The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch | Page 2

the city, and a light waist was rather conducive
to colds.
"Have you the key?" asked the older girl, as she paused for a moment
on the threshold of the private hall of the apartment house. She had tied
her veil rather tightly at the back, knotting it and fastening it with a
little gold pin, and now she pulled it away from her cheeks, to relieve
the tension.
"Yes, I have it, Ruth. Oh, don't make such funny faces! Anyone would
think you were posing."
"Well, I'm not--but this veil--tickles."
"Serves you right for trying to be so stylish."
"It's proper to have a certain amount of style, Alice, dear. I wish I could
induce you to have more of it."
"I have enough, thank you. Let's don't talk dress any more, or we'll
have a tiff before we get to the moving picture studio, and there are
some long and trying scenes ahead of us to-day."
"So there are. I wonder if daddy took his key?"
"Wait, and I'll look on his dresser."
The younger girl went back into the apartment for a moment, while her
sister stepped across the corridor and tapped lightly at an opposite door.
"Has Russ gone?" she asked the pleasant-faced woman who answered.
"Yes, Ruth. A little while ago. He was going to call for you girls, but I
knew you were dressing, for Alice came in to borrow some pins, so I
told him not to wait."
"That's right. We'll see him at the studio."

"You're coming in to supper to-night, you know."
"Oh, yes, Mrs. Dalwood. Daddy wouldn't miss that for anything!"
laughed Ruth, as she turned to wait for her sister. "Of course he says
our cooking is the best he ever had since poor mamma left us," Ruth
went on, "but I just know he relishes yours a great deal more."
"Oh, you're just saying that, Ruth!" objected the neighbor.
"Indeed I'm not. You should hear him talk, for days afterward, about
your clam chowder." She laughed genially.
"Well, he does seem to relish that," admitted Mrs. Dalwood.
"What's that?" asked Alice, as she came out.
"We're speaking of clam chowder, and how fond daddy is of Mrs.
Dalwood's recipe," said Ruth.
"Oh, yes, indeed! I should think he'd be ashamed to look a clam in the
face--that is, if a clam has a face," laughed Alice. "It's awfully good of
you, Mrs. Dalwood, to make it for him so often."
"Well, I'm always glad when a man enjoys his meals," declared Mrs.
Dalwood, who, being a widow, knew what the lack of proper home life
meant.
"I'm afraid we're imposing on you," suggested Alice, as she started
down the stairs. "You have us over to tea so often, and we seldom
invite you."
"Now don't be thinking that, my dear!" exclaimed the neighbor. "I
know what it is when you have to pose so much for moving pictures.
"My boy Russ tells me what long hours you put in, and how hard you
work. And it's trouble enough to get up a meal these days, and have
anything left to pay the rent. So I'm only too glad when you can come
in and enjoy the victuals with us. I cook too much anyhow, and of late
Russ seems to have lost his appetite."

"I fancy I know why," laughed Alice, with a roguish glance at her
sister.
"Alice!" protested Ruth, in shocked tones. "Don't you dare----"
"I was only going to say that he has not seemed well since coming back
from Florida--what was the harm in that?" Alice wanted to know.
"Oh!" murmured Ruth. "Do come on," she added, as if she feared her
fun-loving sister might say something embarrassing.
"Russ will be better soon, Mrs. Dalwood," Alice called as she and her
sister went down the stairway of the apartment house.
"What makes you think so?" asked his mother. "Not but what I'm glad
to hear you say that, for really he hasn't eaten at all well lately."
"We're going on the road again, I hear," went on Alice. "The whole
moving picture company is to be taken off somewhere, and a lot of
films made. Russ always likes that, and I'm sure his appetite will come
back as soon as we start traveling. It always does."
"You are getting to be a close observer," remarked Ruth, with just the
hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Oh, Alice, do finish buttoning your
gloves in the house!" she exclaimed. "It looks so careless to go out
fussing with them."
"All right, sister mine. Anything to keep peace in the family!" laughed
the younger girl.
Together they went down the street, a charming picture of youth and
happiness.
A little later they entered the studio of the Comet Film