"No—no!" he cried. "I didn't mean that way."
"Than vot you means?" asked the German, puzzled.
Meanwhile Wellington Bunn was painfully walking over to a more substantial chair.
"That was all a trick!" he cried. "You did that on purpose, Mr. Snooks. You provided a broken chair!"
"I did not!" protested the property man. "It was the way you threw yourself into it. What did you think it was made of—iron?"
"I knew something would happen!" observed Mr. Sneed, gloomily. "I felt it in my bones."
"Und I guess me dot he veels it in his bones, now," chuckled Mr. Switzer. "I am glat dot I, myself, did not abandon dot chair alretty yet."
The play went on after a little delay, and for some time after that the Shakespearean actor was very chary of offering to show other actors how to put "abandon" into their parts.
So far as could be told by an inspection of the negatives of the first important play in which Ruth and Alice had appeared, it was a success. Of course how it would "take" with the public was yet to be learned.
Meanwhile other plays were being considered, and Mr. Pertell repeated his promise, that if "A False Count" was successful he would give Ruth and Alice real "star" parts. They were eager for this, and, now that their father had seen how well they did, he was enthusiastic over them, and very glad to let them go on in the moving picture business.