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Updated: June 23, 2025
We then repeated again the litanies of the Providences, and the "BENIS," &c. Then we kissed the floor, and rising, took our work, with leave to converse on permitted subjects; that is what is called recreation till one o'clock. We then began to repeat litanies, one at a time in succession, still engaged at sewing, for an hour.
Benis, as his friend knew, was an expert amateur photographer but he never perched his photographs upon stands. This one must be an exception, and exceptions are illuminating. It was still quite light inside the tent and the doctor could see the picture clearly. It was an extraordinarily good one, quite in the professor's happiest style. Composition, lighting, timing, all were perfect.
It was fresher there, and she was restless. The front of the house lay in darkness, but, from the library window at the side, stretched a ribbon of light. Benis must be still at work. With slippers which made no sound upon the grass, Mary crossed over to the window and looked in.
"Stares at you polite enough but never says anything. No conversation. Just about as lively as an undertaker." But if Benis had forgotten to remove his eyes from the travelling man, he did not know it. He did not see him.
She spoke to Miss Campion but her slightly mocking eyes watched for some change upon the face of her young hostess. Desire, as usual, was serene. "Mary thinks we are all heathens not to have a car," said Benis. "When are you going to choose yours, Desire?" "Not at all, I think," said Desire. Men, even clever men, are like that. The professor had seen no possible sting in his idly spoken words.
"I don't want to be any more heathen than I have to be," went on Desire, "but I must be terribly heathen if what Mr. McClintock said this morning is right. He was speaking of pain, physical pain, and, he said God sent it. I always thought," she concluded naively, "that it came straight from the devil." "Healthy chap, McClintock!" said Benis lazily.
And Mary, whose love of the chase grew as the quarry proved shy, was beginning to be seriously annoyed with Benis. He might at least play up! Even now he was not looking at her, and he did not ask her what it was that she simply did not understand. Mary decided that he deserved something a pin-prick at least. "Why don't you get a car, Benis?" she asked inconsequently.
But it is a poor lover who can't find a better beginning than that ... And what could Desire do, with towels in one hand and soap in the other? When he released her at last, blushing and glowing, it was to find the most urgent need for explanation past. "Idiots, weren't we?" asked Benis happily. Desire agreed. But her eyes questioned. "There isn't any Mary, you see," he told her hastily.
For it wasn't a picture of Aunt Caroline, or even of a departed Spence it was a picture of Dr. John Rogers! "Gracious!" said Desire. There seemed to be nothing else to say. "Well," she ventured after a perplexed pause, "you can see that I couldn't be crying over John, can't you?" "I can see no need why you should;" said Benis slowly. "I'm afraid I have been very blind."
In rising amazement. "It is a detail." Aunt Caroline's voice was somewhat tart. "I could scarcely travel unaccompanied." "Surely not. But really was there no lady friend " "Don't be absurd, Benis!" But she was obscurely conscious of a check. Against the disturbed surprise of her nephew's attitude her sharpened weapons had already turned an edge.
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