for,"
said Mr. DeVere. "But I am glad you like the work. It may be a great
deal better for all of us to be in this than if I was alone in a
regular theater. We can always be together now, and certainly my
voice doesn't seem to be improving very fast."

This was only too true. Several visits to the physician, and a heroic
course of treatment, had resulted in only a slight improvement. The
pain in the vocal chords had been lessened, but the huskiness
remained, so that it would have been practically impossible for Mr.
DeVere to speak his lines in a regular theater. So the moving
pictures were suited to him.

The DeVere family was now in much better circumstances than when we
first made their acquaintance. They had been gradually paying the
back bills, the landlord had been appeased, so that there was no
danger of dispossession, and there was much happiness in the little
flat.

"We could even afford a better one, if you girls would like to move,"
said Mr. DeVere one day.

"Oh, no, let's stay," suggested Ruth. "We can save a little money by
remaining here, and paying less rent."

"Besides, we have such nice neighbors!" observed Alice, with a glance
at the Dalwood apartments across the hall, at the same time giving
Ruth a sly nudge.

"Stop it!" commanded Ruth. "What do you mean, Alice?"

"Just what I said--we have _such_ nice neighbors across the way," and
she gave a little pinch to her sister's blushing cheek.

"Yes, the Dalwoods are very good friends," remarked Mr. DeVere, all
unconscious of this little by-play between his daughters. "And Russ
is certainly a fine young man."

"Indeed he is; isn't he, Ruth?" asked Alice tantalizingly.

"Oh, yes, I suppose so," was the blushing answer. "But how should I
know--any more than you do about Paul Ardite?" and she glanced
shrewdly at Alice.

"A hit, I suppose you would call that. A Roland for my Oliver, my
dear!" laughed Alice, frankly. "I don't mind."

She looked toward her father, but he was so absorbed in looking over
a new part he was to take, that he paid little attention to the
chatter of the girls.

A few days after the first appearance of Ruth and Alice before the
moving picture camera, in the small roles they had taken to bridge
over an emergency, Mr. Pertell brought them their parts in a new
drama. Meanwhile it had been ascertained that the films where the
girls filled in had been a success. Ruth and Alice felt a little
diffident about going to the stud