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. There was nothing
of the hermit about Ruth now. She was amazingly undomestic.
Her old distaste for the fashionable life of New York seemed to have
vanished absolutely. As far as Kirk could see, she was always
entertaining or being entertained. He was pitched head-long into a
world where people talked incessantly of things which bored him and did
things which seemed to him simply mad. And Ruth, whom he had thought he
understood, revelled in it all.
At first he tried to get at her point of view, to discover what she
found to enjoy in this lunatic existence of aimlessness and futility.
One night, as they were driving home from a dinner which had bored him
unspeakably, he asked the question point-blank. It seemed to him
incredible that she could take pleasure in an entertainment which had
filled him with such depression.
'Ruth,' he said impulsively, as the car moved off, 'what do you see in
this sort of thing? How can you stand these people? What have you in
common with them?'
'Poor old Kirk. I know you hated it to-night. But we shan't be dining
with the Baileys every night.'
Bailey Bannister had been their host on that occasion, and the dinner
had been elaborate and gorgeous. Mrs. Bailey was now one of the leaders
of the younger set. Bailey, looking much more than a year older than
when Kirk had seen him last, had presided at the head of the table with
great dignity, and the meeting with him had not contributed to the
pleasure of Kirk's evening.
'Were you awfully bored? You seemed to be getting along quite well with
Sybil.'
'I like her. She's good fun.'
'She's certainly having good fun. I'd give anything to know what Bailey
really thinks of it. She is the most shockingly extravagant little
creature in New York. You know the Wilburs were quite poor, and poor
Sybil was kept very short. I think that marrying Bailey and having all
this money to play with has turned her head.'
It struck Kirk that the criticism applied equally well to the critic.
'She does the most absurd things. She gave a freak dinner when you were
away that cost I don't know how much. She is always doing something.
Well, I suppose Bailey knows what he is about; but at her present pace
she must be keeping him busy making money to pay for all her fads. You
ought to paint a picture of Bailey, Kirk, as the typical patient
American husband. You couldn't get a better model.'
'Suggest it to him, and let me hide somewhere where I can hear what he
says. Bailey has his own opinion of my pictures.'
Ruth laughed a little nervously. She had always wondered exactly what
