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persuaded to leave the children in the care of other
people. Nor was she willing to take them out of
school. “Six months is too long,” she argued. “We’ll
come over at Christmas. Next time make them give
you a picture abroad in the summer.”

It wasn’t the first picture that had taken him to
location. But the others had been closer to home and
never for so long a time.

The excitement of settling himself in Rome and all
the production details to be attended to left him little
time to be homesick at the beginning. Or even lonely.
There were long distance calls at frequent intervals,
a steady stream of correspondence. Things were
proceeding swimmingly.

Until there came a long holiday weekend—a time
when all his co-workers disappeared into theirhomes
and enjoyed their families. Knowing he would be
alone, some of the Italian production men had in-
vited him. ]J.B. was reluctant to accept. He was
unsteady in the language. Moreover he disliked
intruding. J.B. was essentially a shy man.

“No,” he said, “I’ll stay at the hotel and work on
the script. If I get lonely, I can always find another
lonely American at the bar.”

J.B. stayed with the script as long as he could, but
he was draftsman enough to know that in creative