DURRANCE LETS HIS CIGAR GO OUT Captain Willoughby was known at his club for a bore.

He was a determined raconteur of pointless stories about people with whom not one of his audience was acquainted.

And there was no deterring him, for he did not listen, he only talked.

He took the most savage snub with a vacant and amicable face; and, wrapped in his own dull thoughts, he continued his copious monologue.

In the smoking-room or at the supper-table he crushed conversation flat as a steam-roller crushes a road.