The Early Ayn Rand

FARROW: [Speaking into the next room] Try Santa Barbara again. Don't hang up until you get her personally. [Enters, closing the door. The three look at him anxiously, expectantly] My friends, has any of you seen Kay Gonda today? [A great sigh, a moan of disappointment, rises from the others]

SALZER: Well, that's that. You, too. And I thought you knew something!

FARROW: Discipline, my friends. Let us keep our heads. The Farrow Studios expect each man to do his duty.

SALZER: Skip it, Tony! What's the latest?

CLAIRE: It's preposterous! But preposterous!

McNITT: I've always expected something like this from Gonda!

FARROW: No panic, please. There is no occasion for panic. I have called you here in order to formulate our policy in this emergency, coolly and calmly and... [The interoffice communicator on his desk buzzes sharply. He leaps forward, his great calm forgotten, clicks the switch, speaks anxiously] Yes?... You did? Santa Barbara?... Give it to me!... What?! Miss Sayers won't speak to me?!... She can't be out, it's an evasion! Did you tell them it was Anthony Farrow? Of the Farrow Films?... Are you sure you made it clear? President of the Farrow Films?... [His voice falling dejectedly] I see... When did Miss Sayers leave?... It's an evasion. Try again in half-an-hour... And try again to get the chief of police.

SALZER: [Desperately] That I could have told you! The Sayers dame won't talk. If the papers could get nothing out of her — we can't!

FARROW: Let us be systematic. We cannot face a crisis without a system. Let us have discipline, calm. Am I understood?... [Breaks in two a pencil he has been playing with nervously]... Calm!

SALZER: Calm he wants at a time like this!

FARROW: Let us... [The intercom buzzes. He leaps to it] Yes?... Fine! Put him on!... [Very jovially] Hello, Chief! How are you? I... [Sharply] What do you mean you have nothing to say? This is Anthony Farrow speaking!... Well, it usually does make a She wouldn't let me put in a baby or a dog, as I wanted to. Dogs have such human appeal. You know, we're all brothers under the skin, and...

SALZER: Peemoller's right. She's got something there.

CLAIRE: And furthermore... [Stops suddenly] Wait! That's funny! I haven't thought of this before. She did mention the dinner.

FARROW: [Eagerly] What did she say?

CLAIRE: She got up and left me flat, saying she had to dress. "I'm going to Santa Barbara tonight," she said. Then she added, "I do not like missions of charity."

SALZER: My God, what did she mean by that?

CLAIRE: What does she mean by anything? So then I just couldn't resist it, but couldn't! I said, "Miss Gonda, do you really think you're so much better than everybody else?" And what did she have the nerve to answer? "Yes," she said, "I do. I wish I didn't have to."

FARROW: Why didn't you tell me this sooner?

CLAIRE: I had forgotten. I really didn't know there was anything between Gonda and Granton Sayers.

McNITT: An old story. I thought she was through with him long ago.

CLAIRE: What did he want with her?

FARROW: Well, Granton Sayers — you know Granton Sayers. A reckless fool. Fifty million dollars, three years ago. Today — who knows? Perhaps, fifty thousand. Perhaps, fifty cents. But cut-crystal swimming pools and Greek temples in his garden, and...

CLAIRE:... And Kay Gonda.

FARROW: Ah, yes, and Kay Gonda. An expensive little plaything or art work, depending on how you want to look at it. Kay Gonda, that is, two years ago. Not today. I know that she had not seen Sayers for over a year, previous to that dinner in Santa Barbara last night.

CLAIRE: Had there been any quarrel between them?

FARROW: None. Never. That fool had proposed to her three times, to my knowledge. She could have had him, Greek temples and oil wells and all, anytime she winked an eyelash.

CLAIRE: Has she had any trouble of any kind lately?

FARROW: None. None whatever. In fact, you know, she was to sign her new contract with us today. She promised me faithfully to be here at five, and...

SALZER: [Clutching his head suddenly] Tony! It's the contract!

FARROW: What about the contract?

SALZER: Maybe she's changed her mind again, and quit for good.

CLAIRE: A pose, Mr. Salzer, just a pose. She's said that after every picture.