On the one hand, he chose topics not too flippant in themselves and treated them with a becomingly serious air; on the other, he carefully steered the talk away from the neighborhood of his uncle.
"By the time I fetch out my banjo they'll have forgotten all about him," he said to himself complacently.
Knowing well the importance of the individual factor in all the contingencies of life, he set himself, in the meanwhile, to study with some attention the two ladies beside him.

Miss Minchell he had already summarized as an agreeable nonentity, and this impression was only confirmed on better acquaintance.

It was quite evident, he perceived, that she was dragged practically unresisting in Miss Wallingford's wake--even to the length of abetting the visit of an unknown bachelor in the absence of Miss Wallingford's parent.
As for Julia, he decided that she was even better-looking and more agreeable than he had at first imagined; though, having the gayest of hearts himself, he was a trifle disconcerted to observe the uniform seriousness of her ideas.

How one could reconcile her ecstatic enthusiasm for the ideal with her evident devotion to himself he was at a loss to conceive.
"However, we will investigate that later," he thought.
But first came a more urgent question: Had his uncle and his "prefaces" committed him to forswear tobacco?
He resolved to take the bull by the horns.
"I hope you will not be scandalized to learn that I have acquired the pernicious habit of smoking ?" he said as they rose from the table.
"I told you he was smoking a cigar at Hechnahoul!" cried Miss Minchell with an air of triumph.
"I thought you were mistaken," said Julia, and the Count could see that he had slipped a little from his pedestal.
This must not be permitted; yet he must smoke.
"Of course I don't smoke REAL tobacco!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, in that case," cried Julia, "certainly then you may smoke in the drawing-room.

What is it you use ?" "A kind of herb that subdues the appetites, Miss Wallingford." He could see at a glance that he was more firmly on his pedestal than ever..