pts to justify her suspicions.

She was just as dissatisfied after scanning all the submitted scenarios as
Mr. Hammond seemed to be with the day's work when the company came back
from Herringport in the late afternoon.

"I suppose it is a sanguine disposition that keeps me at this game, Miss
Ruth," he sighed. "I always expect much more than I can possibly get out
of a situation; and when I fail I go on hoping just the same."

"I am sure that is a commendable disposition to possess," she laughed.
"What has gone so wrong?"

"It is the old story of leading the horse to water, and the inability of
making him drink. This is a balky horse, and no mistake!"

"Do tell me what you mean, Mr. Hammond?"

"Why, I told you we had got what the ladies call 'perfectly lovely' types
for that scene to-day. You ought to see them, Miss Ruth! You would be
charmed. Just what the dear public expects a back-country sewing circle
should look like."

"Oh!"

"And they all promised to be on hand at the location--and they were. I
have had my experiences with amateurs before. I had begged the ladies to
dress just as they would were they going to an actual meeting of their
sewing society----"

"And they all dressed up?" laughed Ruth, clasping her hands.

"Well, that I expected to contend with. And most of them even in their
best bib and tucker were not out of the picture. Not at all! That was not
the main difficulty and the one that has spoiled our day's work."

"Indeed?"

"I am afraid Jim Hooley will have to fake the whole scene after all,"
continued the manager. "Those women came all dressed up 'to have their
pictures took,' it is true. But the worst of it is, they could not be
natural. It was impossible. They showed in every move and every glance
that they were sitting with a bunch of actors and were not at all sure
that what they were doing was altogether the right thing.

"We worked over them as though it were a 'mob scene' and there were five
hundred in it instead of twenty. But twenty wooden dummies would have
filmed no more unnaturally. You know, in your story, they are supposed to
be discussing the bit of gossip about your heroine's elopement with the
schoolteacher. I could not work up a mite of enthusiasm in their minds
about such a topic."

Ruth laughed. But she saw that the matter was really serious for Mr.
Hammond and the director. She became sympathetic.

"I fancy that if they had had a real scandal to discuss," she obs