He walked to the window; alas, there was the same prospect that had looked upon his dreams, had lent itself to his old visions.
There was the eternal outline of the hills; there rose the steadfast pines; there was no change in THEM.

It was this surrounding constancy of nature that had affected him.

He turned away and entered the bedroom.
Here he suddenly remembered that the mother of this vague enemy, Van Loo,--for his feeling towards him was still vague, as few men really hate the personality they don't know,--had only momentarily vacated it, and to his distaste of his own intrusion was now added the profound irony of his sleeping in the same bed lately occupied by the mother of the man who was suspected of having forged his name.

He smiled faintly and looked around the apartment.

It was handsomely furnished, and although it still had much of the characterlessness of the hotel room, it was distinctly flavored by its last occupant, and still brightened by that mysterious instinct of the sex which is inevitable.