"Sorry. But give me time. I am new at this yet. Presently I shall be able to listen to Aunt describing my feelings as a grandfather without a quiver. Poor Aunt!"
"Why do you say 'poor Aunt'?"
"It is going to be rather a blow to her, you know."
"Do you think we ought to—tell her?"
"Good heavens, no!"
"But it seems so mean to let her go on believing things."
"Not half so mean as taking the belief from her. Besides—" He paused and Desire felt herself clutch, unaccountably, at the arm of her garden chair.
"She wouldn't understand," finished Benis.
Desire's grasp upon the chair relaxed.
"Life is like that," he went on slowly. "No matter how careful people are there is always someone who slips in and gets hurt. Our affairs are strictly our own affairs and yet—we stumble over Aunt Caroline and leave her indignant and disappointed and probably blaming Providence for the whole affair. It is just a curious instance of the intricacy of human relationships—you're not going in, are you?"