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For you see, if he was right and Redwood was right, then by injecting or administering this new substance of his in food, he would do away with the "resting phase," and instead of growth going on in this fashion, The night after his conversation with Redwood Mr. Bensington could scarcely sleep a wink.
Bensington was very authoritative upon teaching though I am certain he would have been scared out of his wits by an average Board School class in half-an-hour and so far as I can remember now, he was propounding an improvement of Professor Armstrong's Heuristic method, whereby at the cost of three or four hundred pounds' worth of apparatus, a total neglect of all other studies and the undivided attention of a teacher of exceptional gifts, an average child might with a peculiar sort of thumby thoroughness learn in the course of ten or twelve years almost as much chemistry as one could get in one of those objectionable shilling text-books that were then so common....
Bensington sat at his window on a hard horse-hair-stuffed arm-chair, covered by a grubby antimacassar that had given a touch of social distinction to the Skinners' sitting-room for many years. His unaccustomed rifle rested on the sill, and his spectacles anon watched the dark bulk of the dead rat in the thickening twilight, anon wandered about him in curious meditation.
That of course was a ridiculous dream, but it shows the state of mental excitement into which Mr. Bensington got and the real value he attached to his idea, much better than any of the things he said or did when he was awake and on his guard. Or I should not have mentioned it, because as a general rule I do not think it is at all interesting for people to tell each other about their dreams.
There was young Caterham, for example, cousin of the Earl of Pewterstone, and one of the most promising of English politicians, who, taking the risk of being thought a faddist, wrote a long article in the Nineteenth Century and After to suggest its total suppression. And in certain of his moods, there was Bensington. "They don't seem to realise " he said to Cossar. "No, they don't." "And do we?
Redwood stood at the window and stared at a news placard on a paper-cart that rattled up the street. "What's the matter?" repeated Bensington, rising. Redwood exclaimed violently. "What is it?" said Bensington. "Get a paper," said Redwood, moving doorward. "Why?" "Get a paper. Something I didn't quite catch Gigantic rats !" "Rats?" "Yes, rats. Skinner was right after all!" "What do you mean?"
"Just as well, perhaps," said Winkles, after a momentary hard stare at Redwood "just as well." And then: "I can assure you I really don't mind in the least." When Winkles had gone Bensington came and stood on the hearth-rug and looked down at Redwood. "Her Serene Highness!" he remarked. "Her Serene Highness!" said Redwood. "It's the Princess of Weser Dreiburg!" "No further than a third cousin."
The rats flashed athwart the eye in sudden unexpected leaps, or ran with a movement of the feet so swift, they seemed to run on wheels. It was all over in half a minute. No one saw it but Bensington. He could hear the others behind him still receding towards the house. He shouted something inarticulate and then ran back towards Cossar, while the rats vanished. He came up to him outside the holes.
Henley affords an interesting study. At the time of the Conquest, Bensington was no longer, Henley not yet, a borough. To trace the growth of Henley is especially engrossing, because it is one of the very rare examples of a process which earlier generations of historians, and notably the popular historians like Freeman and the Rev. Mr Green, took to be a common feature in the story of this island.
Bensington slowly, and stared at the chick as he spoke. "I Say!" said Bensington, "he'll be Big." "I shall give him diminishing doses," said Redwood. "Or at any rate Winkles will." "It's rather too much of an experiment." "Much." "Yet still, you know, I must confess ... Some baby will sooner or later have to try it." "Oh, we'll try it on some baby certainly."
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