134 ST NICOTINE 



ever, to smother the emotion; but the spectacle presented to 

 their imagination of wives boxing their husbands' ears for 

 daring to smoke in their presence without leave, and all the 

 varied scenes of the battle of the pipes fought over the 

 domestic hearth, was too much for them. Warming to the 

 subject the bellicose little gentleman exclaimed, ' The 

 enemy outside our gates we can grapple with and over- 

 throw, but a Western idea, and a fickle one like this, who 

 can seize and vanquish ? I have myself but recently suffered 

 through this innovation, but it shall be the last time.' And 

 he so far forgot his native politeness as to declare that he 

 would smoke when and where he pleased, and if the ladies 

 did not like it they might leave the room. He added, ' I 

 do so in virtue of my right as a man. The assumed right 

 of the women in Europe to determine whether a man may 

 smoke or not is an unwarrantable licence, and is all put 

 on in order to bring men under their authority in other 

 and more important affairs ; in any case, it subtracts from 

 the power of men, and there can surely be no reason in this, 

 as it involves limitations to their authority which must 

 inevitably provoke confusion and conflict. I can find no 

 reason for making distinctions — for smoking before men 

 and not before women when it is not a thing forbidden by 

 law or morals.' The ladies endeavoured to soothe the 

 ruffled feelings of their irate host ; they assured him that 

 nothing is farther from the thoughts of intelligent gentle- 

 women than the folly of trying to subvert the order of 

 nature ; that the deference paid to ladies in such matters 

 by their kinsmen is the outcome of good breeding, and it 

 is always appreciated in that sense. ' There are a few 

 women, perhaps, who having much time and little to do 

 make it their hobby to cry out for the unattainable, and 

 whom the gods may some day punish by giving them what 



