the old lady. Very lately, it
was evident, she had been compelled to play in a cabaret scene, for she
smelled strongly of cigarettes, and he could not suppose that she, her
eyes brimming with anguished mother love, could have relished these.
He was glad when it presently developed that his own was not to be a
smoking part.

"Now the dissipated brother's coming on," explained Baird. "He'll breeze
in, hang up his hat, offer you a cigarette, which you refuse, and show
you some money that he won on the third race yesterday. You follow him a
little way from the desk, telling him he shouldn't smoke cigarettes, and
that money he gets by gambling will never do him any good. He laughs at
you, but you don't mind. On your way back to the desk you stop by your
mother, and she gets up and embraces you again.

"Take your time about it--she's your mother, remember."

The brother entered. He was indeed dissipated appearing, loudly dressed,
and already smoking a cigarette as he swaggered the length of the shop
to offer Merton one. Merton refused in a kindly but firm manner. The
flashy brother now pulled a roll of bills from his pocket and pointed
to his winning horse in a racing extra. The line in large type was there
for the close-up--"Pianola Romps Home in Third Race."

Followed the scene in which Merton sought to show this youth that
cigarettes and gambling would harm him. The youth remained obdurate. He
seized a duster and, with ribald action, began to dust off the rows
of cooked food on the counters. Again the son stopped to embrace his
mother, who again wept as she enfolded him. The scene was shot.

Step by step, under the patient coaching of Baird, the simple drama
unfolded. It was hot beneath the lights, delays were frequent and the
rehearsals tedious, yet Merton Gill continued to give the best that was
in him. As the day wore on, the dissipated son went from bad to worse.
He would leave the shop to place money on a horse race, and he would
seek to induce the customers he waited on to play at dice with him. A
few of them consented, and one, a coloured man who had come to purchase
pigs'-feet, won at this game all the bills which the youth had shown to
Merton on entering.

There were moments during this scene when Merton wondered if Baird were
not relapsing into Buckeye comedy depths, but he saw the inevitable
trend of the drama and the justification for this bit of gambling. For
the son, now penniless, became desperate. He