realize it. He has since confessed to me that he hadn't the slightest
idea how much his bird and bottle cost. Of such is love's young
dream! (Do I worry you with all these repetitious details? I am
sorry.)

At ten o'clock Miss Annesley rose, and the count escorted her to the
elevator, returning almost immediately. He and the colonel drew their
heads together. From time to time the count shrugged, or the colonel
shook his head. Again and again the Russian dipped the end of his
cigar into his coffee-cup, which he frequently replenished.

But for Mr. Robert the gold had turned to gilt, the gorgeous to the
gaudy. She was gone. The imagination moves as swiftly as light,
leaping from one castle in air to another, and still another. Mr.
Robert was the architect of some fine ones, I may safely assure you.
And he didn't mind in the least that they tumbled down as rapidly as
they builded: only, the incentive was gone. What the colonel had to
say to the count, or the count to the colonel, was of no interest to
him; so he made an orderly retreat.

I am not so old as not to appreciate his sleeplessness that night.
Some beds are hard, even when made of the softest down.

In the morning he telephoned to the Holland House. The Annesleys, he
was informed, had departed for parts unknown. The count had left
directions to forward any possible mail to the Russian Embassy,
Washington. Sighs in the _doloroso_; the morning papers and
numerous cigars; a whisky and soda; a game of indifferent billiards
with an affable stranger; another whisky and soda; and a gradual
reclamation of Mr. Robert's interest in worldly affairs.