" declared the rather unreasonable Helen, "you'll
spoil our whole visit at the Thousand Islands."

"My goodness!" exclaimed Ruth, for once showing exasperation, "you do not
talk very sensibly, Helen. I have come here to work, not to play. Please
bear that in mind. If you think I spoil your sport I will not join any
other evening parties."

The next evening when the Copley party came over to get acquainted with
some of the moving picture people and arrange for a big dance on Saturday
night, Ruth was as good as her word, and remained in Mr. Hammond's
office, recasting certain scenes in her story that Mr. Hooley proposed to
make next day.

Helen was sure Ruth was "mad" and kept out of the way intentionally. She
told Tom so. But she did not choose to relieve Chess Copley's loneliness
when she saw him mooning about.

Whenever Chess tried to speak to Helen in private she ran away from him.
Whether it was loyalty to her brother, Tom, or some other reason that
made Helen treat Copley so unkindly, the fact remained that Chess was
plainly not in Helen's good books, although she made much of the two
Copley girls.

The next day Ruth was quite as busy, for the making of the picture was
going ahead rapidly while the good weather lasted. This story she had
written was more of a pageant than anything she had yet essayed. The
scenes were almost all "on location," instead of being filmed under a
glass roof.

Helen and Tom did not seem to understand that their friend could not go
off fishing or sailing or otherwise junketing whenever they would like to
have her. But picture making and directors, and especially sunlight, will
not wait, and so Ruth tried to tell them.

It was Chess Copley, after all, who seemed to have the better
appreciation of Ruth's situation just at this time. Before a week had
passed he was almost always to be found at Ruth's beck and call; for when
she could get away from the work of picture making, Chess turned up as
faithfully as the proverbial bad penny.

"You are not a bad penny, however, Chess," she told him, smiling. "You
are a good scout. Now you may take me out in your motor-boat. If it is
too late to fish, we can at least have a run out into the river. How
pretty it is to-day!"

"If everybody treated me as nicely as you do, Ruth," he said, rather
soberly, "my head would be turned."

"Cheer up, Chess," she said, laughing. "I don't say the worst is yet to
come. Perhaps the best will come to you in