Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-20
| SICKENING leap and Helen's
heart stood still! Numbly she
- stared at her bare finger Her

stared at her bare finger Her
engagement ring! It was gone.
She cluIched at the finger as though
hoping her eyes had tricked her and
that she would feel it there. But there
was only the faint depression where the
ring had been.
Dazed and tremulous, Helen felt about
her dress, shook her skirts and looked
blindly around:
I, She had been Strengthening the work
basket, and as she wound up a spool
Of thread, her glance had fallen on the
finger where always sparkled her en-
gagement ring.
Snatching a newspaper. she trern-
blingly emptied on It the contents of
the work basket. Feverishly she looked
among the spools and buttons For one
brief second she thought she saw the
fash Of the diamond-bur it was only
a rhinestone buckle.
Maggie-Maggie-O Maggie" she
called. Come here a moment! Oh.
I've lost my ring" eXcitedly, my dia-
mond ring! Come help me look"
Helen was already turning up the
rugs and searching about the room.
But Maggie, who was not Of an excit-
able nature. asked stolidly
When did you have it last, ma am %
"Oh, 1 just missed It now-just this
moment" turning up the same corner
Of the same rug for the third time
But when d you remember seeing it
last?"
Trying to Think.
Helen stared at her blanlily. When
had she seen 1t last7 She could not
think. Did she have it that morning?
Last night? She must have had it
or she would have missed It before this
For the next hour they both searched.
OF one thing Helen was certain-that
she had not left it on some washstand,
for she never took it off to wash her
hands. It had never been off her
finger since Warren placed it there
four years ago.
Yet it seemed almost incredible that
it could have slipped off. She had
known that she was thinner, the scales
when last she weighed showed that
III, when her usual weight was 120.
But would only three pounds less make
not seem thinner and she had not been
conscious that the ring was loose.
81 can't look any more now, ma'am,
TN have to see about dinner. II it's
'here-youn find it. I'll look good to-
morrow when l sweep
ooh, the carpet sweeper. Maggie!
Maybe you swept It up this morning
Empty It now TIN only take a minute"
Maggie brought the carpet sweeper
and they emptied it out on a paper.
With a long pencil Helen gingerly
turned over the mass Of dust matted
with hairs, threads and pins.
Folding up the trash in the paper Mag
gle hurried out to the kitchen But
Helen kept on looking-it must be
somewhere in the house. She had not
been out at all to-day. Yesterday after
noon she had made a dinner call on Mrs.
Thurston. had stopped at a drug store
end at the cleaners, but she had not
had her gloves of once.
The day before she had been shopping
but her mind refused to concede that she
could have lost it,so long ago. She felt
certain that it had been on her finger at
breakfast
Very Superstitious.
In many ways Helen was very super
stitious, and besides the heartbreaking
loss of the ring there was also the
dread that it was a bad omen. Could it
be a foreboding Of some trouble between
Warren and her? Oh, she must find it
she MUST find it!
Not until time to dress for dinner did
she stop her search. And even as she
dressed she would dart off every few
minutes as some new place to look oc-
CURED to her.
She could not tell Warren-at least
not tonight. Surely she would find it