The new life hit Kirk as a wave hits a bather; and, like a wave, swepthim off his feet, choked him, and generally filled him with a feelingof discomfort.

　　He should have been prepared for it, but he was not. He should havedivined from the first that the money was bound to produce changesother than a mere shifting of headquarters from Sixty-First Street toFifth Avenue. But he had deluded himself at first with the idea thatRuth was different from other women, that she was superior to theartificial pleasures of the Society which is distinguished by the bigS.

　　In a moment of weakness, induced by hair-ruffling, he had given in onthe point of the hygienic upbringing of William Bannister; but there,he had imagined, his troubles were to cease. He had supposed that hewas about to resume the old hermit's-cell life of the studio and livein a world which contained only Ruth, Bill, and himself.

　　He was quickly undeceived. Within two days he was made aware of thefact that Ruth was in the very centre of the social whirlpool and thatshe took it for granted that he would join her there. There was nothingof the hermit about Ruth now. She was amazingly undomestic.

　　Her old distaste for the fashionable life of New York seemed to havevanished absolutely. As far as Kirk could see, she was alwaysentertaining or being entertained. He was pitched head-long into aworld where people talked incessantly of things which bored him and didthings which seemed to him simply mad. And Ruth, whom he had thought heunderstood, revelled in it all.

　　At first he tried to get at her point of view, to discover what shefound to enjoy in this lunatic existence of aimlessness and futility.

　　One night, as they were driving home from a dinner which had bored himunspeakably, he asked the question point-blank. It seemed to himincredible that she could take pleasure in an entertainment which hadfilled him with such depression.

　　"Ruth," he said impulsively, as the car moved off, "what do you see inthis sort of thing? How can you stand these people? What have you incommon with them?""Poor old Kirk. I know you hated it to-night. But we shan't be diningwith the Baileys every night."Bailey Bannister had been their host on that occasion, and the dinnerhad been elaborate and gorgeous. Mrs. Bailey was now one of the leadersof the younger set. Bailey, looking much more than a year older thanwhen Kirk had seen him last, had presided at the head of the table withgreat dignity, and the meeting with him had not contributed to thepleasure of Kirk's evening.

　　"Were you awfully bored? You seemed to be getting along quite well withSybil.""I like her. She's good fun.""She's certainly having good fun. I'd give anything to know what Baileyreally thinks of it. She is the most shockingly extravagant littlecreature in New York. You know the Wilburs were quite poor, and poorSybil was kept very short. I think that marrying Bailey and having allthis money to play with has turned her head."It struck Kirk that the criticism applied equally well to the critic.