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268 WRITING A PLAY parts, broken by a lapse of two years. The first reel should end with factor ten. 12. The first proposition is that Ruth does not love Jack. This is properly a premise though it is also a plot factor. This is very simply shown in scene one, where she wipes Jack's kiss from her lips. From Jack's attitude toward her we can gather that he is the sort of man a right thinking woman would love. Had we desired to show that this lack of love was based upon good reason, we should have shown Jack at the table as quarrelsome and brutal. Since it is not shown, it is caprice and not Jack's qualities that make Ruth seek change. She goes to the phone to call up the man in whom she is interested and Jack goes to the office and learns of Cort's intended visit. 13. In passing, note the letter from Cort. It serves a double pur- pose. It announces and identifies Cort, but it performs a greater serv- ice in that it prepares us for the later departure of Cort. Here the letter seems merely to announce the visit, but in reality it prepares for scene twenty-seven. There we accept unquestioningly his abrupt departure. 14. The incident of tlie letter also serves another turn. It brings Jack home earlier than usual, and so he surprises Flanders, who, it is to be supposed, would be well out of the way before Jack's usual hour for returning. 15. Scene seven terminates the first period of consecutive action. Ruth has told Flanders to come to her, ,but we cannot expect to see him immediately walk into the parlor. Either some other action must be shown or a time leader used. There is practically no action, here that would pay for its footage, so the time leader is used, backed by a fact leader. This last takes the crudeness of the time leader away and also suggests that the affair is not very far advanced. It also emphasizes her discontent and shows that she is not yet con- templating an elopement. 16. Flanders comes. We cannot linger in the library until some- thing happens. This is apparently the first meeting and they are still under some restraint. To give them time we go over to Jack's office and then come back to the library. Jack has started for home and follows us in, but, while we come direct to the library, Jack must be seen at the front door to show that this is not the same building in which we last saw him. We show him at the door and the sound of the key in the lock warns Ruth and Flanders. Flanders, the more experienced of the two in such matters, pulls himself together and quiets Ruth, who by her agitation betrays herself, but not so markedly as to arouse definite distrust. It is more a suspicion of Ruth than a belief that there is anything .between her and Flanders. 17. We do not tell in detail what Ruth and Flanders do. We ex- plain what the scene should show and leave it to the director to call for the business that will be best suited to the temperaments of the players of these parts. In thirteen we are more definite than in nine