temptation to reveal. Until after the tedious
dinner, a complete rainbow of dreams spanned the arc of my brain. Mr.
Somers dispersed it by asking Ben to go out on some errand. That it
was a pretext, I knew by Ben's expression; therefore, when he had gone
I turned to Mr. Somers an attentive face. First, he circumlocuted;
second, he skirmished. I still waited for what he wished to say,
without giving him any aid. He was sure, he said at last, that my
visit in his family had convinced me that his children could not vary
the destiny imposed upon them by their antecedents, without bringing
upon _others_ lamentable consequences. "Cunning pa," I commented
internally. Had I not seen the misery of unequal marriages?

"As in a glass, darkly."

Doubtless, he went on, I had comprehended the erratic tendency in
_Ben's_ character, good and honorable as he was, but impressive and
visionary. Did I think so?

"Quite the contrary. Have you never perceived the method of his
visions in an unvarying opposition to those antecedents you boast of?"

"Well, _well_, well?"

"Money, Family, Influence,--are a ding-dong bell which you must weary
of, Mr. Somers--sometimes."

"Ben has disappointed me; I must confess that."

"My sister is eccentric. Provided she marries him, the family
programme will be changed. You must lop him from the family tree."

He took up a paper, bowed to me with an unvexed air, and read a column
or so.

"It may be absurd," and he looked over his spectacle tops, as if
he had found the remark in his paper, "for parents to oppose the
marriages their children choose to make, and I beg you to understand
that I may _oppose_, not _resist_ Ben. You know very well," and he
dropped the paper in a burst of irritation and candor, "that the devil
will be to pay with Mrs. Somers, who has a right of dictation in the
affair. She does not suspect it. I must say that Ben is mistaking
himself again. I mean, I think so."

I looked upon him with a more friendly countenance. The one rude word
he had spoken had a wonderful effect, after the surprise of it was
over. Real eyes appeared in his face, and a truthful accent pervaded
his voice. I think he was beginning to think that he might confide his
perplexities to me on other subjects, when Ben returned. As it was,
a friendly feeling had been established between us. He said in a
confidential tone to Ben, as if we were partners in some guilty
secret, "You must mention it to your mother;