And then:
"Mrs. B. Hamilton Spence."
And then:
"Mrs. Benis H. Spence."
Over this last she sucked her pencil thoughtfully.
"One more!" prompted her husband encouragingly. "Don't decide before
you inspect our full line of goods."
"Initials, only, lack character," objected Desire. "There is nothing
distinctive about 'Mrs. B. H. Spence'. It doesn't balance well,
either. I think I'll decide upon the 'Benis H.' I like it--although
I have never heard of 'Benis' as a name before."
"You are not supposed to have heard of it," explained its owner
complacently. "It is a very exclusive name, a family name. My
mother's paternal grandmother was a Benis."
Desire was not attending. "Your nickname, too, is odd," she mused.
"How on earth could anyone make 'Beans' out of 'Benis Hamilton?'"
"Very easily--but how did you know that anyone had?"
"Oh, from a touching inscription on one of your books, 'To Beans--
from Bones.'"
"Well--there's a whole history in that. It happened by a well
defined process of evolution. When I went to school I had to have a
name. A school boy's proper name is no good to him. Proper names are
simply not done. But the christening party found my combination
rather a handful. No one could do anything with Benis and the
obvious shortening of Hamilton was considered too Biblical. 'Ham',
however, suggested 'Piggy'. This might have done had there not
already existed a 'Piggy' with a prior right.
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