"Oh, then we went up to the Grand Central, and there Paul had to pretend to get on a train, and Miss Fillmore bade him a tearful good-bye. She's quite an emotional actress, too.

"It was quite exciting. Paul had some work getting the station master to let us out on the train platform without tickets. But when he explained about the moving pictures, it was all right.

"It was as real as anything--just as if it wasn't for the films at all. Paul got on the platform, and a porter took someone else's grip to make it look as though he were going on a journey.

"That porter enjoyed it more than anyone else. He grinned so much that Paul had to tell him to stop, or the top of his head might come off. And laugh! I wish you could have heard him laugh at that. It took us a little longer to get those films, for there was such a crowd. But it was all right. I've had a lovely time!" cried Alice, her brown eyes brilliant with excitement, and her cheeks flushed.

"And what happened next?" asked Ruth, after a pause.

"Oh, Miss Fillmore had an engagement, so Paul and I went and had lunch together. He's an awfully nice boy!"

"Alice!"

"I don't care; he is! And he's in papa's company, so I don't see any harm--especially as it was in daylight, and it was only in one of those dairy lunches, you know. Paul wanted to take me to a better place, but I know he doesn't earn much yet, and I wasn't going to have him waste his money."

"Thoughtful of you," murmured Ruth.

"Wasn't it. Where's daddy?"

"Oh, he went back to the studio. There was some mistake in one of his acts and he wanted to have it corrected so he could study over it to-night."

"Oh, hasn't it been a day!" exclaimed Alice, as she laid aside her hat. "Do you know, I think outdoor pictures are better, and more interesting. I'd like to be in some myself."

"It is interesting," agreed Ruth. "And really it doesn't seem like acting when you don't have any audience except a camera. But I suppose that makes it all the more difficult. Russ was in a little while ago."

"What did he want?" asked Alice with a quick glance at her sister.

"Oh, he just called to say that all the films in which dad appears came out fine. He mentioned that his patent was coming on all right, and he expects soon to have it out on royalty."

"That's nice. I do hope those horrid men won't get it away from him.

What have we to eat? I'm nearly starved."

"Why, I thought you had lunch."

"I did, but we--we took a walk afterward, and my appet.i.te came back."

Ruth looked curiously at Alice, sighed and then went out to the kitchen.

As the days went on Mr. DeVere grew to like his new occupation more and more. At first he had talked and mused over the coming time when he could go back to the regular theatre. But his voice showed no tendency to lose its whispering hoa.r.s.eness, and he was, perforce, compelled to do his acting for the camera. Then came a gradual change of feeling, and he grew really to like his new occupation. Besides, it paid almost as well as a legitimate role, and was more certain.

The girls and their father enjoyed a private view of the film in which Mr. DeVere was depicted. It was an absorbing play, and while it seemed a bit uncanny, at first, to look at yourself moving about, Mr.

DeVere grew accustomed to it.

"And it is surprising what faults one can see in onesself," he remarked, after the film had been thrown on the screen for him. "I can pick out a number of places where I can improve in my gestures.

And I see places where the action can be more easily and plainly explained to the audience."

"I am glad you do," spoke Mr. Pertell. "It is a good thing to try to improve the movies. They have, in my opinion, a great lesson to teach to the ma.s.ses, as well as to provide amus.e.m.e.nt for them. And all we can do, individually, to help, adds to it.

"I am thinking of greatly broadening my fields, I am not satisfied to film merely parlor dramas and a few city scenes. I want a larger scenic background, and I'm working to that end."

"I hope I shall be able to fit into some of them," observed Mr.

DeVere. "I, too, begin to think I would like to get out in the open."

"I intend to have you with me," declared the manager. "I am looking around for a locality to serve as a background for certain rural plays. But I have not found it yet."

Ruth and Alice paid many visits to the film studio, and watched the making of many plays. Their father had parts in a number of them, and for others new actors were engaged temporarily.

Russ was becoming an expert operator, and meanwhile was working on his patent. It was nearly perfected.

They were exacting days that followed. Many dramas had to be filmed, and all the actors and actresses were kept busy. Ruth and Alice spent many afternoons in the studio, growing more and more interested all the while. There was much fun, as well as much hard work, for Mr.

Switzer, with his odd expressions and mishaps, was a source of considerable amus.e.m.e.nt.

Then, too, the "human grouch," Pepper Sneed, seemed always to find some new objection to raise, or some dire calamity to predict. And as for Mr. Bunn, he made many protests at roles he considered incongruous with his dignity.

Once he wanted the story of a play so changed that he might give an impersonation of Hamlet in a setting that included a Western mining cabin, and when he was refused by the manager he grew quite indignant.

"You might as well try to introduce Macbeth in the clown act,"

declared Mr. Pertell.

Several times Ruth and Alice had expressed a desire to try a little part in one of the dramas, but their father would not listen. At last, however, their chance came.

Mr. DeVere had just completed his role in a difficult part, and Russ, with his camera, had been shifted over to film another play, a few of the scenes of which were laid in the studio, the others being set out of doors.

"Well, aren't those two young ladies here yet?" asked Mr. Pertell, coming out of his office, as he noted a delay.

"Not yet," answered Mrs. Maguire, who was to have a part in the act.

"They said they'd be early, too."

"That's always the way when you want someone in a hurry," stormed the manager. "Here we are holding things up just because Miss Parker and Miss Dengon aren't here. It wouldn't taken them five minutes to do their parts, either."

"Well, I can't wait much longer," said the princ.i.p.al actor, who was to take a part with the young ladies who were missing. "I've got to get that train, you know, Pertell."

"Yes, I know!" was the answer, as the manager snapped shut his watch.

"I can't see what's keeping them. This gets on my nerves!"

"What is it?" asked Mr. DeVere, coming from his dressing room.

"Anything I can do to help you?"

"No, but two extra young girls I hired for certain parts are missing, and this thing ought to go on. Harrison has an important engagement, and can't wait either. I didn't count on this emergency, though usually I allow for delays. If I only had two girls now--Say!" he cried, as he looked over at Ruth and Alice. "They might do it--they might fill in! How about it, Mr. DeVere; would you let them subst.i.tute in this drama? It's a simple thing, and with two minutes'

coaching they can do it. That will let Harrison get his train, and I can go on with the next scenes. Will you girls try?" he asked, appealing to them.

CHAPTER XV

JEALOUSIES