required a solid, almost irrational good temper, which Augusta did not possess. Mrs. Conway would have rendered Augusta acid and powerless in one evening. Pearl was not so efficient in certain ways, but she had good temper and a robust will.
She and Durland went into the sitting room while Mrs. Conway was getting Dolly off to her bridge party. Durland did what, alas, men have been doing for many centuries--he attempted to impress the object of his affection by doing one of the things most certain to alienate her. He stood before her, lighting a cigarette, shaking the match deliberately in the air, his legs rather wide apart. Pearl, who had sunk into a nice deep chair, sprang up and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Oh, don't smoke," she said.
Hundreds of women had said that to him. Even the lovely Caroline Temple--his former love--had said that her parents had forbidden her to have him at the house on account of his smoking; such a bad example.
"Caroline," he had said quietly, "I simply do openly what all the others do secretly."
He had not wavered about it. Neither had her parents. He and Caroline met at the tennis club and at the beach--no longer at her house. But he had never thought of changing his habits. His cigarette was to him what a car is to a theatrical star--a symbol of greatness. He was firm now, even under the pleading of a new idol.