Ruth’s smile was radiant.
“I know it’s in you!” she cried. “That’s part of my business—to judge men—and I’ve been watching you very closely, Mr. Brewer. I’ve an idea that you know Joe Rumph’s part better than he knows it himself!”
Brewer grinned, a boyish disarming grin that made him very attractive.
“Of course I think I could play it much better!”
Ruth’s eyes gleamed and she laughed exuberantly.
“Prove it!” and with a wave of her hand consigned him to the care of the make-up man.
“Attention, everybody!” she cried, returning to the scene. “We’ll rehearse that scene again, leaving out temporarily the part of the villain. Mr. Boardman, please! Miss Lytelly, you have just stumbled upon your lover in the clearing. He is unconscious. You think he is dead. You are forgetful of your own danger. You forget everything as you turn his face so that you may see it! Can you cry? Good! Everybody ready?”
The scene was enacted not once but several times, and each time Ruth criticized one point or another and changed this or that, until she had it exactly as she desired.
“Now then, do it just like that,” she cried at last. She looked at the two cameramen who were doing the shooting. “Ready?” And as they nodded, she threw up her hand. “Ready? Go!” And then the cameras clicked and the much-rehearsed scene was recorded on the strips of film.
At the end Ruth felt a light touch on her arm and found Edith Lang beside her. Tears were streaming down the face of the temperamental actress, but her face was wreathed in smiles.