XVIII
EDNESDAY and Thursday passed laggingly. Friday found Gordon nervous, unstrung, alternating between a calm certainty that all would come right and a despairing certainty that Peggy was lost to him. Hoping, but scarcely expecting that she might write to him to-day instead of waiting for the morrow, he stayed at home all the afternoon, breaking a business appointment to do so, and watched for the postman. As the time passed his nervousness became an irritability so unusual that Hurd became worried and dogged him solicitously until Gordon, with a flare of temper, damned him away. After the last delivery had been made he slammed out of the house and walked through a drizzle to the nearest club, where, by two in the morning he had managed by execrable playing, to lose many dollars at auction.
By Saturday morning the drizzle had become a
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