ther and more
thrilling taste of the joy that was to be hers through him--and soon she
would be giving even as she got--for he would teach her not to fear
love, not to shrink from it, but to rejoice in it and to let it permeate
and complete all her charms.

He ascended to the apartment and knocked. There was no answer. He
searched in vain for a chambermaid to let him in. He descended to the
office. "Oh, Mr. Norman," said one of the clerks. "Your wife left this
note for you."

Norman took it. "She went out?"

"About three o'clock--with a young gentleman who called on her. They
came back a while ago and she left the note."

"Thank you," said Norman. He took his key, went up to the apartment. Not
until he had closed and locked the door did he open the note. He read:

"Last night you broke your promise. So I am going away. Don't look for
me. It won't be any use. When I decide what to do I'll send you word."

He was standing at the table. He tossed the note on the marble, threw
open the bedroom door. The black chiffon dress, the big plumed hat, and
all the other articles they had bought were spread upon the bed,
arranged with the obvious intention that he should see at a glance she
had taken nothing away with her.

"Hell!" he said aloud. "Why didn't I let her go yesterday morning?"

XVIII

A few days later, Tetlow, having business with Norman, tried to reach
him by telephone. After several failures he went to the hotel, and in
the bar learned enough to enable him to guess that Norman was of on a
mad carouse. He had no difficulty in finding the trail or in following
it; the difficulty lay in catching up, for Norman was going fast. Not
until late at night--that is, early in the morning--of the sixth day
from the beginning of his search did he get his man.

He was prepared to find a wreck, haggard, wildly nervous and
disreputably disheveled; for, so far as he could ascertain Norman had
not been to bed, but had gone on and on from one crowd of revelers to
another, in a city where it is easy to find companions in dissipation at
any hour of the twenty-four. Tetlow was even calculating upon having to
put off their business many weeks while the crazy man was pulling
through delirium tremens or some other form of brain fever.

An astonishing sight met his eyes in the Third Avenue oyster house
before which the touring car Norman had been using was drawn up. At a
long table, eating oysters as fast as the open