"Just as you please; but I hadn't," he said. And he went and shut down the window.
Amazement held Claudia still for a moment; she could scarcely believe in such utter disregard of her feelings. At last, in a voice vibrating with ill-suppressed indignation, she said:
"My lord, the air of this room makes me ill. If you must smoke, can you not do so somewhere else?"
"Where?" questioned his lordship, taking the pipe from his mouth for an instant.
"Is there not a smoking room, reading room, or something of the sort, for gentlemen's accommodation?"
"In this place? Ha, ha, ha! Well, there is the taproom!"
"Then why not go there?" inquired Claudia, who had no very clear idea of what the taproom really was.
Lord Vincent's face flushed at what he seemed to think an intentional affront.
"I can go into the street," he said.
And he arose and put on his greatcoat and his cap, and turned up the collar of his coat and turned down the fall of his cap, so that but little of his face would be seen, and so walked out. Then Claudia raised the window to ventilate the room, and rang the bell to summon the waiter.