As time went on, the thing which fed the mistaken thoughts of both
Benis and John was the change in desire herself. That she was
increasingly unhappy was evident to both. And why should she be
unhappy--unless?
To John Rogers, that summer remained the most distracting summer of
his life. Desire should have seen this--would have seen it had her
mind-roads not been closed by their own obsession. The probability
is that she did not consciously think of John at all. He was there
and he was kind. She saw nothing farther than that.
The relationship between the two men remained apparently the same
and indeed it is likely that, in the main, their conception one of
the other did not change. To Benis, John's virtues were still as
real and admirable as ever. To John, Benis was still a bit of a
mystery and a bit of a hero>. (There were war stories which John
knew but had never dared to tell, lest vengeance befall him.) But,
these basic things aside, there were new points of view. Seen as a
possible mate for Desire, Benis found John most lamentably lacking.
Seen in the same light, Benis to John was undesirable in the
extreme. "If it could only be someone more subtle than John,"
thought Benis. And, "If only old Benis were a bit more stable,"
thought John. Both were insincere, since no possible combination of
qualities would have satisfied either.
Of this fatally misled quartette, Mary Davis was perhaps the one
most open to reason.
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