The smoking-room at Summersoft was on the scale of the rest of the place; high light commodious and decorated with such refined old carvings and mouldings that it seemed rather a bower for ladies who should sit at work at fading crewels than a parliament of gentlemen smoking strong cigars. The gentlemen mustered there in considerable force on the Sunday evening, collecting mainly at one end, in front of one of the cool fair fireplaces of white marble, the entablature of which was adorned with a delicate little Italian "subject." There was another in the wall that faced it, and, thanks to the mild summer night, a fire in neither; but a nucleus for aggregation was furnished on one side by a table in the chimney-corner laden with bottles, decanters and tall tumblers.
Paul Overt was a faithless smoker; he would puff a cigarette for reasons with which tobacco had nothing to do. This was particularly the case on the occasion of which I speak; his motive was the vision of a little direct talk with Henry St. George. The "tremendous" communion of which the great man had held out hopes to him earlier in the day had not yet come off, and this saddened him considerably, for the party was to go its several ways immediately after breakfast on the morrow. He had, however, the disappointment of finding that apparently the author of "Shadowmere" was not disposed to prolong his vigil. He wasn't among the gentlemen assembled when Paul entered, nor was he one of those who turned up, in bright habiliments, during the next ten minutes. The young man waited a little, wondering if he had only gone to put on something extraordinary; this would account for his delay as well as contribute further to Overt's impression of his tendency to do the approved superficial thing. But he didn't arrive - he must have been putting on something more extraordinary than was probable.
Our hero gave him up, feeling a little injured, a little wounded, at this loss of twenty coveted words. He wasn't angry, but he puffed his cigarette sighingly, with the sense of something rare possibly missed. He wandered away with his regret and moved slowly round the room, looking at the old prints on the walls. In this attitude he presently felt a hand on his shoulder and a friendly voice in his ear "This is good. I hoped I should find you. I came down on purpose." St. George was there without a change of dress and with a fine face - his graver one - to which our young man all in a flutter responded. He explained that it was only for the Master - the idea of a little talk - that he had sat up, and that, not finding him, he had been on the point of going to bed.
"Well, you know, I don't smoke - my wife doesn't let me," said St.
George, looking for a place to sit down. "It's very good for me -very good for me. Let us take that sofa."
"Do you mean smoking's good for you?"
"No no - her not letting me. It's a great thing to have a wife who's so sure of all the things one can do without. One might never find them out one's self. She doesn't allow me to touch a cigarette." They took possession of a sofa at a distance from the group of smokers, and St. George went on: "Have you got one yourself?""Do you mean a cigarette?"
"Dear no - a wife."
"No; and yet I'd give up my cigarette for one.""You'd give up a good deal more than that," St. George returned.
"However, you'd get a great deal in return. There's a something to be said for wives," he added, folding his arms and crossing his outstretched legs. He declined tobacco altogether and sat there without returning fire. His companion stopped smoking, touched by his courtesy; and after all they were out of the fumes, their sofa was in a far-away corner. It would have been a mistake, St. George went on, a great mistake for them to have separated without a little chat; "for I know all about you," he said, "I know you're very remarkable. You've written a very distinguished book.""And how do you know it?" Paul asked.
"Why, my dear fellow, it's in the air, it's in the papers, it's everywhere." St. George spoke with the immediate familiarity of a confrere - a tone that seemed to his neighbour the very rustle of the laurel. "You're on all men's lips and, what's better, on all women's. And I've just been reading your book.""Just? You hadn't read it this afternoon," said Overt.
"How do you know that?"
"I think you should know how I know it," the young man laughed.
"I suppose Miss Fancourt told you."
"No indeed - she led me rather to suppose you had.""Yes - that's much more what she'd do. Doesn't she shed a rosy glow over life? But you didn't believe her?" asked St. George.
"No, not when you came to us there."
"Did I pretend? did I pretend badly?" But without waiting for an answer to this St. George went on: "You ought always to believe such a girl as that - always, always. Some women are meant to be taken with allowances and reserves; but you must take HER just as she is.""I like her very much," said Paul Overt.
Something in his tone appeared to excite on his companion's part a momentary sense of the absurd; perhaps it was the air of deliberation attending this judgement. St. George broke into a laugh to reply. "It's the best thing you can do with her. She's a rare young lady! In point of fact, however, I confess I hadn't read you this afternoon.""Then you see how right I was in this particular case not to believe Miss Fancourt.""How right? how can I agree to that when I lost credit by it?""Do you wish to pass exactly for what she represents you?
Certainly you needn't be afraid," Paul said.
