Herman could hardly believe his ears when Hayley leaned close and whispered her secret thoughts     It happened at the chic Cocoanut Grove night club in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was singer Wayne Newton's opening night and the small, exclusive room was crowded with celebrities. As many couples who could were dancing, while the others watched from three tiers of tables that en-circled the dance floor. Suddenly the band switched to a rock 'n' roll beat and those over 25 began to drift back to their tables, abandoning the floor to the younger and more hardy. One pair of dancers were especially noticeable: a shaggy-haired blond young man and a slender red-haired girl. They were whipping up a wild Watusi and gabbing to each other a mile a minute.     "Look at those two," one watching woman gasped to her film-executive husband. "Where on earth do they get the energy to dance and talk-both? They certainly do seem absorbed in each other," she continued. "Do they belong to anyone we know?" "They look like they belong to each other," her husband laughed. "But that girl is John Mills' young daughter, Hayley." "Hayley Mills! But that's impossible," his wife replied incredulously. "Why Hayley Mills is that dear little girl who played Pollyanna for Disney. And, anyway, Hayley Mills is a blonde." "Yes dear," her husband tried to soothe her. "But Pollyanna is a big girl now. She dyes her hair, smokes cigarettes and dances like that." "Well! And who is that young man she's so engrossed in?" "That, my dear," replied her all-knowing husband, "is Herman of Herman's Hermits." "And who," asked the lady, visibly shaken, "are Herman's Hermits?"     There was no use trying to explain to the poor woman. Like other Hollywood matrons who have happened on Hayley recently in swinging night spots, she was shocked. She just couldn't imagine that the sweet little English actress she'd seen on the screen, is now a young woman of 19-going-on-20 who dates exciting young men and even sips a light wine once in a while. And she would have been even more surprised if she could have overheard what Hayley was saying to Herman. For this was a very important evening to Hayley, something-Hayley still isn't sure just what-had happened. Her normal reserve had completely broken down and she suddenly found herself pouring out confidences and intimate thoughts to this charming young man who had been a stranger before this evening. She couldn't seem to stop talking and Herman was acting just the same way.     Hayley hadn't even had a date for this particular evening. She'd come to the opening with her sister, Juliet, and Juliet's husband, songwriter Russell Alquist. Herman had come with his agent, Leona Gage. Russell, thinking that as both Hayley and Herman were English, they might enjoy meeting, had introduced them. But even Russell didn't expect that they would get on so well. As it turned out, neither left the other's side for long all evening. Herman made no secret about being very impressed, and Hayley kept thinking of more and more she wanted to tell Herman.     Had Hayley fallen in love? It looked like something mighty like love to a lot of people in that room. The photographers, in particular, were having a field day as Hayley and Herman, oblivious to everything but each other, whirled and bounced around the dance floor. And it wasn't as though this was Hayley's first contact with a charming man. She's been seen of late with such eligible bachelors as Michael Anderson, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Jr., Chris Mitchum (Bob Mitchum's youngest son), Roddy McDowall, and Paul Petersen. Yet none of these gentlemen seemed to have quite the effect on her that young Herman did.     What meeting Herman seems to have (lone to Hayley is to stir up all sorts of thoughts about love and marriage; so much so, that Hayley is a little worried about these new, passionate feelings-and is torn between her natural, old reticence and her new found womanhood. We arranged an interview with Hayley just after her fateful meeting with Herman. The topic, not surprisingly, was love.     Hayley, still looking radiant and misty-eyed, fixed us with a direct, firm glance, and said huskily: 'When love comes, I'll want to get married right away. But I'm too young to get married! Oh dear, 1 do hope that no young man comes along and sweeps me off my feet. I'm too young to go!" And that, in between all their lively chatter, was what Hayley got across to Herman. These two young people, so many miles away from their native shores, had become instant friends and confidants.     When we further inquired discreetly whether Hayley had just possibly met such a young man, she blushed, but declined to give a direct answer. Instead, she talked about love in general-leaving us to infer what we would. "I just know what would happen if I did fall in love," she continued. "I would be utterly,

