Then for a moment Ethelyn hesitated.

It seemed almost like a sacrilege for her feet to tread the floor of that private room, for her breath to taint the atmosphere of a spot where the new wife would come.

But Mrs.Dobson led her on until she stood in the center of Richard's room, surrounded by the unmistakable paraphernalia of a man, with so many things around her to remind her of the past.
Surely, this was her own furniture; the very articles he had chosen for the room in Camden.

It was kind in Richard to keep and bring them here, where everything was so much more elegant--kind, too, in him to redeem her piano.

It showed that for a time, at least, he had remembered her; but alas! he had forgotten her now, when she wanted his love so much.
There were great blurring tears in her eyes, and she could not distinctly see the picture on the walk which Mrs.Dobson said was the first Mrs.Markham, asking if she was not a beauty.
"Rather pretty, yes," Ethie said, making a great effort to speak naturally, and adding after a moment: "I suppose it will be taken down when the other Mrs.Markham comes." In Mrs.Dobson's mind the other Mrs.Markham only meant Melinda, and she replied: "Why should it?
She knows it is here.