So far her life, while exciting enough at moments, had never actually been dangerous and time was slipping away without giving her an opportunity to prove her hardiness of heart.

Whenever she thought of this the fact annoyed her extremely--and she thought of it now.
She threw down the morning paper disgustedly.

Here she was at 65--rich, safe, settled for the summer in a delightful country place with a good cook, excellent servants, beautiful gardens and grounds--everything as respectable and comfortable as--as a limousine! And out in the world people were murdering and robbing each other, floating over Niagara Falls in barrels, rescuing children from burning houses, taming tigers, going to Africa to hunt gorillas, doing all sorts of exciting things! She could not float over Niagara Falls in a barrel; Lizzie Allen, her faithful old maid, would never let her! She could not go to Africa to hunt gorillas; Sally Ogden, her sister, would never let her hear the last of it.

She could not even, as she certainly would if the were a man, try and track down this terrible creature, the Bat! She sniffed disgruntledly.

Things came to her much too easily.