But he had no interests outside
the office and he got his mental recreation by shifting his mind from one
department to another.
In June his salary was increased to twenty-five thousand a year and his
last lingering feeling of financial insecurity disappeared. For the first
time in his life he felt strong enough to undertake a serious
responsibility, to give hostages to fortune without fear of being unable to
keep faith. He learned from Mrs. Carnarvon that Marian was returning on the
_Oceanic_ on the ninth of July, and he accepted a Saturday-to-Monday
invitation to Newport for the twelfth of July. It was from Segur that he
got the news that Danvers was in Japan and was not returning until the
autumn.
On the ninth of July, from the window of his office, he saw the
_Oceanic_ steam up the bay and up the river to her pier. He sent down
a request that the ship-news reporter be sent up as soon as he returned.
"Is it a good story?" he asked when the reporter, Blackwell, entered. "Was
there anybody on board?"
"A lot of swell people," the young man answered; "all the women got up in
the latest Paris gowns."
"Did you notice whether Mrs. Provost came?"
"Came? Well, rather, with two French maids chattering and chasing after
her. And there was a tall girl with her, a stunner, a girl she called
'Marian, my dear.
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