"No, little girl--no! I'm glad!" And truly he seemed so. "Tell us about it," suggested Ruth, and he did--in detail. "Then it wasn't so bad as you expected; was it, Daddy?" asked Alice. "No, I found many of the company to be very fine characters, and some with exceptional ability. Mr. Wellington Bunn, by the way, is a man after my own heart." "Oh, yes. He seemed very anxious to play Shakespeare," remarked Alice, with a smile. "I heard Mr. Pertell caution him about not letting Hamlet get into the parlor scene they were presenting," and she laughed at the recollection. "Of course it was rather new and strange to me," went on Mr. DeVere, "but I dare say I shall get accustomed to it. There were some of the young ladies, though, for whom I felt no liking--Miss Pearl Pennington, who plays light leads, and her friend, Miss Laura Dixon, the ingenue." "They were in vaudeville until recently," remarked Alice. "So Russ told me. Miss Pennington seemed very pretty." "Passably so," agreed Mr. DeVere. "Well, our living problem is solved for us, anyway. Now I must study my new part. It is to be a sort of society drama, and will be put on in a few days. Mr. Pertell gave me some instructions. I shall have to unlearn many things that are traditional with those who have played all their parts in a real theatre. It is like teaching an old dog new tricks, but I dare say I shall master them." "You're not really old, Daddy!" said Alice, slipping her arms about him, and nestling her cheek against his. "There--there!" he returned, indulgently, "don't try to flatter your old father. You are just like your dear mother. Run along now, I must take up this new work. What a relief not to have to declaim my lines! I shall only move my lips, and who knows but, in time, my voice may come back?" "I hope it will," answered Ruth, with a sigh. Somehow she could not quite bring herself to like her father in moving picture roles. Alice was entirely different. "But, even if it does come back," said the younger girl, "you may like this new work so well, Dad, that you'll keep at it." "Perhaps," he assented. "Here, Ruth, take care of this money--my first moving picture salary," and he handed her the bills. As he went to his room with the typewritten sheets of his new part, Alice whispered to her sister: "Hurray! Now we can have a real dinner. I'll go and buy out a delicatessen store." The meal was a great success--not only from a gastronomic standpoint, but because of the jollity--real or assumed--of Mr. DeVere. He went over the lines of his new part, telling the girls how at certain places he was to "register," or denote, different emotions. "Register" is the word used in moving picture scenarios to indicate the showing of fear, hate, revenge or other emotion. All this must be done by facial expression or gestures, for of course no talking comes from the moving pictures--except in the latest kind, with a phonographic arrangement, and with that sort we are not dealing.