He craved rather permission to fill and light the calabash pipe.

This was a mere bit of form, for he was soon talking so continuously that the pipe was no longer a going concern.
Delay was occasioned at the beginning of the interview.

It proved to be difficult to convey to Dave exactly why he had been summoned.

It appeared that he did not expect a consultation--rather a lecture by Dave Cowan upon life in its larger aspects.

The Whipples, strangely, were all not a little embarrassed in his presence, and the mere mention of his son caused him to be informative for ten minutes before any of them dared to confine the flow of his discourse within narrower banks.
He dealt volubly with the doctrines espoused by Merle, whereas they wished to be told how to deal with Merle.