And when he had gone she sat a long time in her big chair, her brain full of the wildest and most exciting plans, in which she was establishing herself as proxy to the Fates. And the Fates laughed, and gave the threads of two lives temporarily into her hands for her own weaving.
The next morning Miss Mason told Sally to order a taxi to be at the studio at eleven o’clock.
“If I’m not taken there quickly,” she said to herself, “my courage will fail me, and I shall come home again.”
And she went over in her mind many sentences she had been carefully preparing during the long hours of a sleepless night.
One of them began rather like an old-fashioned letter. “My dear Mrs. Merton, I have ventured to call upon you in order to discuss a matter I am sure you must have very much at heart, namely, the welfare of your husband Jasper Merton.” She had repeated it a good many times to make sure she had it verbatim.
There were other phrases such as, “Pardon what may appear an unwarrantable interference on my part.” And, “The mutual interest we both must feel in one for whom you have a wifely love, and I the affection of friendship.”
She felt she had them all glibly on her tongue, when the hoot of the taxi outside the studio warned her of its arrival.
“If I am not back to lunch, Sally,” said Miss Mason, with the air of one embarking on some dangerous enterprise from which she might never return, “run out and buy a chop for yourself, and we can have the steak this evening. And give Mimsi a piece of boiled whiting and a saucerful of milk.”
She got into the taxi, tightly clutching her black satin bag, and sat down in one corner. It was the first time she had driven in a taxi, and she felt a trifle nervous. But for her desire to arrive at her destination before she had time to change her mind about going, she would undoubtedly have taken a four-wheeler.
The speed of the vehicle seemed excessive, but as other taxis passed them going at an even greater rate, she made up her mind to hope for the best. She did, however, put up a small mental prayer for safety.