and sister.

Still, he began to observe differences. The little sister--played by the
Montague girl--was a simple farm maiden as in the other piece, but the
mother was more energetic. She had silvery hair and wore a neat black
dress, with a white lace collar and a cameo brooch at her neck, and
she embraced her son tearfully at frequent intervals, as had the other
mother; but she carried on in her kitchen an active business in canning
fruits and putting up jellies, which, sold to the rich people at
the hotel, would swell the little fund that must be saved to pay the
mortgage. Also, in the present piece, the country boy was to become a
great inventor, and this was different. Merton felt that this was a good
touch; it gave him dignity.

He appeared ready for work on the morning designated. He was now able to
make up himself, and he dressed in the country-boy costume that had been
provided. It was perhaps not so attractive a costume as Edgar Wayne
had worn, consisting of loose-fitting overalls that came well above his
waist and were fastened by straps that went over the shoulders; but, as
Baird remarked, the contrast would be greater when he dressed in rich
city clothes at the last. His hair, too, was no longer the slicked-back
hair of Parmalee, but tousled in country disorder.

For much of the action of the new piece they would require an outside
location, but there were some interiors to be shot on the lot. He forgot
the ill-fitting overalls when shown his attic laboratory where, as an
ambitious young inventor, sustained by the unfaltering trust of mother
and sister, he would perfect certain mechanical devices that would bring
him fame, fortune, and the love of a pure New York society girl. It was
a humble little room containing a work-bench that held his tools and a
table littered with drawings over which he bent until late hours of the
night.

At this table, simple, unaffected, deeply earnest, he was shown as the
dreaming young inventor, perplexed at moments, then, with brightening
eyes, making some needful change in the drawings. He felt in these
scenes that he was revealing a world of personality. And he must
struggle to give a sincere interpretation in later scenes that would
require more action. He would show Baird that he had not watched Edgar
Wayne without profit.

Another interior was of the neat living room of the humble home. Here
were scenes of happy family life with the little sister and the fond
old mo