or cigarettes. The kitten eats what she can, and my chipmunk thinks them invaluable for his next winter's store. But I still find the ends about everywhere."
"You always exaggerate so infernally," growled Ducane.
"If you came out of that cloud of smoke you'd call it by another name," said Dick. "Where is the chipmunk, Mrs. Ducane? I haven't seen him since he bit my finger, and I've been afraid to ask for fear he'd died of it. Do you remember Cowper's 'Mad Dog'? There the man recovered from the bite. But it killed the dog."
He continued to talk; lightly, casually, though he missed little of what Ducane did or said. This smoking at meal-times proved that Ducane's nerves were rapidly getting beyond self-control. And the furtive look in his eyes proved the same. The man was on the verge of a big coup or an utter breakdown. Either was equally likely to affect him in this way. But whichever it was Dick hoped that the matter would not be taken out of his own hands. The instinct of the chase was too strong in him. He knew that he could not let go now. Then he looked at Jennifer in the lamplight with all the daintiness of the carefully-arranged table about her, and the cynicism in his blood brought the faint smile to his eyes. Life did this kind of thing to him always. It never gave him the sweet without the bitter. But Jennifer was a woman only; neither stronger nor wiser than other women. And she was an unhappy one also.
In the sitting-room later Ducane was smoking cigarettes.
He smoked them rapidly, flinging them into the fire half-burnt out. And he walked through the room in restless irritation, tossing a word into the conversation now and again, and contradicting Dick rudely. Dick was well accustomed to this. Jennifer never asked anyone else to her home now, but she had ceased to mind Dick. Indeed, without understanding why, she found comfort in his presence.
In a tall, grey jar on the floor big branches of pussy-willow showed palely, scenting the room with spring. Ducane brushed once against them as he walked, and he turned, with a curse, kicking the jar over.
