CHAPTER 36As her hand came up, Cicely turned quite automatically and instinctively to the light. It was rather dark in the study, because outside the clouds were low and it was raining—not hard, but with the fine drizzle which thickens the air. Even before she turned she could see what she was holding. She saw the earring, a quite round platinum ring set continuously with small bright diamonds. She saw it, but it didn’t mean anything yet. There had been some kind of a shock, and the part of her that was going to think about the earring wasn’t doing its job—it wasn’t thinking. It left her to her eyes, which went on looking at the round, bright ring. Somewhere deep down inside her she was afraid.
She looked at the ring. It was about three-quarters of an inch across. There was the mark of an
