Her diary entry on October 3 declared the day “uneventful in every sense of the word.” On October 7, in slow and sloppy handwriting, she noted, “. . . I fear I am not in a sociable mood. I want awfully to get home.”

But on October 8, Etta had a change of heart, writing in a brisk hand, “Clear beautiful day which I spent mostly below in a most beautiful state of mind but one which brought out the most exquisite qualities of Gertrude. My vanity. . .” The underlined phrase is the only such emphasis in Etta's 1901 journal, and is all the more curious because the unfinished entry is the last in an otherwise well-documented trip.

Neither Etta nor Gertrude indicated which event—if any—put Etta in a “beautiful state of mind.” But a hint might be found once again in Gertrude's book. Q.E.D. begins in 1901 with a boat trip which the character Adele takes with two women—the same configuration as Gertrude's 1901 crossing from Southampton with Etta and Hortense Guggenheimer. In Q.E.D., Adele describes a growing closeness to the character Helen, and several incidents during the journey involve “pressing fluttering fingers” to lips or “warm kisses.”

But even if Etta and Gertrude ended up comforting each other physically, as described in Q.E.D., it was not outside the bounds of what was considered “decent” behavior for two women of their time and culture.

Still, the intimacy, whatever its intensity, made it harder for Etta to return to her role on Eutaw Place as housekeeper and youngest sister. Her eyes had been opened to a world that not even her beloved brother Moses had seen.

When Etta returned to Baltimore, its monotonous skyline, endless brick row houses, and marble stoops must have seemed to her a kind of prison compared with the grandeur she had left behind in Paris. Immediately, she began plotting her escape. But Etta did not shed her domestic responsibilities for another two years, until after her mother's death in 1903.

With the last Cone parent gone, there was no reason for her to stay in Baltimore—and no reason to keep up a large household. Etta spent the first months of the year relocating the Cone family possessions to the home of her brother Sydney, farther north on Eutaw Place, and preparing the Cone house for sale. That done, Etta was technically homeless, which was the best excuse of all to return to Europe.