Livia explains it to them. They are sitting on the settee again. She has poured Charlie a glass of water. No glass for Thomas. But then: Thomas isn’t convalescing.

“You went to London,” she starts. “We heard about it, of course. My whole school was talking about it. Your Trip. A daring experiment for a better future. Most of the girls were jealous.”

“That’s because they don’t know what it is like,” Charlie interjects. “It was horrible.”

“Was it?”

Livia says it with peculiar emphasis. Her eyes are on Thomas. He thinks about it.

“It was horrible,” Thomas repeats Charlie’s phrase. “But also: a liberation. You could not help but sin. So you are free to behave like a cad.”

Livia nods. “Mother says, when there are government contracts for work in the cities, the gentlemen line up to do it. Of course, the official line is that it is a sacrifice they are making, ‘for the commonweal.’ Sometimes, Mother says, ladies go on weekend jaunts to London. For ‘charity.’”

There is contempt in her voice. She seems to hate hypocrisy as much as Smoke.

“That’s crazy,” Charlie insists. “It turns you inside out, the city. You lose yourself, become someone else. It makes you evil.”

“Just so. Apparently one view has it that evil has its joys. But of course one cannot risk total dissipation. Nor undo all those years of schooling the senses.”

Livia’s anger is so palpable now, Thomas almost expects her to smoke.

Almost.

“Since going to London is inconvenient, many a gentleman has looked for a more controlled way of sampling vice.”

“A cigarette’s length of sin!” Thomas shakes his head, half amused, half disgusted. “So school really works, eh? They take you in at eleven, and for every wisp of Smoke you get a black mark against your name. By the time you finish, you’ve become so very disciplined, you are incapable of letting yourself go. Oh, sure you smoke on occasion, but it’s weak, a mere hiccup. Even when you long for it, you can no longer find it, your inner pig.”

He looks from Livia to Charlie. Charlie didn’t need much schooling to become good, Thomas thinks. He was born that way.

Thomas is less sure about Livia.

“So it’s sweets when you want to avoid infection and cigarettes for leisure,” he continues. “And just like that you have mastered the Smoke! So when do they do it then? These gentlemen you’re talking about? And gentlewomen. When do they decide it’s time to take a holiday from being good?”

He has Livia’s attention now. She is unflinching. “When they want to seduce their chambermaids. Or their husband’s valets.”

“Or rob,” Thomas adds. “Or kill.”

“You could kill without Smoke,” Charlie whispers. “If it were righteous.”