Intrigue

Department-store shoe salesman Jerome Pepper wants the boss's daughter Delia Latham to notice him. Granted a birthday fantasy to paint like Toulouse-Lautrec, Tattoo unexpectedly finds romance.

"Also-Rans": Jerome Pepper is an ordinary shoe salesman at Latham's department store in Philadelphia, and for seven years has been silently in love with Thalia Latham -- the daughter of the store's owner. Too shy and retiring to declare himself or even be up-front about his feelings, he asks merely that Thalia "notice" him. To Pepper's unease, he finds himself involved in the equestrian world, thanks to Thalia, who wants to race the untamable Pomona Prince against Satin Duke, the award-winning steed of Amelia Selby -- who owns Selby's, Latham's biggest rival. Roarke gives Pepper a trump card in the game by presenting him with an equine genius named Professor Oats, who makes friends with Pomona Prince and seems to calm the latter horse down enough to be able to run the race. The delighted Thalia not only notices Pepper but seems to take an interest in him. Amelia Selby was certain she'd win her hundred-thousand-dollar bet with Emmett Latham on the race's outcome; but when she sees how Pomona Prince responds to Professor Oats, she shanghais her stable hand, Skelly, into horsenapping the Professor and thus preventing him from "coaching" the volatile Pomona Prince. Feeling more confident than ever in the wake of this, she ups the bet to two hundred thousand. Meantime Pepper and Thalia discover the Professor's absence, and in the midst of their panic discover that not only has Pepper been in love with Thalia all this time, she's been in love with him too...and hasn't said anything for the same reasons he didn't. Now secure in their feelings for each other, they team up to find Professor Oats, hijacking an ice-cream truck and broadcasting to the horse that it's time for his daily tutti-frutti cone. Overhearing them, the horse manages to nose up a bucket and fling it through a window, alerting Thalia and Pepper to his location. They bring the Professor back barely in time for him to encourage Pomona Prince to outrun Satin Duke and win the race. Amelia, in tears after her loss, admits to a stunned Emmett that all she ever really wanted was to work with him, rather than against him. Two happy couples depart the island. "Portrait of Solange": It's Tattoo's birthday, and as a gift Roarke grants him a special fantasy: to emulate Tattoo's favorite artist, Toulouse-Lautrec, and paint images of the famous Can-Can dancers at the Moulin Rouge. A French dance troupe is on the island to rehearse for their upcoming touring season and Tattoo will be allowed to sit in on rehearsals to paint and sketch. Tattoo is in his element; after rehearsal ends, he is gathering his sketches to leave when he spots one very young woman venturing onto the deserted stage and dancing alone. Intrigued, he remains to watch; Roarke, who's been keeping interested tabs on his assistant's progress, helps things along by magically starting taped music for the woman to dance to. She succumbs to the temptation, unaware she's being watched and eagerly sketched by Tattoo. When she stops dancing, Tattoo applauds her and asks for a dinner date; she accepts, introducing herself as Solange Latignon and explaining that she is the seamstress for the dance company. Tattoo wonders why, when she obviously has so much untapped talent as a dancer. He gets his answer when the troupe's director, Mark Ellison, horns in on their quiet dinner and tells Solange that all the new costumes need altering. Having sent her on her way, he delivers what amounts to a warning to Tattoo to stay away from Solange. However, Tattoo has asked Solange to sit for a formal portrait in oil, and has no intention of heeding Ellison's words. They set up a time for Solange's sitting; but Ellison has been eavesdropping again, and waylays Solange as she's on the way to keep her appointment with Tattoo, forcing his attentions on her. Tattoo sees this happen and misunderstands, crumpling the sketch he made of Solange and throwing it aside. Late that day, Roarke asks Tattoo to hold down the fort while he's at an emergency island council meeting; Tattoo, depressed over the apparent loss of Solange, agrees. But it's just a ploy by Roarke to give Tattoo a surprise birthday party; and as her gift to Tattoo, Solange performs, in front of the entire troupe, Mark Ellison, and the company's financial backer, Alfred Gerrard. Gerrard is impressed not only by Tattoo's artwork, but by Solange's dancing, and takes Ellison to task for not having told him about this undiscovered talent. He tells Solange to meet him for breakfast so they can talk about her future with the dance troupe, as a dancer and not a seamstress. However, Solange tries to back out: she's fallen for Tattoo, and wants to stay on the island with him instead. Tattoo is sorely tempted, but in the end insists that she follow her lifelong dream. He paints her portrait that evening, and after a poignant goodbye at the plane dock next morning, shows Roarke the finished painting, grateful for a fantasy that he can keep for the rest of his life.