And this in
spite of the fact that she had clung to the substituted photo-graph
with convincing stubbornness.
"Well--now you've got it, I hope you like it," she said a little
breathlessly. Her eyes were sparkling. She did not know what photo
she had picked up when she dropped the real one. 'Probably it was a
picture of Aunt Caroline herself or of some dear and departed
Spence. Benis would have some difficulty in tracing the cause of the
tears he had surprised. Fortunately he could always see a joke on
himself. It would be funny . . .
But it did not seem to be funny. Benis was not laughing. He had gone
quite grey.
"What is it, Benis?" in a startled tone. "You see it was just a
mistake? I was crying because--because I was sorry you were not
going on with the book. I just happened to have a photograph--" The
look in his eyes stopped her.
"Please don't," he said.
She took the card he held out to her, glanced at it, and choked back
a spasm of hysterical laughter. 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."
The girl's complete bewilderment at this was plain to anyone of
unbiased judgment.
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