Ann regarded the article so
essential to Mr. Grey's comfort. She disliked all forms of tobacco use,
and the law of the pipe had long ago been settled at Grey Pine as Mrs.
Penhallow decreed, because that was always what James Penhallow decided
to think desirable.
"But this! this!" murmured the little lady, as she came down the
staircase ready for dinner. She rang for the maid. "Take that thing away
and wash it well, and put in fresh sawdust twice a day."
"I hope John has been a good host," she said, as Grey entered the hall.
"Couldn't be better, and I have had some delightful rides. I found the
mills interesting--in fact, most instructive." He spoke in short
childlike sentences unless excited by politics.
Mrs. Ann noted without surprise the free use of whisky, and later the
appreciative frequency of resort to Penhallow's Madeira. A glass of wine
at lunch and after dinner were her husband's sole indulgence. The larger
potations of her cousin in no way affected him. He talked as usual to
Mark Rivers and John about horses, crops and the weather, while Mrs. Ann
listened to the flow of disconnected trifles in some wonder as to how
James Penhallow would endure it. Grey for the time kept off the danger
line of politics, having had of late such variously contributed knowledge
as made him careful.
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