The Moving Picture Girls at Sea | Page 2

so very rested yourself. You had some heavy parts today."
"Oh, I don't mind. I really was in love with that role of Lady Clarissa. I always did like English plays, anyhow."
"Well, we are getting more than our share of them this season. I wish Mr. Pertell would swing to a good American drama again. Say, didn't we have fun at Rocky Ranch?" and as she asked this some of the weariness seemed to slip off Alice as a discarded garment is let fall. She sat up, her eyes flashing with fun, and her cheeks that had been pale were now suffused with a heightened color.
"Yes, we did have fun," assented Ruth. "But it was hard work, too,--especially when that prairie fire came a little too close for comfort."
"That was rather scary," assented Alice. "But it was outdoors, and that was what I love. Oh, I can just smell that wonderful air yet!" and she breathed in a long breath. A look of annoyance passed over her face, and she made a gesture of disapproval, "wrinkling" her nose.
"They're having corned beef and cabbage again downstairs," she said, pointing to the apartment below them.
"Well, they have a right to it," Ruth said, with a tolerant smile.
"Not when daddy hates it so," disagreed Alice. "Come on, let's make a cup of tea. And is there any cheese?"
"Cheese?"
"Yes," the younger girl went on. "I'm going to make a Welsh rarebit. Daddy just adores them, and the smell of the toast will take away the odor of that cabbage. Is there any cheese?"
"I think so. But I thought you were tired."
"I was, but I guess thinking of the moving picture days at Rocky Ranch acted as a tonic. I'm rested now. There!"
She tossed the hat, which she had so mistreated, on a chair, slipped off her jacket and started for the kitchen.
"I think there is some cheese," went on Ruth, following her younger sister. "But don't make the rarebit as you did last time. It was so tough that Russ said it would do very well to half sole his rubber boots."
"That was because I put the milk in too suddenly. I won't do it that way this time. Come on, we'll get up a nice little tea for daddy. He's sure to be tired also. They had to film that big scene of the accusation over three times before Mr. Pertell was satisfied."
"Is that so? I didn't know that, I was so busy with that English play. Then father will be late."
"A little. He said he'd follow us in about an hour, though. So we'll just about have it ready in time. Did Russ come out with you?"
"No," and though she uttered but this simple word the cheeks of Ruth took on a more ruddy hue.
"I saw Pearl waiting for him," went on Alice. "But----"
"You did?" cried Ruth, and then she added quickly: "Oh, I mean I suppose he had to go with her to film that scene in Central Park, near the lion's cage."
"Don't get jealous now," teased Alice. "I said Pearl waited for him, but, she is--still waiting, I guess."
"What do you mean?"
Ruth tried to appear indifferent, but it was not an unqualified success.
"I mean that Russ got one of the other camera men to take his place, and go out with Miss Pennington," said Alice with a laugh as she began cutting the bread in thin slices for toast.
"But Russ--"
"He went up town. He told me to tell you he thought he could get that book you spoke of."
"Oh, I didn't want him to go to all that trouble!" remonstrated Ruth, looking at her sister, and then suddenly averting her gaze.
"Guess he doesn't call much trouble where you are concerned," said Alice significantly, cutting up some chunks of cheese which she put in a double boiler with some lumps of butter. "He said if you wanted a book to give you some of the details of the country, where that English play was supposed to take place, you were going to have it."
"It's awfully good of him," murmured Ruth. "I just casually mentioned that I'd like to know something about the people of that section, and he offered to get a book he had once heard of. But I didn't want him to make such a fuss over it."
"La-la-la!" chanted Alice, about nothing in particular.
The girls busied themselves getting tea. The kettle was soon singing on the gas stove, the crisp odor of toast had replaced the heavier one of cabbage, and the rarebit was almost ready to serve, when a step was heard out in the hall of the apartment house where the DeVere family had their New York home.
"There's daddy!" exclaimed Alice.
"And just in time," added Ruth, as she poured the boiling water on the tea, adding to the