The door slammed behind him and I turned to Bonner.
"I'm sorry, Jonas," he stammered. "I- didn't know- "
"That's O.K.," I said easily. "You didn't know."
"But the way the picture is shaping up now, it's going over three million dollars. I’d feel better if we had some stars in it."
I shook my head.
"Stars are great, I’m not fighting them.
But not this time.
We're doing a story based on the Bible. When somebody looks up at that screen at John or Peter, I want them to see John or Peter, not Gable, Tracy or Bogart.
Besides, the girl is the important thing."
"But nobody ever heard of the girl."
"So what?" I asked. "What have we got a publicity department for?
By the time this picture comes out, there won't be a man, woman or child in the world who won't know her name.
You thought enough of her to make the test, didn't you?
And all you knew about her was that she was a girl you met at a party."
A curiously embarrassed look came over Bonner's face.
"That was different. It was almost a gag. I never thought anybody would take it seriously."
"David saw the test and took it seriously.
So did I."
"But a test isn't a whole picture.
Maybe she can't sustain- "
I cut him short. "She'll sustain," I said. "And you know it.
You knew it when you asked her to make the test."
He looked at me with his ugly horse face. Nervously his hand scratched at himself.
"She- she told you about the party?" he asked hesitantly.
I nodded.
"She told me how you'd watched her all evening, how you came over and asked her to take the test."
I laughed. "You guys beat me. You find a Lana Turner at a soda fountain. You find Jennie at a dinner party.
How do you do it?"
A puzzled look came into his eyes.
He started to say something but the telephone on my desk rang.
I picked it up. It was one of the secretaries.
"Miss Denton is finished in Hairdressing.
Do you want her to come down?"
"Yes." I put down the phone and turned back to Bonner. "I sent Jennie up to Hairdressing. I had an idea I wanted to try out."
The door opened and Jennie came in.
She moved slowly, almost hesitantly, to the center of the office. She stopped in front of my desk.
She spun slowly, her long hair no longer a pale brown but a sparkling champagne.
It swirled down around her neck and shoulders, spilling a translucent radiance around her tanned face.
Bonner's voice was an eerie whisper. "My God!"
I looked at him.
There was a strange look on his face. His lips moved silently, his eyes were fixed on her. "It's as if- as if she was standing here."
"That's right," I said slowly. I looked back up at Jennie. I began to feel a pressure in my heart. Rina.
"I want Ilene Gaillard to dress her," I said softly to Bonner.
"I don't know," he said. "She's retired. She's moved back East. Boston, I think."
I remembered the forlorn, white-haired figure kneeling by Rina's grave.
"Send her a picture of Jennie.
She'll come."
Bonner walked over to the desk and stood next to Jennie, looking down at me.
"By the way, I heard from Austin Gilbert.
He likes the script.