href="#ulink_17e1bb32-be60-50bb-a114-1bc828ebfc09">CHAPTER XI
A DISCONSOLATE LOVER AND A PAIR OF BLUE EYES
ADAMS WATCHES IN THE NIGHT AND SEES THE DAWN
TREATS OF THE POVERTY OF RICHES
SHOWS THAT LOVE WITHOUT WISDOM IS FOLLY
IN WHICH LAURA ENTERS THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION
PROVES A GREAT CITY TO BE A GREAT SOLITUDE
SHOWS THAT TRUE LOVE IS TRUE SERVICE
PART I
IMPULSE
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH THE ROMANTIC HERO IS CONSPICUOUS BY HIS ABSENCE
As the light fell on her face Gerty Bridewell awoke, stifled a yawn with her pillow, and remembered that she had been very unhappy when she went to bed. That was only six hours ago, and yet she felt now that her unhappiness and the object of it, which was her husband, were of less disturbing importance to her than the fact that she must get up and stand for three minutes under the shower bath in her dressing-room. With a sigh she pressed the pillow more firmly under her cheek, and lay looking a little wistfully at her maid, who, having drawn back the curtains at the window, stood now regarding her with the discreet and confidential smile which drew from her a protesting frown of irritation.
"Well, I can't get up until I've had my coffee," she said in a voice which produced an effect of mournful brightness rather than of anger, "I haven't the strength to put so much as my foot out of bed."
Her eyes followed the woman across the room and through the door, and then, turning instinctively to the broad mirror above her dressing table, hung critically upon the brilliant red and white reflection in the glass. It was her comforting assurance that every woman looked her best in bed; and as she lay now, following the lines of her charming figure beneath the
