te, when there are my Havanas and
cheroots!" The remark, in whatever way considered, is suggestive. In the
first place, it is made late in the evening, after Strathmore and his
friend have left the smoking-room. Thus it is a safe observation. I
would not go so far as to say that he had no Havanas in the house; the
likelihood is that he had a few in his cigar-case, kept there for show
rather than use. These, if I understand the man, would be a good brand,
but of small size--perhaps Reinas--and they would hardly be of a
well-known crop. In color they would be dark--say maduro--and he would
explain that he bought them because he liked full-flavored weeds.
Possibly he had a Villar y Villar box with six or eight in the bottom of
it; but boxes are not cigars. What he did provide his friends with was
Manillas. He smoked them himself, and how careful he was of them is seen
on every other page. He is constantly stopping in the middle of his
conversation to "curl a loose leaf round his Manilla;" when one would
have expected a hero like Strathmore to fling away a cigar when its
leaves began to untwist, and light another. So thrifty is Strathmore
that he even laboriously "curls the leaves round his cigarettes"--he
does not so much as pretend that they are Egyptian; nay, even when
quarrelling with Errol, his beloved friend (whom he shoots through the
heart), he takes a cigarette from his mouth and "winds a loosened leaf"
round it.

[Illustration]

If Strathmore's Manillas were Capitan Generals they would cost him about
24s. a hundred. The probability, however, is that they were of inferior
quality; say, 17s. 6d. It need hardly be said that a good Manilla does
not constantly require to have its leaves "curled." When Errol goes into
the garden to smoke, he has every other minute to "strike a fusee;" from
which it may be inferred that his cigar frequently goes out. This is
in itself suspicious. Errol, too, is more than once seen by his host
wandering in the grounds at night, with a cigar between his teeth.
Strathmore thinks his susceptible friend has a love affair on hand; but
is it not at least as probable an explanation that Errol had a private
supply of cigars at Whiteladies, and from motives of delicacy did not
like to smoke them in his host's presence? Once, indeed, we do see
Strathmore smoking a good cigar, though we are not told how he came by
it. When talking of the Vavasour, he "sticks his penknife through his
Cabana," with