Tiny little fingerprints

GEORGE DAVIS

"The movies? You want to know what I think of the movies?" It was Nettie Lou Smith scornfully posing the question, five minutes after being taken to the bosom of the most exclusive "matrons' set" in the Alden Crest Apartment Hotel. The Girls waited, warmly acquiescent. "Let me tell you something, my dears," continued Nettie Lou. "Mr. Smith and I had a friend who was shown personally through those Hollywood studios, and believe me, what he didn't tell us about them! Nothing but fake, fake, fake! No, my dears, maybe I'm funny, but I can't enjoy anything that isn't real; do you know what I mean? I like a good stage play, but the movies—wild horses couldn't drag me."

And that should have been that: Nettie Lou had spoken. Because if Nettie Lou had never had the chance to make her awful remark about Shirley Temple—

After all, hadn't Nettie Lou seemed, from the first moment they saw her across the Alden Crest Lobby, The Girls' sort? And after Eddy—Eddy Fitzgerald, the Alden Crest's manager—had introduced her to them, hadn't that impression been strengthened most favorably? Oh, they realized right off that perhaps Nettie Lou was a shade too positive about her likes and dislikes. But isn't there something we must overlook in nearly everybody? And Nettie Lou did play the most marvellous game of Contract.

On her side, Nettie Lou had plainly been aware of who was who in the Alden Crest social set-up. Why, as a matter of fact, she herself told The Girls that she had tried, without success, to feel "homey" in three other apartment hotels before she had found the Alden Crest. "I met nice people in all of them, too, but somehow, my dears, things haven't clicked with me—if you know what I mean—until . . . well, until now."

A pity, really, that Shirley Temple had to be made an issue. It was Mrs. Tess Walerstein's doing, more than anybody else's. Tess simply refused to talk about anything but Shirley Temple.

"Yum, yum, yummy, that little Shirley lamb," she would croon, over and over. "Yum, yum, that sweetness of a Shirley baby."

The other Girls thought that was carrying devotion to a movie star to an extreme, even when that movie star happened to be a baby doll like Shirley Temple. On the other hand, how could they possibly have foreseen harm in urging Nettie Lou to put aside her dislike of the movies long enough anyway to see one film of America's latest idol?

"You've just got to, Nettie Lou, you've just got to," insisted Tess Walerstein. "Why, it's like—that Shirley lumpkins is like a bit of Heaven come down to earth! It's like not wanting to go to Heaven, not wanting to see Shirley Temple."

So, finally, Nettie Lou gave in. "Mind, my dears, I can't promise to go batty over her the way you all seem to have," she warned them. "I dare say she's a bright enough child, but it isn't as though I didn't know what tricks they play out in Hollywood, cutting and snipping and pasting . . . but we shall see what we shall see." There was certainly no sweeping Nettie Lou off her feet!

Afterward, The Girls recalled that Nettie Lou had kept a funny you've-got-toshow-me smile on her face during the ride down to the Music Hall. But they hadn't thought to mind it at the time, so sure were they that their Shirley would show skeptical Nettie Lou.

Tess Walerstein insisted on treating Nettie Lou, when they reached the box-office. "Now we must sit right down in front," said Tess. "I've got to be right on top of that sweetness." So the very front row it was.

As usual, The Girls submitted ecstatically to the spell of the tiny enchantress. And why not? Isn't that what a Shirley Temple picture is for? They heard no sound from Nettie Lou, either of approval or disapproval; she was completely silent. But The Girls made no effort to see what was happening to her face; they preferred to wait until later, when it was all over, in the theatre foyer, to discover if anything like a madonna look had triumphed at the last.

■ Then: "Oh, Nettie Lou, couldn't you just eat her up? . . . My dears, that Shirley gets me where I live. . . . Isn't she the loviest, cuddliest honeybunch you ever saw? ..."

Breathlessly The Girls pressed around Nettie Lou.

"She's nothing of the kind," said Nettie Lou, with deadly calm. "What is more, my dears, I'm surprised at all of you, not seeing what Shirley Temple really is. You really don't?" She emphasized her incredulity by moving her glance slowly from one to the other.

"Why—what do you mean, Nettie Lou?" got out Elly Martin.

"I mean," said Nettie Lou, "that Shirley Temple is no more a child than I am. She's a midget."

They started back for the Alden Crest. Nobody said much—and nothing at all about Nettie Lou's awful remark. Their darling Shirley baby a mid—no, it was unthinkable! But worse than useless to argue with Nettie Lou while Tess Walerstein was in such astate; anything might happen. The Girls had never seen Tess so upset; she was as pale as death. And as mute.

Unhappily, there was no silencing Nettie Lou. "Why, that shows you how publicity can fool even smart people like you girls," she said gaily. "Shirley Temple a five-yearold? Nonsense, my dears! Like as not, she's already married to her manager."

Tess Walerstein shuddered.

■ They reached the Alden Crest. The plan was to break up for a half hour,

then to meet in the hotel dining room for dinner, and afterward go up to Agnes Libbock's apartment for a few rubbers of Bridge. They had planned it as one of their really clubby days. Now, in the lobby, they found it no cinch to break up, with everybody avoiding everybody else's eyes. They were wishing, above all, to have a chance to calm Tess Walerstein before her next meeting with Nettie Lou. . . . Distractedly, Aggie Libbock began to hum under her breath, the way she always did when something was on her mind, or when she had something to say but didn't dare.

"What's that you're humming, Aggie Libbock?" sharply demanded Tess, fixing poor Aggie with a really inhuman glare.

"You know it, Tess, it's your favorite song," mumbled Aggie, rattled beyond words. "Tiny Little Fingerprints. ..."

"Know it? Of course I know it!" shrieked Tess. "What I want to know is, how dare you sing a song like Tiny Little Fingerprints in front of a woman who dares call that sweet little baby of a Shirley Temple a midget—a woman I wouldn't put past writing fan letters to kidnappers—stop this minute, do you hear me, Aggie Libbock!"

■ Yes, Aggie Libbock heard her. The whole Alden Crest lobby heard her.

The whole Alden Crest lobby watched Nettie Lou stand perfectly still for a moment, then turn, ever so slowly, her ample back on The Girls and walk toward the elevator.

Nettie Lou moved away from the Alden Crest the first of the month. She never acknowledged the apology The Girls made Tess Walerstein write, so The Girls didn't feel as guilty as they might have. And it was pretty awful, now wasn't it, saying that dreadful thing about Shirley Temple?