"They must be the latest New York style," added a companion. "I heard that full skirts were coming in again."
"Well, ours are certainly full enough," murmured Alice, looking down at her swaying hoops.
And then some one guessed the truth.
"They're actresses—the movie actresses!" came the cry, and this attracted more attention than ever, for if there is one person about whom the American public is curious, it is the actor.
"Oh my!" exclaimed Estelle, "now we are in for it. Hurry inside the store!"
The girls fairly ran into the friendly shelter, and some of the crowd attempted to follow, but the drug clerks barred the way, guessing what the excitement was about.
"Dr. Wherry!" gasped Alice. "Is he here?"
"Right back there—in the prescription department," a clerk said. "Which of you is ill?"
"Neither one!" cried Estelle. "We want him for a man out at Oak Farm. He's been shot—an accident in the play. Tell him to hurry, please, and then show us some way of getting out through a side door. I can't face that crowd—this way," and she looked down at her elaborate hoop-skirted costume, which might have been all right in the days of sixty-three, but which was unique at the present time.
"What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Wherry, coming from behind the ground-glass partition. "Oh, Miss DeVere and Miss Brown!" he went on as he recognized the moving picture girls. "Is some one hurt?"