"But—you're not going to smoke—here? On the public beach?"
"Isn't it allowed?" asked Pearl, all innocence. "It must be—you are smoking. Let me have a match."
"I haven't a match," he said, and threw away his own cigarette so that she could not get a light from that. It was an important moment in his life. He thought rapidly. "I hope you won't think me fresh or anything," he said, "but I don't think a governess ought to smoke, if you know what I mean—not in public anyhow."
She wasn't angry, only thoughtful.
"Well, that's only your opinion."
It touched him that she knew so little of the world—or of her own position. He said gently, "I'm afraid you'd find it was everybody's opinion."
"Ought you to be so much influenced by the opinion of other people?"
"Yes, indeed," he answered. The cigarette with which she was still playing might separate them forever. His mother, he knew, was just waiting for a good excuse to send her away, and where could she find a better one?
She argued it further, tapping the cigarette on her hand as if she were about to place it between her lips.
"But you don't pay any attention when people say you oughtn't to smoke."