And even in those days he had small regard for the means
when the end was one upon which he had fixed his mind. "Why not take what I
can get?" he thought, as he dreamed of her. "She's engaged--her future
practically settled. Yes, I'll be as happy as she'll let me." And he
resumed his idealising.
At his time of life idealisation is still not a difficult or a long
process. And in this case there was an ample physical basis for it--and far
more of a mental basis than young imagination demands. He took the draught
she so frankly offered him; he added a love potion of his own concocting,
and drank it off.
He was in love.
XI.
TRESPASSING.
For the first time since he had been in newspaper work, Howard came to the
office the next day in a long coat and a top hat. He left early and went
for a walk in the Avenue. But Miss Trevor was neither driving nor walking.
He repeated this excursion the next afternoon with better success. At
Fortieth Street he saw her and her cousin half a block ahead of him. He
walked slowly and examined her. She was satisfactory from the aigrette in
her hat to her heels--a long, narrow, graceful figure, dressed with the
expensive simplicity characteristic of the most intelligent class of the
women of New York and Paris.
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