He nodded sagaciously, seeing his wife there asleep, and after making one or two futile efforts to remove his boots, stretched himself, boots and all, on a lounge in the sitting-room, and in two minutes was as sound as one of the Seven Sleepers.
It was late next morning before either of the happy pair awoke.

A vague idea that there was a noise in the air aroused the gentleman about nine o'clock.

The dense fog in his brain, that a too liberal allowance of rosy wine is too apt to engender, took some time to clear away; but when it did, he became conscious that the noise was not part of his dreams, but some one knocking loudly at the door.
Mr.Stanford staggered sleepily across the apartment, unlocked the door, and admitted the brisk young woman who brought them their meals.
Mr.Stanford, yawning very much, proceeded to make his toilet.

Twelve months of matrimony had changed the handsome ex-lieutenant, and not for the better.

He looked thinner and paler; his eyes were sunken, and encircled by dark halos, telling of night revels and morning headaches.
But that wonderful beauty that had magnetized Rose Danton was there still; the features as perfect as ever; the black eyes as lustrous; all the old graceful ease and nonchalance of manner characterized him yet.
But the beauty that had blinded and dazzled her had lost its power to charm.