Sons of the Desert begins filming. Bill Seiter does good work on the picture—not so good that he will be petitioning Hal Roach to hire Bill Seiter again, but good enough.
During filming, Babe issues a statement announcing his reconciliation with Myrtle:
We are making a new start, realizing that we owe to each other the duty of taking our just share of blame for any past misunderstanding, with the acknowledged determination to achieve and preserve our newfound happiness.
The rest of the statement reads the same way. He has to go through it three times just to figure out what exactly is being said.
You didn’t write this, he says to Babe.
—Ben put it together for me.
Ben Shipman, he thinks, will never write a sonnet.
—What about Mary, and the punch on the nose?
—All water under the bridge.
Babe plays with his fez.
I suppose you think I’m crazy, says Babe.
—I don’t think anything of the sort.
—I do love Myrtle. You’ve seen her when she’s not drinking. She’s a different woman. I can’t abandon her. It wouldn’t be right.
—In Rosemead.
Back in the sanitarium. Drying out.
So this is what Babe has decided: he will be a husband in name only, trapped in a marriage in which he is the guardian to an alcoholic, and in torturing himself he will do penance for cheating on Myrtle with other women.
Viola Morse has gone the way of the divorce proceedings. She and Babe are temporarily estranged. Babe has replaced Viola Morse with Lillian DeBorba, who is the mother of a child actor, Dorothy DeBorba, one of Our Gang. Dorothy DeBorba is capable of crying on cue, which endears her to Hal Roach who admires any actor that can produce on demand, especially if the actor works cheap. Babe has managed to secure Lillian DeBorba a part as an extra in Sons of the Desert, so they will have an excuse for being seen together.
He, meanwhile, is dating Ruth. He visits her boutique shortly after returning from Catalina Island, buys some neckties, and asks her out. Only when he manages to convince her that his divorce is imminent—he would not be the first man to make such a claim in order to get a woman into bed, and so this process of persuasion takes some time—does Ruth agree to a date.
As with Babe and Lillian DeBorba, he has managed to secure Ruth a part as an extra in Sons of the Desert, so they will have an excuse for being seen together.
He knows about Lillian DeBorba, and Babe knows about Ruth.
But no one else does.
He is back in Ben Shipman’s office. It is October 9th. They are engaged in a final consultation about the divorce hearing, which will take place the following day. He is not entirely sure why his presence is required in the office. He and Ben Shipman could have clarified any remaining details over the telephone.
Ben Shipman is softly spoken. Rival attorneys often find themselves leaning forward just to hear what is being said by Ben Shipman, which is when Ben Shipman sucker-punches them.
Just as Ben Shipman does with him, right now.
Who exactly, Ben Shipman asks, is Ruth Rogers?