my of
Music was the centre of your world. And nothing is the same." She rose,
and, with a lighted cigarette and half-shut eyes, fell into a rhythmic
step of sensuous abandon. "You see," she remarked, pausing. An
increasing dread for her filled his heart. He felt, in response to her
challenge, a sudden bewilderment in the world of to-day. Things, Howat
Penny told himself, were marching to the devil. He said this irritably,
loud, and she laughed. "I'm going in by an early train," she proceeded.
"We have left the country. Will you stop for me on the thirtieth? Early,
Howat, so we can be sure of a good place."

His helplessness included the subject of her remarks; he would, he
realized, be at James Polder's wedding, but he persisted in his opinion.
"A low piece of business," Howat declared. When she had gone he felt
that he had not penetrated her actual attitude toward Polder's
deflection. He had not for a moment got beneath her casual manner, her
lightness, pretended or actual. He wished vehemently that he were back
again in the past he comprehended, among the familiar figures that had
thronged the notable dinner to Patti, the women who had floated so
graciously through the poetry of departed waltzes. He got out his albums
once more, scrutinized through his polished glass the programmes of
evenings famous in song. But he went to bed a full two hours earlier
than customary; his feet positively dragged up the stairs; above he sat
strangely exhausted, breathing heavily for, apparently, no reason
whatever.

He retraced, with Mariana, the course over the broad, asphalt way into
the north end of the city early on the evening of the thirtieth. They
found the church easily, by reason of a striped canvas tunnel stretched
out to the curb; and a young man with plastered hair and a gardenia led
them, Mariana on his arm, to a place on the centre aisle. The church had
a high nave newly vaulted in maple, and stained glass windows draped
with smilax, garish in colour against electric lights. Above the altar a
great illuminated cross maintained an unsteady flickering; and--it was
unseasonably cold--heating steam pipes gave out an expanding racket.

The pews through the centre filled rapidly; there was a low, excited
chatter of voices, and a spreading tropical expanse of the dyed
feathers and iridescent foliage of womens' hats. An overpowering scent
of mingled perfumes rose and filled the interior. The strains of an
organ grew audible, c