“He left it on his table near the door and just thought of looking for it. I told him not to mention it for the present and I’d deliver the goods. Marta has gone away with Jo; evidently she intends to skip. She’ll not get away with this. I am going after them in the car. I shall turn her over to the authorities. You can pack her things and send them after her.”
“Oh, wait!” she cried, as he started to go down stairs. “It wasn’t Marta. It was I.”
“What!” he cried incredulously. “You!”
“When did you take it?”
“On my way to bed last night after I left you. His door was open—the ring on a table near by—in easy reach. He shouldn’t have left anything like that around loose.”
“I never dreamed of your taking it,” he said bitterly. “I thought you had reformed.”
She laughed, a little reckless laugh that had a sound like silver bells.
“I don’t like that ring either. It’s gaudy.”
He looked at her with a new thought and hope.