arch inquiring glance. "Your cigarettes look
good to me. I emptied my case an hour ago."

And I proffered them with a show of alacrity. "Pray, pardon me," I said.
"I--I never thought of you smoking." A chuckle came through the tiny
teeth grasping the cigarette. "Thought I was too goody-goody, eh?"

I stammered something--dashed if I know what--and blinked a little
gloomily as she drew a brisk fire from the flame I tendered.

Odd thing, by Jove; here I had been going to dinners, world without end,
where fellows' wives and girls and sisters smoked cigarettes, and I
never had thought a thing about it. But now, somehow, I didn't like it
for _her_. Sort of thing well enough for other chaps' girls and
sisters, you know, but--well, this was _different_, by Jove! Devilish
queer thing, that, what a lot of things seem the caper for them that we
don't like for "our own," eh?

And yet--oh, I say, she certainly did look fetching about it--downright
bewitching, you know! I think maybe it was because she didn't fumble the
thing as if she was afraid of it--as if it was just a red hot coal and
going to burn her. Most of them do, you know. No, this girl really
seemed to enjoy it. Inhaled the whole thing at three draws and reached
for another.

"Do--er--you smoke much?" I ventured anxiously. "Cigarettes, you know?"

She pulled a sparkling half-inch as she shook her little head. I felt
awfully relieved. "Not for me," she remarked carelessly. "I prefer a
pipe."

"_Pipe!_" I repeated feebly.

The golden head inclined. "Bet you! Good old, well-seasoned brier for
mine--well-caked and a little strong." Puff-puff. "Oh, damn your patent
sanitary pipes, I say!"

And as backward I collapsed upon the cushions, she threw her leg over
the arm of her chair and shot two long cones of smoke from her dainty
nostrils.

CHAPTER VI

ARCADIAN SIMPLICITY

A moment later I had another shock.

"I don't blame you for looking at me so hard," she said, rubbing her
chin and looking, I thought, a little confused. "For did you ever see a
face like mine?"

"I--I never did!" I said stammeringly, for, by Jove, the question was so
unexpected; but I knew I said it earnestly and with conviction in every
word.

She nodded. "Never got a chance to shave, you know--caught the train by
such a margin--and my kit's in that other bag. Guess I'll have to impose
on you in the morning for one of your razors."

I stared at her in horror.

"Shave? You do