I paid the bill, and as I passed out with a fascinating bow I thought I detected a light in the woman's eye that was gently ironical; and when I looked back from the street, and she was laughing all to herself about something or other, I said to myself with withering sarcasm, "Oh, certainly; you know how to put on kid gloves, don't you?
A self-complacent ass, ready to be flattered out of your senses by every petticoat that chooses to take the trouble to do it!" The silence of the boys annoyed me.

Finally Dan said musingly: "Some gentlemen don't know how to put on kid gloves at all, but some do." And the doctor said (to the moon, I thought): "But it is always easy to tell when a gentleman is used to putting on kid gloves." Dan soliloquized after a pause: "Ah, yes; there is a grace about it that only comes with long, very long practice." "Yes, indeed, I've noticed that when a man hauls on a kid glove like he was dragging a cat out of an ash hole by the tail, he understands putting on kid gloves; he's had ex--" "Boys, enough of a thing's enough! You think you are very smart, I suppose, but I don't.

And if you go and tell any of those old gossips in the ship about this thing, I'll never forgive you for it; that's all." They let me alone then for the time being.

We always let each other alone in time to prevent ill feeling from spoiling a joke.

But they had bought gloves, too, as I did.