"Lydia, your mistress had been married, or was still married, wasn't
she?"
The woman's single, slate-grey eye stared into his expressionlessly.
"She had 'Mrs.' in front of her name, to use when she felt like it.
That's all I know. I never saw her husband--if she had one. I only
worked for her about five years."
"You say she used her married name 'when she felt like it....' What do
you mean by that, Lydia?"
"I mean she was an actress, and used her stage name--Juanita
Leigh--pronounced like it was spelled plain 'Lee'; but she was mostly
called 'Nita Leigh'."
"An actress, you say?" Dundee repeated thoughtfully. "I had heard of her
only as director of the Forsyte School plays.... What shows was she in?"
"She was what they call a specialty dancer in musical comedy," Lydia
answered. "Sometimes she had a real part and sometimes she only danced.
She was a good hoofer and a good trouper," she added, the Broadway terms
falling strangely from those austere lips. "And when she wasn't in a
show she sometimes got a job in the pictures. She never had a real
chance in the movies, though, because they mostly wanted her to double
for the star in long shots, where dancing comes into the picture, or in
close-ups where they just show the legs, you know.
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