Trist laughed in a fill-up-the-gap style, and busied himself with a tea-pot, once the property of his landlady's grandmother, and correspondingly ugly. This versatile man's ways were not new to Mrs. Wylie; but she smiled to herself, in the way people smile when they are busy collecting materials for a good story, as she watched him pour out the tea and manœuvre the kettle. It did not seem to enter his head that four men out of five would have asked the lady's assistance in such a case. Perhaps (for women note such things) she also remembered afterwards that he had no need to inquire after her taste respecting cream and sugar, but acted boldly, yet unobtrusively, upon knowledge previously acquired.
'And now,' she said in a determined way when the cups were filled, 'light your pipe.'
'I do not think,' answered he with mock hesitation, 'that such a proceeding would be strictly approved of by the laws of etiquette.'
'It is etiquette, my friend, to do exactly what a lady may wish. I would rather you smoked, because I want to talk to you seriously—a pastime I rarely indulge in—and I think tobacco would assist a contemplative attention on your part. I almost wish I could smoke myself. It would facilitate matters.'
In ratio to the increase of the lady's gravity her companion's spirits seemed to rise.
'After that,' he replied gaily, 'I am dumb, and ... light my strongest pipe.'
This threat he carried out to the letter. While Mrs. Wylie sipped her excellent tea and appeared to be searching in her mind for a suitable manner of beginning that which she had to say, he continued to puff softly, preserving a characteristic silence, and vouchsafing that contemplative attention which she had desired.
'Theo,' said Mrs. Wylie at length with an intonation upon the single word which, by some subtle means, caused him to lay aside all attempts at hilarity.
'Yes?' he replied, removing the pipe from his lips and looking across the table at her with meek inquiry.
Most people would have thought from his tone and manner that he was ready and willing to accede at once to any proposition, to follow any course of action, to obey without complaint or hesitation; but, as hinted on a previous page, Mrs. Wylie knew the ways of this man.