"I saw it on your dressing-table last week," said his wife, getting up to leave us. He followed her out and went in search of it, while I waited with an interest which I made no effort to conceal. I had never heard before of a man going all the way to Portugal to buy one cigar for a friend. "Here it is," said Charles, coming in again. He put down in front of me an ash-tray, the matches and a--and a--well, a cigar. I examined it slowly. Half of it looked very tired. "Well," said Charles, "what do you think of it?" "When you say you--er--_picked it up_ in Portugal," I began carefully. "I suppose you don't mean----" I stopped and tried to bite the end off. "Have a knife," said Charles. I had another bite, and then I decided to be frank. "_Why_ did you pick it up?" I asked. "The fact was," said Charles, "I found myself one day in Lisbon without my pipe, and so I bought that thing; I never smoke them in the ordinary way." "Did you smoke this?" I asked. It was obvious that _something_ had happened to it. "No, you see, I found some cigarettes at the last moment, and so, knowing that you liked cigars, I thought I'd bring it home for you." "It's very nice of you, Charles. Of course I can see that it has travelled. Well, we must do what we can with it." I took the knife and started chipping away at the mahogany end. The other end--the brown-paper end, which had come ungummed--I intended to reserve for the match. When everything was ready I applied a light, leant back in my chair, and pulled. "That's all right, isn't it?" said Charles. "You'd be surprised if I told you what I paid for it." "No, no, you mustn't think that," I protested. "Probably things are dearer in Portugal." I put it down by my plate for a moment's rest. "All I've got against it at present is that its pores don't act as freely as they should." "I've got a cigar-cutter somewhere, if----" "No, don't bother, I think I can do it with the nut-crackers. There's no doubt it was a good cigar once, but it hasn't wintered well." I squeezed it as hard as I could, lit it again, pressed my feet against the table and pulled. "Now it's going," said Charles. "I'm afraid it keeps very reticent at my end. The follow-through is poor. Is your end alight still?" "Burning beautifully." "It's a pity that I should be missing all that. How would it be if we were to make a knitting-needle red-hot and bore a tunnel from this end? We might establish a draught that way. Only there's always the danger, of course, of coming out at the side." I took the cigar up and put it to my ear. "I can't hear anything wrong," I said. "I expect what it really wants is massage." Charles filled his pipe again and got up. "Let's go for a stroll," he said. "It's a beautiful night. Bring your cigar with you."