"Why not?"
"You don't know about the handsome offer Mr. Culp made me, with his wife's approval, just as we were going away."
It was Dobbin's turn to frown. "What kind of an offer?" he demanded shortly.
"To become a movie actress under the Culp banner, a sister-in-art to Alma Daley."
Daubeney ejaculated "What for?" with an expression of such utter dumbfounderment that Lucinda gasped with stifled mirth, then gave way to outright laughter.
"You're awfully funny, Dobbin! And they thought they were paying me a compliment."
But Daubeney would not see the fun of it.
"Do you mean to tell me that fellow Culp actually had the impertinence——"
"Oh, come!" Lucinda's amusement subsided. "It wasn't so bad as all that. Mr. Culp was most kind, at least he meant to be. He said he, his wife and his cameraman—whose opinion he values more highly than any director's—all agreed I had shown a great deal of promise; and that, if I cared to try it on, he'd be glad to give me a good part in Miss Daley's next picture, and if I made good in that he'd form a company to star me."
"What rot!"