oo short for her to
risk a journey out to Grinden Hall and back for a suit-case, in view
of the Alexandria detour. She must, therefore, travel without baggage.
Therefore she must return the same night. She found, to her immense
relief, that this could be done. The seven-o'clock train to Baltimore
reached there at eight, and there was a ten-ten train back.

She had not yet devised a lie to appease Polly with, but now an
inspiration came to her. She had told Davidge that she was dining out
with Polly somewhere; consequently it would be safe to tell Polly that
she was dining out with Davidge somewhere. The two would never meet to
compare notes. Besides, it is pleasanter to lie by telephone. One
cannot be seen to blush.

She called up Grinden Hall and was luckily answered by what Widdicombe
called "the ebony maid with the ivory head." Mamise told her not to
summon her lame mistress to the telephone, but merely to say that Miss
Webling was dining with Mr. Davidge and going to the theater with him.
She made the maid repeat this till she had it by heart, then rang
off.

This was the message that Polly received and later transmitted to
Davidge for his bewilderment.

To fill the hours that must elapse before her train could leave,
Mamise went to one of those moving-picture shows that keep going
without interruption. Public benefactors maintain them for the
salvation of women who have no homes or do not want to go to them
yet.

The moving-picture service included the usual news weekly, as usual
leading one to marvel why the stupid subjects shown were selected from
all the fascinating events of the time. Then followed a doleful
imitation of Mr. Charles Chaplin, which proved by its very fiasco the
artistry of the original.

The _cinema de resistance_ was a long and idiotic vampire picture in
which a stodgy creature lured impossible males to impossible ruin by
wiles and attitudes that would have driven any actual male to flight,
laughter, or a call for the police. But the audience seemed to enjoy
it, as a substitute, no doubt, for the old-fashioned gruesome
fairy-stories that one accepts because they are so unlike the tiresome
realities. Mamise wondered if vampirism really succeeded in life. She
was tempted to try a little of it some time, just as an experiment, if
ever opportunity offered.

In any case, the picture served its main purpose. It whiled away the
dull afternoon till the dinner hour. She took her dinner on the