apparel, silks and lacy filmy stuffs. And to Roger, in his mood of anxious
premonition, these bedroom scenes said plainly,

"O come, all ye faithful wives! Come let us adore him, and deck ourselves
to please his eye, to catch his eye, to hold his eye! For marriage is a
game these days!"

Yes, Laura would be a spender, a spender and a speeder too! How much money
had he, that chap? And damn him, what had he in his past? How Roger hated
the very thought of poking into another man's life! Poking where nobody
wanted him! He felt desperately alone. To-night they were dancing, he
recalled, not at a party in somebody's home, but in some flashy public
place where girls of her kind and fancy women gaily mixed together! How
mixed the whole city was getting, he thought, how mad and strange, gone out
of its mind, this city of his children's lives crowding in upon him!




CHAPTER IV


He breakfasted with Deborah late on Sunday morning. He had come down at the
usual hour despite his long tramp of the previous night, for he wanted to
tell her the news and talk it all out before Laura came down--because
Deborah, he hadn't a doubt, with her woman's curiosity had probed deep into
Laura's affairs in the many long talks they had had in her room. He had
often heard them there. And so, as he waited and waited and still his
daughter did not come, Roger grew distinctly annoyed; and when at last she
did appear, his greeting was perfunctory: