“I did that,” he said unhappily. “Yes, I did that. But no luck there. And I have not just Andrew, the poor fellow downstairs eating his cake, but two more sons and a girl, a year or two older than you, perhaps. I came out here in ‘28 because of the sound of money, not the money itself, you get me? It flows through this house like a flash flood every few months, then leaves us dry in a matter of days…No, it was the sound of it, the idea of it, thousands of dollars for a screenplay I used to be able to knock off in hours, not always, but there was a time when, in twenty-four hours, with the help of a little Benzedrine, I’ve done a script and gotten ten grand for it! Then we have a party for a while—I pay the girl’s tuition and buy a thing or two.”

Annie wondered about the two women in the dining room. She didn’t brood on his lapse in not introducing her to them. Why should he have? He probably had his reasons. She liked being here alone with him. The presence of other women would have destroyed her pleasure. Other women made certain assumptions about her, the nature of which she only vaguely understood. St. Vincent was staring at her pensively.

“The ladies downstairs…Hope who despairs, and Grace who is a lout…are sisters. My wife died, you see, a few years ago. I’ve known Hope for years…my wife was ill for a long time …well, never mind that. And so she moved in with ghastly Grace. Ghastly Grace says, ‘I don’t see why you eat that stuff, I don’t see why you have that huge dog, I don’t see why you go off to that boring Victorville, that boring sand.’ She maddens me with all that, yet I always feel impelled to try and explain, when I know that all those questions are just little curses of rage. She follows me from room to room, making observations about the way I light a cigarette, how long I pause before a window…But old Ghastly—the magic words, I am at work, and she is my slave, not from respect, pal, but financial expectation. Then she tends to my needs like a priestess when all I’m doing, for Christ’s sake, is turning out a movie! She’s easier on me than Hope, though. Poor Hope! She’s just given up! Ah well…I’ve done it myself, wrecked the women, pulled down the walls.”