rhaps you can pay me more easily than you think," said Ruth, bashfully,
but with dancing eyes.

"How? Tell me at once," said Miss Gray.

"I'm just _mad_ to try writing a scenario for a moving picture," confessed
Ruth. "But I don't know how to go about getting it read."

Miss Gray smiled, but made no comment upon Ruth's desire. She merely said,
pleasantly:

"If you write your scenario, my dear, I will get our manager to read it."

"That awful Mr. Grimes?" cried Ruth. "Oh! I shouldn't want _him_ to read
it."

Hazel Gray laughed heartily at that. "Don't judge, the taste of a baked
porcupine by his quills," she said. "Grimes is a very rough and unpleasant
man; but he gets there. He is one of the most successful directors Mr.
Hammond has working for him."

"You have mentioned Mr. Hammond before?" said Ruth, questioningly.

"He is the man I will show your scenario to." Then she added: "If I am
still working for him. Mr. Hammond is a very nice man; but Grimes does not
like me," and again the girl sighed, and a cloud came over her pretty
face.

"I would not work under such a mean man as that Grimes!" declared Ruth.
"You might have been drowned because of his carelessness."

"It is my misfortune--being an actress--often to work under unpleasant
conditions. I want to get ahead, and I would like to please Grimes; he
puts over his pictures, and he has made several film actresses quite
famous. Of course, although my first consideration must necessarily be my
bread and butter, I hope for a little fame on the side, too."

"Oh! you have achieved that, have you not?" said Ruth, timidly. "I thought
you had already made a name for yourself."

"Not as great a name as I hope to gain some day," declared Hazel Gray.
"But thank you for the compliment. I was carried on to the stage when I
was a baby in arms by my dear mother, who was an actress of some ability.
My father was an actor. He died of a fever in the South before I can
remember, and when I was seven my mother died.

"Kind people trained me for the stage; they were kind enough to say I had
talent. And now I have tried to do my best in the movies. Mr. Hammond
thinks I am a good pantomimist; but Grimes declares I have no 'film
charm,'" and Miss Gray sighed again. "He has another girl he wants to push
forward, and is angry that Mr. Hammond did not send her to head this
company."

"Then this Mr. Hammond is quite an important man?" asked Ruth.

"Head of the Alectrion Film