upon the others. She
most mischievously enjoyed her privilege. And she had a new cause for
triumph, a double success. She felt herself a schemer, an intriguer,
which she was not. She was merely an opportunist, seizing the main
chance. Not only had she a secret understanding with Gaga; she had also
a secret understanding with Gaga's mother. She was most marvellously
Sally Minto. The world was open to her. It was not the extra three
shillings a week that intoxicated her: it was the sense of a difficult
and engaging future. Her ambition had never been so strong. She turned
her thoughts to the miserable room at home, to her mother, to Mrs.
Perce. She wandered afield to the dinners with Gaga, to her recent talk
with Madam. Not merely wealth, but power, seemed to lie ahead. She saw
once more Madam's bad health; the probable exaltation of Miss Summers.
If she took care, she would presently lie in the very heart of the
business. Its accounts would be under her hand in the evenings; its work
visible to her eye in the daytime. Miss Summers liked her and trusted
her; she was sure of her own ability, her own shrewdness; without
deliberately planning it, she had earned the good-will of the three
people who really mattered, so far as her progress was concerned.

What if Madam were away ill? What if she died? Sally trembled at the
prospect. She trembled lest some accident should interfere with what was
otherwise inevitable. She knew that with Miss Summers she had no rival;
her compact with Gaga was secure, unless his weakness betrayed them.
Even here, she knew she might rely upon his integrity. Gaga would keep
to his word. Sally saw herself installed as bookkeeper--oh, if she were
only older! If she were older, if she were twenty-five, she would hold
the business in the hollow of her hand. She was already learning how to
speak to the ladies who came to give orders; her shrewdness would
quickly show her which were good accounts and which required watching;
and her work never grew careless. With each perception Sally's brain and
her capacity for adapting herself to every circumstance seemed to
expand. She was already much older than her years. With a little more
experience she would be in a commanding position. But Madam must be ill,
Madam must.... Madam must be very ill; and yet not before Sally had made
sure of Gaga. Gaga was the key with which she would enter into her
proper sphere. He must be her mascot.

With her head bent Sally s