She found the atmosphere clear after her second visit.

The women began to talk, and the children collected in groups and listened with cheerful grins.
She could pick up little Jane's kitten, or give a pat to small Thomas' mongrel dog, in a manner which threw down barriers.
"Don't put out your pipe," she said to old Grandfather Doby, rising totteringly respectful from his chimney-side chair.

"You have only just lighted it.

You mustn't waste a whole pipeful of tobacco because I have come in." The old man, grown childish with age, tittered and shuffled and giggled.
Such a joke as the grand young lady was having with him.

She saw he had only just lighted his pipe.