What urged him to this course more than anything else was Ruth's
growing intimacy with Basil Milbank; for, in the period which had
elapsed since the conversation recorded earlier in the story, when Kirk
had first made the other's acquaintance, the gifted Basil had become a
very important and menacing figure in Ruth's life.
To Ruth, as to most women, his gifts were his attraction. He danced
well; he talked well; he did everything well. He appealed to a side of
Ruth's nature which Kirk scarcely touched--a side which had only come
into prominence in the last year.
His manner was admirable. He suggested sympathy without expressing it.
He could convey to Ruth that he thought her a misunderstood and
neglected wife while talking to her about the weather. He could make
his own knight-errant attitude toward her perfectly plain without
saying a word, merely by playing soft music to her on the piano; for he
had the gift of saying more with his finger-tips than most men could
have said in a long speech carefully rehearsed.
Kirk's inability to accompany Ruth into her present life had given
Basil his chance. Into the gap which now lay between them he had
slipped with a smooth neatness born of experience.
Bailey hated Basil. Men, as a rule, did, without knowing why. Basil's
reputation was shady, without being actually bad.
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