midnight
He had delved deeply into the mysteries of mental and spiritual therapeutics , and had closely studied the influences surrounding the origin of individual human beings . But while he had harnessed many more or less occult forces into scientific service in treating invalids , strangely enough , it never occurred to him that similar elements might have an important mission in determining the natural affinity of those attracted by the tenderest passion in the world , and might do much , if properly regarded , to render stable that one-time sacred bond of the sexes known as the marriage relation , which at this time , everywhere , was resting upon such shifting quicksands of mismating as to menace its existence . `` Love is of man 's life a thing apart , '' applied with full force to Dr. Earl , and he accepted his relations with Leonora Kimball with the same confidence and light heart that might characterize the least thoughtful man on Manhattan Island . While he had traveled many thousands of miles and burned many a midnight lamp to ascertain if improvement could not be made in the prevailing orthodox method of treating disease , he blindly accepted , as millions of strong men before him had done , the prevailing orthodox method of selecting a wife . In any event , after the brother and sister had been left at the Ramsey mansion on upper Fifth Avenue , he and Leonora proceeded to spend the time from eleven to three o'clock very much as other lovers similarly situated would have consumed those four hours . They motored until one o'clock , when they went to her house , not far from his sister 's residence , where he had luncheon with her and her widowed mother , and at three o'clock he arrived at the Hotel Gotham , where he had engaged apartments . When he stepped into his new sitting-room a large photograph of Leonora confronted him on the dressing-case , his valet being a man of rare sense and tact .