Helen, in the meantime, had reached the end of Dover Street and had
entered her club. It was now one o’clock, but she could not bear the
thought of food. Her mind was in a state of such imminent disruption
that it seemed to call for every resource of a powerful will to hold it
together.
She found an armchair in a quiet corner and gave herself up to the task
of calming her brain. A horrible feeling of suffocation came to her,
tinged with physical agony. She felt as a mouse must feel when caught
in a trap.
All the same, the entire mechanism of a clear and powerful intelligence
was working furiously. A very vigorous human animal was at bay. Every
resource that her body and soul possessed, and they possessed many, had
now come automatically into play. No matter what the cost to others or
to herself, she must save the life of the man she loved.
Crudely stated that was the point her overdriven mind had reached after
she had spent a long hour trying to dragoon it. At the end of that
time she sat down at a table and took up a pen.
She had decided to send a letter to Saul Hartz saying that she wished
particularly to see him on an urgent private matter. To this end she
would invite him to come and drink tea in her new house at four o’clock
on the following Friday or Saturday afternoon. Such a letter was not
at all easy to write. More than one attempt had to be put in the
waste paper basket before she came near saying in the right way the
particular thing she wished to express.
With the letter composed at last more or less to her mind, she dropped
it in the post box in the hall and went out of the Club. Turning into
Bond Street, she walked as far as a locksmith’s at the Oxford Street
end. Here she sought advice as to the means of opening a patent Warlock
fireproof safe, of which the key had been mislaid.
A duplicate key was the suggested remedy. Helen thereupon arranged that
on the following afternoon at four o’clock--at which hour John was sure
to be at the House or at one of his clubs--an expert should come to
Brompton Square and see what could be done in the matter.