Mary Chipchase says the elopement story is a lie and names Polluxfen's pressure.
1. Rhoda Massey of the News takes the Pollackspin assignment after Ted Thompson of the Times Record says he has already failed on it twice.
2. McCabe tells Rhoda he knows the story is true but cannot print it without more than rumor, and Thompson matters because he knows Polluxfen's reputation.
3. The chapter asks whether a young reporter can turn the Wells Polluxfen rumors into a usable story without triggering a libel suit.
4. Rhoda reaches the Chipchase house at ten o'clock and sees the hedge-lined place as insolent, shabby, and hard to enter.
5. Ted Thompson lists accusations about Polluxfen, including poisoning a brother-in-law, controlling Mrs. Chipchase, and draining the Chipchase fortune.
6. Polluxfen meets Rhoda at the door, answers the questions with a calm "No," and refuses to explain Howard Davis or the station details.
7. Mrs. Chipchase appears as a thin, white-faced woman with timid eyes, then retreats when Rhoda asks for a direct denial.
8. Miss Stimple joins the household, and the lunch table fills with Polluxfen, Mrs. Chipchase, Dorothea Chipchase, and a tense silence.
9. Dorothea, fifteen years old, asks about newspaper work, and Rhoda answers with praise for the local room, typewriters, telephones, and late-night copy.
10. Rhoda recalls an early interview with a vaudeville performer and Bowman's laughter when she returned with only a press-agent photograph.
11. During lunch, Rhoda feels a warning foot tap under the table and sees Mrs. Chipchase copy the gesture with humiliation.
12. Dorothea mentions David Lowenthal and a girl who wrote him a letter, giving Rhoda one more name to file away.
13. Rhoda waits in the shaded parlor while Miss Stimple watches, and Polluxfen says Mrs. Chipchase will make the statement Rhoda asked for.
14. Dorothea blurts that Mary "won't" eat unless she cooks, and that clue tells Rhoda Mary Chipchase may still be inside the house.
15. Rhoda sneaks in through the servants' staircase, bribes a housemaid, and reaches Mary's room only after hiding from Polluxfen's cane.
16. Mary Chipchase says the elopement story is a lie, says her mother drinks, and says Polluxfen uses wine and pressure to control the household.
17. The chapter stays in first-person, with Rhoda narrating every fear, boast, and correction as if she is thinking aloud.
18. The pacing moves from train-platform banter to lunch-table strain, then to corridor sneaking and a bedside confession.
19. Readers of period journalism and domestic suspense would like this.
20. Listeners wanting modern pacing and plain language probably would not.
