The vicar was abruptly reminded of this conversation with his host when later they rejoined the ladies. The atmosphere of John Musgrave's drawing-room struck foreign. It was a rule of Mr Musgrave never to smoke there. There were other rooms in a house in which a man could smoke, he asserted; the drawing-room was the woman's sanctum, and should be kept free from the objectionable fumes. Although there was no longer a woman to occupy Mr Musgrave's drawing-room, he adhered to his rule strictly, because adhering to rule was his practice, and men of John Musgrave's temperament do not change the habit of a lifetime merely on account of the removal of the reason for a stricture. But unmistakably on this particular night the rule had been violated; the fragrance of cigarette smoke lingered in the air, and on a small table beside Mrs Chadwick's coffee-cup an ash-tray, containing a partially smoked cigarette, confessed unblushingly that Mrs Chadwick had been enjoying her after-dinner smoke. On a cushion beside Mrs Chadwick, who was seated on the sofa, reposed the pampered pekinese, the presence of which both Eliza and her master resented equally. John Musgrave gravely ignored both these objectionable novelties, and, crossing the room in his deliberate fashion, seated himself beside Mrs Errol, as a man adrift in uncongenial surroundings seeks refuge in the society of one upon whom the mantle of respectability still rested, and who embodied for him safe and familiar things. Walter Errol shared the sofa with the pekinese and the pekinese's mistress, and smoothed the little creature's silken coat while he chatted with its owner and Mrs Sommers, who, a devoted admirer of the vicar's, sat on the other side of him. "I've been hearing such a lot about the parish from your wife," Mrs Chadwick said. "I'm quite charmed with the place. I have always longed to find a spot that has been passed over by time, so that I could bring it up to date in a hurry. It takes the people's breath away at first; but they grow to like it--like riding on a switchback and standing on a moving staircase. When one learns to balance one's self these things are delightful." "I can well believe it," the vicar answered, and wondered whether she suspected that she had already succeeded in taking away the breath of one of Moresby's inhabitants. "But I doubt whether you will find us exactly grateful." She looked him directly in the eyes and smiled. She was, he observed, a very handsome woman, and her smile was radiant.