ice.

"Oh, I'm sure daddy wouldn't want to do any outdoor plays," the girl
exclaimed. "He is so used to theatrical scenes."

"Well, I might keep him in "parlor" drama," Mr. Pertell remarked.
"Please tell him to come and see me," he went on. "I would like to
talk to him."

"Thank you, so much!" returned Alice, gratefully. "I shall tell him,
and--well, there's no use saying I'm sure he'll come," she went on
with a shrug of her shoulders. "It's going to be rather difficult to
break this to him. It--it's so--different from what he has been used
to."

"I can understand," responded Mr. Pertell. "But I think if he
understood he would like it. Tell him to come here and see how we do
things."

"I will!" Alice promised.

Russ escorted her to the street, and then, as he had to see about
some changes in the working of his proposed patent, he bade her
good-bye. She said she would find her way home all right.

"Well?" asked Ruth, as Alice entered the apartment a little later,
"did you do anything rash?"

"Perhaps!" Alice admitted, as she took off her hat, jabbed the pins
in it and tossed it to one chair, while she sank into another.

"Oh, Alice! You--aren't going to be one of those--manicures; are
you?"

"I hope not, though there are lots worse things. A manicure can be
just as much a lady as a typist. But, Ruth, I have such news for you!
I have found an engagement for dad!"

"An engagement for daddy?"

"Yes. In the movies! Listen. Oh, it was so exciting!"

Then, with many digressions, and in rather piece-meal manner,
interrupting herself often to go back and emphasize some point she
had forgotten, Alice told of her morning trip with Russ. She enlarged
on the manner in which the moving pictures were made, until Ruth grew
quite excited.

"Oh, I wish I could see how it is done!" she cried.

"You may--when dad takes this engagement," said Alice.

"He never will," declared her sister. "You know what he thinks of the
movies."

"But he thinks wrong!" exclaimed Alice. "It's so different from what
I thought."

"He'll never consent," repeated Ruth. "Hark! Here he comes now.
Perhaps he has found something to do."

Footsteps were heard coming along the hallway. Alice glanced at the
table before which her sister was sitting.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking over our bills, and trying to make five dollars do the work
of fifteen," answered Ruth, with a wry smile. "Money doesn't stretch
well," she added.