn (1925).pdf/85

 Copperfield," the next picture, if they made it. He said that she was just the type for the Marchioness.

"Maybe he was only kidding her. Weaver's full of bull when he's got something up his sleeve," said Alicia, bitterly.

"Say, you'd think it was up to him to pick out the people to play the parts. You know what a fat chance he's got to make the final selection for Deane."

"What'll you bet that Eleanor isn't staking him to a little cash on the side?"

"She's doing worse than that," said Mrs. Lee with pious unction. "I hope none of you girls will ever lose your heads like poor Eleanor."

Minnie strained forward, afraid of missing a word of this enlightening conversation, which she regretted was at times unintelligible.

"When Beauregard got sick of her," Mrs. Lee droned monotonously, "she didn't have sense enough to listen to good advice, though I did my best to influence her. I said to her, 'Strike him now for a tidy little bankroll, for it's been my experience that when a man's ready to quit he'll be glad to settle any amount on you to get rid of you.' But no, Eleanor wouldn't take any sensible person's advice. She tried to hold Beauregard by spending everything he'd given her on clothes and parties, and you know how some girls carry on—hysterical and everything. Of course the more they cry the more a man hates them. She used to talk freely to me then as I was the only one the poor child could ever trust."

Minnie was nodding her head seriously, afraid that she might forget one golden word of this advice. What a fine, big-hearted woman Mrs. Lee was, Minnie was thinking, as she