They were on the couch again. He kissed her, and in the moment that their lips touched it came to her that Tommy was realty infatuated—but in another moment the old doubt had returned, and when he said:
“Millicent, dear, I’ve only known you—” she stopped him, with a breathless flutter, and said, “To-morrow, Tommy, to-morrow afternoon; I can’t tell you to-day!”... And she ran out of the room.
Millicent did not appear at supper. She was locked in her room, her head buried in her arms on the dressing-table, thinking; half crying. It was the only crisis which had ever come into her life. Always before she had left this to the man; her own way had continued serenely untroubled. Once, in a fit of fancy, she reached up as if to erase the heart, but she did not complete the gesture.
The next morning dragged slowly by.
After lunch Millicent went to her desk, and in a fit of caprice wrote a letter. She read it, and started to tear it up. Then she changed her mind, and left it, sealed, on her desk. It was a quarter past two. Tommy ought to arrive very soon.
She walked over to the pier-glass in the hall. Dispassionately she admired her beauty. She thought that she had never seen anyone so lovely. Others might be merely beautiful, hers was distinctive. Beauty was a power in itself; and when coupled with intellect—the power it might wield was infinite. Great beauties had made history—many of them had had humbler beginnings, by far, than she. She felt in that moment that she too might have been destined to rule.... French novels had taught her these things—and had failed to instil a sense of personal absurdity.
Egotism was her greatest fault; she looked upon it as her highest virtue.
Her thought came back to Tommy. No man had ever been so much in love with her as he was. And he represented so many desirable things. He was appealingly good looking. He was wealthy in his own right, Carl had told her. Life with him would be tranquil and luxurious.... It might grow dull.
She heard him on the walk. She stood there, frozen, as he came up the steps. He rang the bell, and in that instant decision came. The maid was coming through to open the door. Millicent snatched the sealed letter from her desk, and handed it to her.