Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West
"
"The fact is," added Flo, "no one will employ us when we have lost our
youth. So we are taking advantage of these few fleeting years to make hay
while the sun shines."
"Do many stage actresses go into the motion picture business?"
asked Beth.
"A few, but all are not competent," replied Maud. "In the 'silent drama'
facial expression and the art of conveying information by a gesture is of
paramount importance. In other words, action must do the talking and
explain everything. I am told that some comedians, like 'Bunny' and
Sterling Mace, were failures on the stage, yet in motion pictures they
are great favorites. On the other hand, some famous stage actors can do
nothing in motion pictures."
On their arrival at Santa Monica Mr. Merrick invited the party to be his
guests at luncheon, which was served in a cosy restaurant overlooking
the ocean. And then, although at this season it was bleak winter back
East, all but Uncle John and Aunt Jane took a bath in the surf of the
blue Pacific, mingling with hundreds of other bathers who were enjoying
the sport.
Mrs. Montrose and Uncle John sat on the sands to watch the merry scene,
while the young people swam and splashed about, and they seemed--as Miss
Patsy slyly observed--to "get on very well together."
"And that is very creditable to your aunt," she observed to Maud Stanton,
who was beside her in the water, "for Uncle John is rather shy in the
society of ladies and they find him hard to entertain."
"He seems like a dear old gentleman," said Maud.
"He is, indeed, the dearest in all the world. And, if he likes your Aunt
Jane, that is evidence that she is all right, too; for Uncle John's
intuition never fails him in the selection of friends. He--"
"Dear me!" cried Maud; "there's someone in trouble, I'm sure."
She was looking out across the waves, which were fairly high to-day, and
Patsy saw her lean forward and strike out to sea with strokes of
remarkable swiftness. Bathers were scattered thickly along the coast, but
only a few had ventured far out beyond the life-lines, so Patsy naturally
sought an explanation by gazing at those farthest out.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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