And presently, his secret still locked in his bosom, and his collar
sticking limply to his neck, he crept downstairs, avoiding the society
of his fellow man, and slunk out into the night where, if there was no
Mamie, there were, at any rate, dry clothes.
Chapter IV
The Widening Gap
The new life hit Kirk as a wave hits a bather; and, like a wave, swept
him off his feet, choked him, and generally filled him with a feeling
of discomfort.
He should have been prepared for it, but he was not. He should have
divined from the first that the money was bound to produce changes
other than a mere shifting of headquarters from Sixty-First Street to
Fifth Avenue. But he had deluded himself at first with the idea that
Ruth was different from other women, that she was superior to the
artificial pleasures of the Society which is distinguished by the big
S.
In a moment of weakness, induced by hair-ruffling, he had given in on
the point of the hygienic upbringing of William Bannister; but there,
he had imagined, his troubles were to cease. He had supposed that he
was about to resume the old hermit's-cell life of the studio and live
in a world which contained only Ruth, Bill, and himself.
He was quickly undeceived. Within two days he was made aware of the
fact that Ruth was in the very centre of the social whirlpool and that
she took it for granted that he would join her there.
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