Ruth had not seen Bailey since the afternoon when he had called towarn her against Basil Milbank. Whether it was offended dignity thatkept him away, or merely pressure of business, she did not know.

　　That pressure of business existed, she was aware. The papers were full,and had been full for several days, of wars and rumours of wars down inWall Street; and, though she understood nothing of finance, she knewthat Bailey was in the forefront of the battle. Her knowledge was basedpartly on occasional references in the papers to the firm of Bannister& Co. and partly on what she heard in society.

　　She did not hear all that was said in society about Bailey's financialoperations--which, as Bailey had the control of her money, wasunfortunate for her. The manipulation of money bored her, and she hadleft the investing of her legacy entirely to Bailey. Her father, sheknew, had always had a high opinion of Bailey's business instincts, andthat was good enough for her.

　　She could not know how completely revolutionized the latter's mind hadbecome since the old man's death, and how freedom had turned him from asteady young man of business to a frenzied financier.

　　It was common report now that Bailey was taking big chances. Some wentso far as to say that he was "asking for it," "it" in his case beingpresumably the Nemesis which waits on those who take big chances in anuncertain market. It was in the air that he was "going up against" thePinkey-Dowd group and the Norman-Graham combination, and everybody knewthat the cemeteries of Wall Street were full of the unhonoured gravesof others who in years past had attempted to do the same.

　　Pinkey, that sinister buccaneer, could have eaten a dozen Baileys.

　　Devouring aspiring young men of the Bailey type was Norman's chiefdiversion.

　　Ruth knew nothing of these things. She told herself that it was herabruptness that had driven Bailey away.

　　Weariness and depression had settled on Ruth since that afternoon ofthe storm. It was as if the storm had wrought an awakening in her. Ithad marked a definite point of change in her outlook. She felt as ifshe had been roused from a trance by a sharp blow.

　　If Steve had but known, she had had the "jolt" by which he set suchstore. She knew now that she had thrown away the substance for theshadow.

　　Kirk's anger, so unlike him, so foreign to the weak, easy-going personshe had always thought him, had brought her to herself. But it was toolate. There could be no going back and picking up the threads. She hadlost him, and must bear the consequences.

　　The withdrawal of Bailey was a small thing by comparison, a submotivein the greater tragedy. But she had always been fond of Bailey, and ithurt her to think that she should have driven him out of her life.

　　It seemed to her that she was very much alone now. She was marooned ona desert island of froth and laughter. Everything that mattered she hadlost.