She would lunch with Davidge to-morrow, tell him her plan, bid him farewell, go to Baltimore, learn Nicky’s secret, thwart it one way or another––and then set about her destiny.
She abhorred the relapse so utterly that she wept. The warm tears refreshed her eyes before they froze on her cheeks, and she fell asleep in the blissful assurance of a martyrdom.
CHAPTER IV
The next morning Mamise woke in her self-warmed bed, at the nudge of a colored maid bundled up like an Eskimo, who carried a breakfast-tray in mittened hands.
Mamise said: “Oh, good morning, Martha. I’ll bathe before breakfast if you’ll turn on the hot water, please.”
“Hot water? Humph! Pipes done froze last night, an’ bus’ loose this mo’nin’, and fill the kitchen range with water an’ bus’ loose again. No plumber here yit. Made this breakfuss on the gas-stove. That’s half-froze, tew. I tell you, ma’am, you’re lucky to git your coffee nohow. Better take it before it freezes, tew.”
Mamise sighed and glanced at the clock. The reproachful hands stood at eleven-thirty.
“Did the clock freeze, too? That can’t be the right time!”