"Gone?" exclaimed Sir Chichester testily. "God bless my soul! Did he seem disappointed, Harper?"
"Not so much disappointed, sir, as, if I may utilise a vulgarism, struck of all a heap, sir."
"That will do, Harper," said Millie Splay, and Harper again retired.
"Struck all of a heap!" said Sir Chichester sadly. "Well he might be!" He looked up and caught Harry's eye. "They say, Luttrell, that breaking a habit is only distressing during the first few days. With each refusal of the mind to yield, the temptation diminishes in strength. I believe that to be so, Luttrell."
"It is very likely, sir," Harry replied.
Harper seemed to be perpetually in and out of the library that morning. For he appeared with a little oblong parcel in his hand. Sir Chichester did not notice the parcel. He sprang up, and with a distinct note of eager pleasure in his voice, he cried:
"He has come back! Then I really think——"
"No, sir," Harper interrupted. "These are cigarettes."
"Oh, yes," Hillyard stepped forward and took the parcel from the table. "I had run out, so I sent to Midhurst for a box."
"Oh, cigarettes!" Sir Chichester's voice sagged again. He contemplated the little parcel swinging by a loop of string from Martin's finger. His face became a little stern. "That's a bad habit, Hillyard," he observed, shaking his head. "It will grow on you—nicotine poisoning may supervene at any moment. You had better begin to break yourself of it at once. I think so."