"...The horse kicked me in the face." She said this and laughed, then went on with her story: "It was a big horse, and I was small at the time." Her face brightened as she leaned back against a plush couch. She holds a high position in an office on "Hollywood Boulevard": she is head of the literary department, writing and distributing works of value; on her desk lie specimens of fine literature, and you cannot reach her except by a previously arranged appointment.

I asked her in my turn: "You have stirred my curiosity — what horse do you mean?"

— "It was a real horse, of flesh and blood, and to it goes the secret of my success. Believe it if you will, or else...?" And the secretary closed the door to hold back that stream of seekers after knowledge who come to her to drink in wisdom and true instruction from this lady of striking personality, who says there is no such thing as failure for one who fights against stumbling blocks. She continued the story merrily:

"I was a thin, stubborn girl, always in motion, and I never paid any heed to what my father said. I walked between two galloping horses, and I had not gone more than a few steps before I fell. I did not come to until half an hour later, when my mother found me: my jaw had been left shattered, my lips torn to shreds, and my life on the brink of ruin."

I interrupted her, saying: "I have noticed nothing of all this."

— "Perhaps none of it shows; but I knew at that time that I would never be beautiful. The thought was a bitter stab at the very first, but it grew until it became a violent struggle between myself and life, and I resolved to surpass all the pretty girls by my diligence and my intelligence. I would be first in my class, and get higher marks than my brother; the world would see all this from me — and if I did not achieve these hopes I would become a despised outcast. Upward, then! And so I studied like a madwoman, year after year... and I succeeded!"

The secretary knocked at the door and came in to make ready for a conference to be held in the office of "the Doctor," as they call her in the heart of Hollywood; for everyone knows this charming, intelligent lady, and they come to her for counsel and guidance.

Not all of us are given the chance to be kicked by a horse's hoof... but we may have need of it!...