It was understood that the gentlemen might smoke, though the formality of asking permission of the ladies, and being urged by them, always took place.

Mr.
Denner's weekly remark to the Misses Woodhouse in this connection, as he stood ready to strike a match on the hearth of the big fireplace, was well known.

"When ladies," he would say, bowing to each sister in turn, with his little heels close together and his toes turned well out,--"when ladies are so charitable to our vices, we will not reform, lest we lose the pleasure of being forgiven." Mr.Denner smoked a cigar, but Mr.Dale always drew from his pocket a quaint silver pipe, very long and slender, and with an odd suggestion of its owner about it; for he was tall and frail, and his thin white hair, combed back from his mild face, had a silvery gleam in the lamplight.

Often the pipe would be between the pages of a book, from the leaves of which Lois would have to shake the loose ashes before putting it back in his pocket.
The whist party sat in high-backed chairs about a square mahogany table, whose shining top betokened much muscle on the part of Sally.

At each corner was a candle in a tall silver candlestick, because Miss Deborah objected to a shadow on the board, which would have been cast by a hanging lamp.