It was hers to do with as
she liked, and when Mr. Bailey passed her door at dinner time he was
asked to step in and reconsider the matter. She had changed her mind,
she said. She was willing to sell it now; there was such a superb affair
down at Shumway's Music Room. Had Mr. Bailey seen it?
Ethie's voice was not quite steady, for she was not accustomed to
deception of this kind, and the first step was hard. But Mr. Bailey was
not at all suspicious, and concluded the bargain at once; and two hours
later Ethie's piano was standing between the south windows of Mrs.
Bailey's apartment, and Ethie, in her own room, was counting a roll of
three hundred dollars, and deciding how far it would go.
"There's my pearls," she said, "if worst comes to worst I can sell them
and my diamond ring."
She did not mean Daisy's ring. She would not barter that, or take it
with her, either. Daisy never intended it for a runaway wife, and
Ethelyn must leave it where Richard would find it when he came back and
found her gone. And then as Ethie in her anger exulted over Richard's
surprise and possible sorrow when he found himself deserted, some demon
from the pit whispered in her ear, "Give him back the wedding ring.
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