He had not for a moment got beneath her casual manner, her
lightness, pretended or actual. He wished vehemently that he were back
again in the past he comprehended, among the familiar figures that had
thronged the notable dinner to Patti, the women who had floated so
graciously through the poetry of departed waltzes. He got out his albums
once more, scrutinized through his polished glass the programmes of
evenings famous in song. But he went to bed a full two hours earlier
than customary; his feet positively dragged up the stairs; above he sat
strangely exhausted, breathing heavily for, apparently, no reason
whatever.
He retraced, with Mariana, the course over the broad, asphalt way into
the north end of the city early on the evening of the thirtieth. They
found the church easily, by reason of a striped canvas tunnel stretched
out to the curb; and a young man with plastered hair and a gardenia led
them, Mariana on his arm, to a place on the centre aisle. The church had
a high nave newly vaulted in maple, and stained glass windows draped
with smilax, garish in colour against electric lights. Above the altar a
great illuminated cross maintained an unsteady flickering; and--it was
unseasonably cold--heating steam pipes gave out an expanding racket.
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