Williamson, A. M. and C.N: The Second Latchkey. V1. 20 Sep 2009
 

Alice Muriel Williamson (1869 - September 24, 1933) was a British novelist.
Born Alice Muriel Livingston, she married Charles Norris Williamson (1859-1920) in 1894 and many of her books were jointly written with her husband. After her marriage she introduced herself as Mrs. C.N.Williamson. A number of their novels cover the early days of motoring and can also be read as travelogues

Excerpt
Even when Annesley Grayle turned out of the Strand toward the Savoy she was uncertain whether she would have courage to walk into the hotel. With each step the thing, the dreadful thing, that she had come to do, loomed blacker. It was monstrous, impossible, like opening the door of the lions’ cage at the Zoo and stepping inside.
There was time still to change her mind. She had only to turn now ... jump into an omnibus ... jump out again at the familiar corner, and everything would be as it had been. Life for the next five, ten, maybe twenty years, would be what the last five had been.
At the thought of the Savoy and the adventure waiting there, the girl’s skin had tingled and grown hot, as if a wind laden with grains of heated sand had blown over her. But at the thought of turning back, of going “home”—oh, misused word!—a leaden coldness shut her spirit into a tomb.