When the thought occurred to her that she might write to warn the Sundons, she rejected it as being a step unworthy of the situation, for she was wound up to a tragic pitch. The letter might miscarry; if it were anonymous it had a great chance of being passed over; if it had the name and style of the writer the danger was as great, while the success was less certain than if the communication were made in a personal interview. Lady Bell seemed driven to a decisive step, the shortness of the time pricking her on. It was on a Sunday evening that the plot of disabling Mr. Sundon was loosely framed at Mr. Trevor’s lodgings, and the mail from London came in on Tuesday. On Monday morning Lady Bell took the opportunity of a messenger’s going to Trevor Court to send her maid on the pad behind him, to do an errand for her mistress. Lady Bell then told the woman of the lodging that her head ached, which was true enough, and that she should not come down to Mr. Trevor’s mid-day dinner. But in place of lying down on her bed, as she was understood to do, she put on her least conspicuous walking dress, which happened, oddly, to be a scarlet cloth riding-habit. But this military costume was largely worn by squires’ and clergymen’s wives and daughters of the period; a dozen ladies, similarly attired, might be looked for doing their shopping and showing themselves in Peasmarsh, under the pressure of the brisk hospitalities of the election weeks. To the scarlet riding-habit Lady Bell added a hat with a thick veil appended to it, and a neckcloth which, in order to protect the under half of the face, was then in use by ladies as well as by gentlemen. The girl, possessed by one idea, had, girl-like, a certain exultation in the swift ingenuity and dramatic correctness of her arrangements. Thus dressed for the occasion, she stole out of the house, and when she was no longer within sight of the windows, she took a note ready written from her pocket, and hired a boy to carry it back to the landlady. In this note Lady Bell Trevor stated that she had gone out to take the air for her bad headache, when she found that she must pay a visit to a friend whom she had discovered in Peasmarsh, and who might detain her till late. This note she trusted would arrive after her husband was deeply engaged for the afternoon, and would serve to satisfy the landlady and prevent her raising any alarm, should she miss Lady Bell. There was little danger to be feared from Squire Trevor after the afternoon was well spent, for politics were thirsty work. Lady Bell had achieved the first part of her slender programme without misadventure. She turned her steps to the High Street, in which was the Sundons’ lodgings, and reached them without being recognised.