great fragment had suddenly dropped out of his life's pattern, and
it was intensely disquieting to think of all it might have carried
with it.

He began to pace the deck mechanically, falling in with the other
early risers who were out for a breath of morning air, striving to
adjust himself to this new state of affairs. But even though the
solid reality of his surroundings soon brought him back more
nearly to a normal state of mind, he felt an ever-present
expectancy of some new shock, some new and abrupt transition that
might yet bring him back to his starting-point. But this obsession
gradually left him, as the brisk sea breeze brought him to a
proper perspective and braced him to face the full consequences of
his long, restless night's orgy.

No man is so systematic, none is so well ordered in his affairs,
that he can cut out a slice of his life at a moment's notice
without suffering many kinds of loss and inconvenience. Although
Anthony was a youth of few responsibilities, he awoke suddenly to
the fact that there were a thousand things that needed doing, a
thousand people who needed to know his whereabouts, a thousand
things that were bound to go wrong. For instance, there was his
brand-new French car, standing with motor blanketed beside the
Forty-fifth Street curb.

What had happened to it, and to the urchin he had left in charge
of it? He owed a thousand dollars on its purchase, which he had
promised to pay yesterday. Then, too, he had neglected his house
account at the University Club, and it was long overdue. That
remittance from his father had come just in the nick of time.