deliriously in love. Then it would break up and I would want to kill myself. You see, I don't do things halfway. When I do something I throw my whole heart and soul into it. "That's the way I'll be when I fall in love. I won't be able to think of anything else. I'll be miserably unhappy when the thing breaks up. I won't want it to break' up -I'll Want to get married, fast. Oh, there we are again. I just can't get married, not now anyway. The only answer is not to fall in love.     "I don't want to fall in love," she concluded. "That would be the worst thing that could happen to me now." Rather surprised at this outburst, we figured that Hayley-who will be 20 this April-was trying to put off that final step into womanhood: love and marriage. We suggested that this was the case and Hayley was the first to agree. "When I became 18, it didn't mean a great deal to me," she said. "But when I turned 19-good heavens! That was really a jump. It meant that I was really not a girl any more, and I didn't feel I wanted to be a young woman. I wept buckets. It was just too much to contemplate. Now the thought of being 20 terrifies me. It's the beginning of the end. I don't know how I'll be able to face it."     Hayley admitted that the idea of being on the threshold of adulthood was pretty confusing in many areas of her life. One thing she's been thinking about is whether or not she should live by herself, like so many other young actresses of her age. But Hayley's decided she really doesn't want to give up living with her family. When she's in England she lives with her father, John Mills, and her mother, writer Mary Hayley Bell, in their house in London; and when she's working in Hollywood, she stays with her sister and brother-inlaw, Juliet and Russell Alquist, in Pacific Palisades.     "I don't want to live alone," she insists. "Why should I? It might be different if my parents beat me or if my sister checked up on every boy I went out with. But they're nothing like that. I'd be so lonely if I had my own flat. I'd come home at the end of a day's work to nothing but four walls.I'd have to cook for myself and I'm such a miserable cook. "Why shouldn't 1 stay as long as I can with the people I love and who love me? I'm happier that way, and they seem willing to put up with me. Oh, I suppose I shall have my own place some day. But it will be a fright-ful mess. I shudder to think of it."     But Hayley is beginning to stretch her wings. She's been traveling by herself occasionally she'll take off for a weekend in the south of France or to visit married friends in Mexico. And whether she's in Hollywood or London, she has a circle of friends and plenty of escorts willing to take in whatever is the new and fun thing to do. Then there's the business about her hair. Hayley dyed it red while vacationing with her family before starting her latest picture.     "It was my own idea," she confessed. "I received the script for The Trouble With Angels while I was in the south of France. I thought immediately that the character I was to play would be absolutely smashing with red hair-that it would suit her to a T. "So I dyed my hair all by myself. The only trouble was it came out pink and I had to have it re-done at a heauty salon. It was simply marvelous what happened afterwards. When I was in France, everyone stared at me. Thought I was a chippy, I suppose. Mum and Dad were aghast; they thought I looked dreadful with red hair. I like it, but I will say that the red hair did make me lose a lot of friends. Richard Chamberlain once walked past me and didn't even say hello."     Hayley added that the anonymity also appealed to her because she could be "a real Jekyll-Hyde," but said that she would probably go back to being blonde. (Ida Lupino, who directed The Trouble With Angels, wasn't exactly delighted with Hayley's hair-color; and at this writing, Hayley is blonde again.)     It's not quite so easy to get unmarried as it is to change one's hair-color, however. And Hayley is very aware of this. She really yearns to hang on to her carefree youth just a little longer. She will need just the right young man, someone as passionate and loving as she, to help quell her fears.     Hayley's older sister, Juliet, thinks that Hayley will meet just such a young man very soon. "Hayley hasn't had any big emotional love affairs yet, just fun boyfriends so far," Juliet told us. "But she's not such a baby. She lived by herself when she was going to school in Switzerland two years ago, and she's really quite independent. We adore having her stay with us, but Russell and I are sure it won't be much longer. "I was just like Hayley," she continued. "I swore I wouldn't get married till I was 25. Then when I was 17, 1 met Russell in New York and three months later he asked me to marry him. Just a bit later, I did. I was 18. I'm sure that's how it will be with Hayley." -GENE MATHEWS Hayley Mills stars in Columbia's The Trouble With Angels. Herman stars in MGM's There's No Place Like Space.

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