"Of course," says the wife. "It's too silly to talk about. Alex has reached the stage now where he thinks he can do anything!" "Yeh?" says Alex. "Well, I reached the stage where I thought I could do anything about three minutes after I was born! I'll bet right now I can go down to the docks or some place and get a handsome stevedore and make him as big a star as Carrington De Vire in six months!" "Don't be idiotic," laughs Eve. "Imagine a stevedore as a moving picture star!" "Why not?" demands Alex, lookin' like the idea had made a hit with him. "Ain't a stevedore as good as anybody else? I'll bet a thousand dollars even that I can catch one or somebody like him and make him a movie star. What d'ye say?" "I'll say this," I says. "We come here to see this picture and not to hear you make a speech. This here's a theatre and not no race track and forget about that bettin' thing. If you can make a movie star out of a stevedore, I can make a watch outa a hard boiled egg!" They is some people behind us which can't see the picture on account of us talkin' and they begin to hiss at us. It bothers Alex the same as rain worries a duck. "Is they steam escapin' somewheres?" he remarks, turnin' his head. "Why, brakemen have became railroad presidents," he goes on, "bootblacks have became bankers, prize fighters have turned evangelists and the United States has went dry. Why shouldn't a stevedore become a movie star?" "We'll all become throwed outa here if you don't keep quiet!" I says. "Ssh, Alex," says the wife. "Don't get so excited about it. There's no use attempting the impossible and--" "They ain't nothin impossible!" butts in Alex. "I'm willin' to prove it. Why don't somebody bet me, hey?" "Why don't you hire Madison Square Garden for that speech?" hisses a guy behind us. "Heavens, what a pest!" "Call the usher," puts in a dame with him. "Them people has did nothin' but talk since they come in here!" "What d'ye want us to do--sing?" growls Alex. "Alex, be still!" whispers Eve. "I've missed the whole picture through your talking. Now we'll have to stay and see it all over again." "Have a nice time," says Alex, gettin' up and grabbin' my arm. "We'll wait outside for you. One dose a day of Carrington De Vire is all I can take!" The bunch in back glares at us and says somethin' about what a crime it is to let drunken men come into a theatre. Outside on the pavement, Alex lets forth a snort and whiffs the fresh air like it was wine. "Think of my wife sittin' in there and worshippin' that big stiff," he snarls. "And yours, too!" "We all have our faults," I says. "I knowed a guy once which was crazy over fried parsnips." "They ain't nothin' to laugh at in this," he says, slappin' his hands together. "I ain't a jealous man, but no movie hero is gonna be no god to my wife!"