Replacing the telephone on the desk, he remained seated, and drawing from his pocket the wedding ring he gazed at it murmuring to himself: 

“With eternal love!”

[Illustration:  TAKING OFF THE WEDDING RING, SHE PLACED IT ON THE TABLE.  PAGE 270]

Chapter XVIII

For the next few days there was an atmosphere of gloom and depression at No.—­ Riverside Drive.  Below stairs consternation reigned.  No one knew exactly what had occurred, but that the relations between master and mistress were badly strained was plainly evident.  Mrs. Stafford had driven hurriedly away in a taxicab without saying where she was going or when she would return, and Mr. Stafford, having locked himself in his room and denied himself to all callers, was in such an ugly mood that he was absolutely unapproachable.  Never before had Oku seen his master in such a vicious temper.  He had practically kicked him out when he had politely inquired how many would be home for dinner, and all that evening he heard him striding restlessly up and down like a caged lion, raging and fuming, and once it had sounded suspiciously to Oku as if his master might be weeping.

The little Japanese butler not only felt hurt at such treatment after fifteen years of faithful service, but he was really concerned at the protracted and mysterious absence of his dear mistress.  In the two years that Virginia had been at the head of the household she had endeared herself to all her dependents.  Always courteous and considerate, never unreasonable or exacting, the servants literally worshipped her and as the days went by without the least sign of her coming back the general gloom deepened.  In the evening, after the day’s work was done, and all hands could sit in the kitchen and take things easy, the mistress’ strange disappearance was the one topic of conversation.  The cook, a stout, apoplectic-looking Irishwoman, spoke straight up:  Her mistress, as nice a lady as she ever worked for, was smart enough to know her own mind and if she had left her husband there was a mighty good reason for it.  The waitress, indignantly repudiating the insinuation that she made a practice of listening to table conversation as she passed the dishes, admitted that, having been provided by nature with ears, she could not help overhearing certain things.  On the morning of Mrs. Stafford’s departure, she had noticed a decided coolness at the breakfast table, and later when on going down stairs she had heard loud voices she had stopped to listen she had distinctly heard her mistress say:  “Then I shall leave you!” This pointed clearly enough to a serious rupture, especially when Josephine, the French maid, told how, at her mistress’ orders, she had taken from the safe all the boxes of jewelry and piled them up on the table where they still remained.  Her candid opinion was that the master had been drinking again and that madame, disgusted at his behavior,