She would let Richard find out that she was there through some other source than Aunt Barbara, who should not now write the letter.

It would look too much like begging him to take her back.

This was Ethie's decision, from which she could not be moved; and when, next day, Mrs.
Van Buren went back to Boston with the check for $1,000 which Aunt Barbara had given her, she was pledged not to communicate with Richard Markham in any way, while Aunt Barbara was held to the same promise.
"He will find it out somehow.

I prefer that he should act unbiased by anything we can do," Ethelyn said to Aunt Barbara.

"He might feel obliged to come if you wrote to him that I was here, and if he came, the sight of me so changed might shock him as it did Aunt Van Buren.