But it was too late now.

The piano was sold and delivered, and if she tarried she had no special excuse to offer for its sale.

She must carry out her plan, even though it proved the greatest mistake of her life.

So the letters were directed and put, with Daisy's ring, in the little drawer of the bureau, where Richard would be sure to find them when he came back.

Perhaps, as Ethie put them there, she thought how they might be the means of a reconciliation; that Richard, after reading her note, would move heaven and earth to find her, and having done so, would thenceforth be her willing slave; possibly, too, remembering the harsh things he had so recently said to her, she exulted a little as she saw him coming back to his deserted home, and finding his domestic altar laid low in the dust.
But if this was so she gave no sign, and though her face was deathly pale, her nerves were steady and her voice calm, as she gave orders concerning her baggage, and then when it was time, turned the key upon her room, and left it with the clerk, to whom she said: "I shall not be back until my husband returns." She was going to Olney, of course--going to see his folks, the landlady said, when she heard Mrs.Markham had gone; and so no wonder was created among the female boarders, except that Ethelyn had not said good-by to a single one of them.