my imagination. She opened a large, square silver box on the table, took
out a cigarette, lighted it and holding it, with the smoke lazily curling
up from it, between the long slender first and second fingers of her white
hand, stood idly turning the leaves of a magazine. I threw my cigar into
the fireplace. The slight sound as it struck made her jump, and I saw that,
underneath her surface of perfect calm, she was in a nervous state full as
tense as my own.

"You smoke?" said I.

"Sometimes," she replied. "It is soothing and distracting. I don't know how
it is with others, but when I smoke, my mind is quite empty."

"It's a nasty habit--smoking," said I.

"Do you think so?" said she, with the slightest lift to her tone and her
eyebrows.

"Especially for a woman," I went on, because I could think of nothing else
to say, and would not, at any cost, let this conversation, so hard to
begin, die out.

"You are one of those men who have one code for themselves and another for
women," she replied.

"I'm a man," said I. "All men have the two codes."

"Not all," said she after a pause.

"All men of decent ideas," said I with emphasis.

"Really?" said she, in a tone that irritated me by suggesting that what I
said was both absurd and unimportant.

"It is the first time I've ever seen a respectable woman smoke," I went on,
powerless to change the subject, though conscious I was getting tedious.
"I've read of such things, but I didn't believe."

"That is interesting," said she, her tone suggesting the reverse.

"I've offended you by saying frankly what I think," said I. "Of course,
it's none of my business."

"Oh, no," replied she carelessly. "I'm not in the least offended.
Prejudices always interest me."

I saw Ellersly and his wife sitting in the drawing-room, pretending to
talk to each other. I understood that they were leaving me alone with her
deliberately, and I began to suspect she was in the plot. I smiled, and my
courage and self-possession returned as summarily as they had fled.

"I'm glad of this chance to get better acquainted with you," said I. "I've
wanted it ever since I first saw you."

As I put this to her directly, she dropped her eyes and murmured something
she probably wished me to think vaguely pleasant.

"You are the first woman I ever knew," I went on, "with whom it was hard
for me to get on any sort of terms. I suppose it's my fault. I don't know
this game yet. But I'll learn it, if