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CHAPTER XLVIII 239 or eleven because here we wish certain actions to be played to estab- lish certain facts that have a bearing on the plot. In the earlier scenes almost any action will suffice that will show an incipient flirtation that promises to become an affair. That is all we need and all we ask. In thirteen the action must be reasonably exact if we are to show just what the mental attitudes of the trio are. 18. Scene thirteen ends the second period of consecutive action. The plot advances to the next day and so we use a time leader and once more we add a fact. "Old friends meet again," has been sug- gested by the letter in seven, but we wish to drive home the fact that Cort and Jack are old friends and that they have not met recently. Much hinges on these facts in the later action, for it explains why Jack leaves Ruth in Cort's care, it tells that Cort does not know of Ruth's character. It permits him to ,become a member of the house- hold, because he is a guest, and the fact that he is from out of town makes it easier to divert suspicion to him in the elopement. He is gone. No one knows where. If suspicion had been fastened upon some local friend, sooner or later there would be news of him, prob- ably at an early date. With Cort it is perfectly natural that he should drop from sight and remain unaccounted for. None of this as yet appears in the plot, but these requirements have been fore- seen and anticipated. 19. Having brought Cort and Jack together we slip over to tha house to see that Flanders is again a caller. Now when we start Jack and Cort for home there is the anticipation that there will be some development. There is. This call rouses a more definite sus- picion in Jack's mind, for social calls are not a matter of daily oc- currence. Flanders recognizes this and on the spur of the moment ' invents the borrowed hook, but suspicion is not wholly averted. This leads to Ruth's effort to divert suspicion to Cort and this in turn leads to the writing of the letter in a later scene. This is all a part of the running action and yet it is also part of the motivation and preparation for later events. 20. This suspicion is not made too definite. We want Jack to be suspicious of Flanders that Ruth may have a reason for seeming to flirt widi Cort, but we do not want suspicion to ,be definite to the point where it rests more on Flanders than it does on Ruth, or Jack would ignore Cort because he is watching Flanders and not Ruth. 21. To make Ruth's motive clear, we run a leader to explain her action, but we do not build up Jack's suspicions. Cort's prompt dis- claimer restores Jack to immediate confidence, but it plants the seeds of suspicion that later on help to explain Jack's ready acceptance of Ruth's letter. We are using this incident more to prepare for event than for any immediate result, so we at once clear it away or Jack, would not leave Ruth in Cort's care when he is called out of town. But later Jack's spoken insert in which he leaves Ruth in Cort's care is accepted by Cort as a reference to this scene, and he feels no hesitancy in answering the call to the expedition without word to