There came the incident of Pepper Sneed falling down with the lifeboat.
"Look! Look!" cried the grouchy actor. "I don't like that! It makes me ridiculous. I demand that it be taken out, Mr. Pertell!"
"Can't do it! That's the best part of the play!" laughed the manager.
"And as for me—I positively refuse to act again, if I am to be shown as a sailor, in those ridiculous white trousers!" cried Wellington Bunn.
"Very well, then, I suppose you don't care to go on the rural circuit with us," said Mr. Pertell.
"Oh—er—ah! Um! Well, you may with-hold my resignation for a time," said the Shakespearean actor, stiffly. "But it is against my principles."
"Then we are going on the rural circuit?" asked Alice, eagerly.
"Yes," the manager assured her. "This play is going to be a big success, I'm sure. I want to try a new kind now—outdoor scenes."
And that the play was a success was soon evidenced by the receipts which poured into the treasury of the Comet Film Company.
"Oh, what do you imagine it will be like—in the country?" asked Ruth of Alice, a little later, when it was definitely decided that they were to go.