Excerpt
CHAPTER I THE SPY
"Well, Ruth, aren't you almost ready?"
"Just a moment, Alice. I can't seem to get my collar fastened in the back. I wish I'd used the old-fashioned hooks and eyes instead of those new snaps."
"Oh, I think those snaps are just adorable!"
"Oh, Alice DeVere! Using such an extreme expression!"
"What expression, Ruth?"
"'Adorable!' You sometimes accuse me of using slang, and there you go——"
"'Adorable' isn't slang," retorted Alice.
"Oh, isn't it though? Since when?"
"There you go yourself! You're as bad as I am."
"Well, it must be associating with you, then," sighed Ruth.
"No, Ruth, it's this moving picture business. It just makes you use words that mean something, and not those that are merely sign-posts. I'm glad to see that you are getting—sensible. But never mind about that. Are you ready to go to the studio? I'm sure we'll be late."
"Oh, please help me with this collar. I wish I'd made this waist with the new low-cut effect. Not too low, of course," Ruth added hastily, as she caught a surprised glance from her sister.
Two girls were in a room about which were strewn many articles of feminine adornment. Yet it was not an untidy apartment. True, dresser drawers did yawn and disclose their contents, and closet doors gaped at one, showing a collection of shoes and skirts. But then the occupants of the room might have been forgiven, for they were in haste to keep an appointment.
"There, Ruth," finally exclaimed the younger of the two girls—yet she was not so much younger—not more than two years. "I think your collar is perfectly sweet."
"It's good of you to say so. You know I got it at that little French shop around the corner, but sewed some of that Mexican drawn lace on to make it a bit higher. Now I'm sorry I did, for I had to put in those snap fasteners instead of hooks. And if you don't get them to fit exactly they come loose. It's like when the film doesn't come right on the screen, and the piano player sounds a discord to call the operator's attention to it."
"You've hit it, sister mine."
"Oh, Alice! There you go again. 'Hit it!'"
"You'd say 'hit it' at a baseball game," Alice retorted.
"Oh, yes, I suppose so. But we're not at one," objected the older girl, as she finished buttoning her gloves, and took up her parasol, which she shook out, to make sure that it would open easily when needed.
"There, I think I'm ready," announced Alice, as she slipped on a light jacket, for, though it was spring, the two rivers of New York sent rather chilling breezes across the city, and a light waist was rather conducive to colds.
"Have you the key?" asked the older girl, as she paused for a moment on the threshold of the private hall of the apartment house. She had tied her veil rather tightly at the back, knotting it and fastening it with a little gold pin, and now she pulled it away from her cheeks, to relieve the tension.
"Yes, I have it, Ruth. Oh, don't make such funny faces! Anyone would think you were posing."
"Well, I'm not—but this veil—tickles."
"Serves you right for trying to be so stylish."
"It's proper to have a certain amount of style, Alice, dear....