“Now, let me tell you, Mr. Hart, I am strictly business.  If you want me to play the opposite part in your sketch, I’ll do it.  And I believe we can make it go.  And there’s something else I want to say:  There’s no nonsense in my make-up; I’m on the level, and I’m on the stage for what it pays me, just as other girls work in stores and offices.  I’m going to save my money to keep me when I’m past doing my stunts.  No Old Ladies’ Home or Retreat for Imprudent Actresses for me.

“If you want to make this a business partnership, Mr. Hart, with all nonsense cut out of it, I’m in on it.  I know something about vaudeville teams in general; but this would have to be one in particular.  I want you to know that I’m on the stage for what I can cart away from it every pay-day in a little manila envelope with nicotine stains on it, where the cashier has licked the flap.  It’s kind of a hobby of mine to want to cravenette myself for plenty of rainy days in the future.  I want you to know just how I am.  I don’t know what an all-night restaurant looks like; I drink only weak tea; I never spoke to a man at a stage entrance in my life, and I’ve got money in five savings banks.”

“Miss Cherry,” said Bob Hart in his smooth, serious tones, “you’re in on your own terms.  I’ve got ‘strictly business’ pasted in my hat and stenciled on my make-up box.  When I dream of nights I always see a five-room bungalow on the north shore of Long Island, with a Jap cooking clam broth and duckling in the kitchen, and me with the title deeds to the place in my pongee coat pocket, swinging in a hammock on the side porch, reading Stanley’s ‘Explorations into Africa.’  And nobody else around.  You never was interested in Africa, was you, Miss Cherry?”

“Not any,” said Cherry.  “What I’m going to do with my money is to bank it.  You can get four per cent. on deposits.  Even at the salary I’ve been earning, I’ve figured out that in ten years I’d have an income of about $50 a month just from the interest alone.  Well, I might invest some of the principal in a little business—­say, trimming hats or a beauty parlor, and make more.”

“Well,” said Hart, “You’ve got the proper idea all right, all right, anyhow.  There are mighty few actors that amount to anything at all who couldn’t fix themselves for the wet days to come if they’d save their money instead of blowing it.  I’m glad you’ve got the correct business idea of it, Miss Cherry.  I think the same way; and I believe this sketch will more than double what both of us earn now when we get it shaped up.”

The subsequent history of “Mice Will Play” is the history of all successful writings for the stage.  Hart & Cherry cut it, pieced it, remodeled it, performed surgical operations on the dialogue and business, changed the lines, restored ’em, added more, cut ’em out, renamed it, gave it back the old name, rewrote it, substituted a dagger for the pistol, restored the pistol—­put the sketch through all the known processes of condensation and improvement.