He rose, pressed his wife's hand, and went out.

But yet he was not entirely satisfied with himself for leaving her.

"I suppose it isn't right my going off as soon as I come in," he murmured reproachfully to himself, "but I think she wants the baby back as much as I; only, womanlike, she didn't care to let me know it." He reached the lower hall, which he knew was a favorite promenade for the nurses who were gathered at the farther end, where a large window looked upon Montgomery Street.

But Norah, the Irish nurse, was not among them; he passed through several corridors in his search, but in vain.
At last, worried and a little anxious, he turned to regain his rooms through the long saloon where he had found his wife previously.

It was deserted now; the last caller had left--even frivolity had its prescribed limits.