quite able to put Fearns into his proper place in the scheme of things.

"Oh!" he said. "So you know all about it?"

"Well," said she, "naturally it was all over the town. Mrs Fearns's
girl, Annunciata--what a name, eh?--is one of my pupils--the youngest,
in fact."

"Well," said he, after another pause, "I wasn't going to have Fearns
coming the duke over me!" She smiled sympathetically. He felt that they
understood each other deeply.

"You'll find some cigarettes in that box," she said, when he had been
there thirty minutes, and pointed to the mantelpiece.

"Sure you don't mind?" he murmured.

She raised her eyebrows.

There was also a silver match-box in the larger box. No detail lacked.
It seemed to him that he stood on a mountain and had only to walk down a
winding path in order to enter the promised land. He was decidedly
pleased with the worldly way in which he had said: "Sure you don't
mind?"

He puffed out smoke delicately. And, the cigarette between his lips, as
with his left hand he waved the match into extinction, he demanded:

"You smoke?"