Chippewa Bay to take most of those from the
camp who attended the dance, either as participants in the costume review
or as spectators, but Chess Copley arranged to come for his particular
friends in the _Lauriette_.

Helen was tempted to refuse to go in the Copley launch; but when she saw
Jean and Sara Copley beside their brother, she went aboard with Ruth and
Tom. There actually was no friction between the two young men, although
Tom usually addressed Chess by that opprobrious nickname, 'Lasses, while
Chess retorted by scoffing at all the ex-captain's opinions and advice on
any and all subjects.

Really, had she not felt that she was partly the cause of this mild
strife, Ruth would have laughed at the two. They were, after all, but
grown-up boys.

It was a gay party aboard the _Lauriette_, nevertheless. Even Wonota
(whom Ruth was keeping with her) was gay. And she was so pretty in her
beautiful costume that when they arrived at the hotel the young men at
the dance vied in their attempts to have her for a partner on the floor.

There was a fine band and the dancing floor was smooth. Even Mr. Hammond
went on to the floor, having secured a costume, and Mother Paisley, who
acted as chaperon for the moving picture girls, was as light as anybody
on her feet and the embodiment of grace.

"Actor folk nowadays," the old woman told Ruth once, "are not trained as
they once were. I came of circus folk. My people had been circus
performers in the old country for generations before my father and mother
came over here. My husband was a trapeze performer.

"And working on the bars makes one supple and limber beyond any other
form of exercise. Afterward, while still a young girl, I was in the
ballet. At least, when one has had my training, one brings to the
speaking stage a grace and carriage that can scarcely be secured in any
other way.

"As for this moving picture business," she sighed, "I see these poor
girls as awkward as heifers--and they are really learning very little.
They depend upon the director to tell them how a lady should enter a
room, and how to walk. But often the director has never seen a real lady
enter a room! Directors of moving pictures are not masters of deportment
as our old dancing masters were."

Ruth always listened to strictures upon the moving picture art and gained
what she could from such criticism. And the harshest critics the motion
pictures have are the people who work in them. But, after all