hours.

Thus a quarter, from being merely an odd piece of loose change, took
on a vital, tangible character of its own. Translated into smokes, it
gave a smoke a new value. He had started in to make a box of
cigarettes last a day; but he was now resolved to make them last two
days. This allowed him one after each meal and two in the evening.

If at first he had considered this a hardship, he was beginning to
appreciate the fact that it had its compensating advantages. This
morning, for instance, he felt that he had never tasted such good
tobacco in his life. Like his breakfast, it was a pleasure to be
prolonged--to give his thought to. He smoked slowly and carefully and
keenly. With his head against the back of his chair, he watched the
white cloudlets curl upward after he had inhaled their fragrance. This
was no dull habit indulged in automatically.

In this moment of indulgence his thoughts turned to Miss Winthrop. It
was nearing twelve, and perhaps this had something to do with it. He
was going to miss that luncheon hour. He had come to look forward to
it as quite the most interesting event of the day. From his
comfortable position before the fire, he wondered why.

It was impossible to say she had any definite physical attractions,
although her eyes were not bad. They piqued a man's curiosity, those
eyes. One remembered them. That was true also of her mouth. Don had no
very definite notion of its exact shape, but he remembered how it
surprised one by changing from the tenderness of a young girl's mouth
to the firmness of a man's a dozen times in the course of a few
minutes' conversation.

It was quarter-past twelve. If he had known her telephone number he
would have called her up now, just to say "Hello." He would be taking
a chance, however; for, as likely as not, she would inquire what he
was doing, and would, he felt sure, scold him for having so late a
breakfast.

Odd, that a woman should be so energetic! He had always thought of
them as quite the opposite. Leisureliness was a prerogative of the
sex. He had always understood that it was a woman's right to pamper
herself.

Undoubtedly she would object to his sitting on here before the open
fire. Farnsworth would not waste a morning like this--he seemed to
hear her telling him so. If he wanted that ten thousand a year, he
ought to be working on those circulars. A man was not paid for what he
didn't know. Here, with nothing else to do, was a good time to g