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Benis, dear old chap, cared nothing for women. Hadn't he always shunned them in his quiet way? And hadn't he, John, warned Benis, anyway? The Thought insisted upon the warning with virtuous emphasis. It pointed out that Benis had laughed at the warning. Even if but we need not follow John's excursions further.
She had kept it out. She had refused to know that it was there. She had been happy in spite of it. But now, when its time was fully come, it made small work of her frail barriers. It blundered in, leering and triumphant. Men have been mistaken before now. Men have turned aside in the very moment of victory. And Benis Spence was not a man who would beg or importune.
"There are two tents," said Aunt Caroline lowering her lorgnette. "I shall be quite comfortable." The doctor did not smile. His sense of humor was suffering from temporary exhaustion and his strongest consciousness was a feeling of relief that neither Benis nor anyone else appeared to notice their arrival.
"Dear Aunt Caroline," he read, "Benis will tell you why I am going. But I cannot go without thanking you. I'll never forget how good you have been Desire." "I had a feeling," said Aunt Caroline with mournful triumph. "It never deceives me, never! As I passed our dear girl's room this morning, I said, 'She is not there' and she wasn't!" "I think you mentioned that the door was open."
"What I really came out to say, Benis," resumed Aunt Caroline, "is that I have just had a long distance call Desire, my dear, cream or lemon? a long distance call from Toronto where, I fear, such things are allowed on Sunday Doctor, you like lemon, I think? a call in fact from Mary Davis. You remember her, Benis? Such a sweet girl.
You bring me to this beautiful home and you never, never once, allow me to thank you properly oh, I'm not going to do it, so don't look frightened. But one feels so safe here. Benis, it's years and years since I felt just safe." "I know. I swear every time I think of it" "Then you can guess a little of what it means?" Their hands were very close upon the window-sill.
For written large and in very black ink across the back was the admirably restrained autograph, "Benis, from Mary" ... Well, she knew now! A very different person, this, from the blond Miss Watkins with her hard blue eyes and too, too dewy lips! Here was a woman of character and charm. A woman fully armed with all the witchery of sex. A woman any man might love even Benis.
But no one, not even the giddiest flapper of them all, had said even that! Perhaps, incredible as it might seem, Bainbridge did not know about Mary? She had been, Desire remembered, a visitor there when Benis met her. Perhaps her stay had been brief. Perhaps the ill-fated courtship had taken place elsewhere? Even then, it seemed almost unbelievably stupid of Bainbridge not to have known something.
She could be a secretary, I'm sure. Benis could always correct things afterward. And she is not too young. Just about the right age, I should think. They used to know each other. But you know what Benis is. He simply doesn't your cold is quite distressing, Doctor. Do take a troche." The doctor took one. "Of course Benis may object to a lady secretary "
He served it much more regularly than dinner because sometimes there wasn't any dinner to serve. It was a great comfort the tea, I mean." "But how extraordinary! And a Chinaman, too." "I suppose my mother trained him." "And Vancouver isn't Bainbridge," put in Benis lazily. "A great many people there are more English than they are in England.
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