ke the journey,
to investigate for herself, when one night after school she dropped in
to see a friend, and while waiting picked up a New York paper.

Some one in the house had that day returned from a journey East, and
the paper was dated five days earlier. It happened to be folded with
the page given over to amusements uppermost. Glancing carelessly over
columns that devoted a paragraph each to an amazing number of cinema
theatres, her eye suddenly caught the familiar name, _Elsie Marley_.

With a vision of her stepdaughter as she had sung the old rhyme, she
mechanically followed the words until the word "dimples" arrested her
attention. Then she read the paragraph with beating heart. She read
it twice before she fully comprehended--understood that Elsie Marley
had completed her sixth week at the Merry Nickel in her song-dance
specialty, "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?" Miss Marley was
declared to be more popular than ever; managers were clamoring for her
and she had engagements a year ahead. The notice added that despite
the fact that her voice was so wonderful, her dancing and acting
inimitable, some people declared that it was her dimples that wrought
the spell--that she might stand dumb and motionless before the
footlights if she would only smile.

Mrs. Moss's first clear sensation was indignation toward Mr. Middleton.
She felt she could never forgive him for allowing this situation to
come about without warning her. Then she realized that this was the
key to the whole situation. She had not heard from the girl for six
weeks--just the length of time she must now have been at the theatre.
Excusing herself before her friend appeared, she hastened home in a
tumult of emotion.

She did not know which way to turn. She couldn't bear the idea of
Elsie being on the stage of a motion-picture theatre; it seemed as if
it would break her heart. And still worse was the knowledge that the
girl had deceived her; that she had written empty, non-committal notes
calculated to make her believe she was staying quietly with her uncle,
when she was all the time preparing for this. And she had always been
so frank and upright, so easy to appeal to and to persuade! It seemed
to Mrs. Moss that she must have come under unfortunate influence.

Her first impulse was to write to Elsie; her second, to Mr. Middleton;
but she did neither. The situation was now too critical to be handled
from a distance. There were only tw