He found him smoking as usual, with a decanter at hand.

It was past midnight, and the room was in the disorder of a bachelor's sanctum.
Mr.Ele seated himself carelessly, so carelessly that Abel saw at once that he had come for some very particular purpose.

He offered his friend a tumbler and a cigar, and they talked nimbly of a thousand things.

Who had come, who had gone, and how superb Mrs.Delilah Jones was, who had suddenly appeared upon the scene, invested with mystery, and bringing a note to each of the colleagues from General Belch.
"Mrs.Delilah Jones," said that gentleman, in a private note to Ele, "is our old friend, Kitty Dunham.

She appears in Washington as the widow of a captain in the navy, who died a few years since upon the Brazil station.
She can be of the greatest service to us; and you must have no secrets from each other about our dear friend, who shall be nameless." To Abel Newt, General Belch wrote: "My dear Newt, the lady to whom I have given a letter to you is daughter of an old friend of my family.