“Then,” said the Earl, “let me ask on behalf of Cyril that you will allow your son to spend a week at Bentley Hall.”
Mrs. Harcourt would have enjoyed being herself invited, but the invitation to Ben was the next thing to it, as he was supposed to be her son.
“Thank you for the invitation, my lord,” she said. “I am sure Edwin will enjoy visiting you.”
Ben’s evident intimacy with Cyril (for the two were quite inseparable) made him an object of attention among the other passengers, who paid court to him as a stepping-stone to acquaintance with the earl and his son.
One day a passenger, a New York merchant, said carelessly to Ben, “Do you know there is a striking resemblance between you and a boy who played last season in the People’s Theater on the Bowery?”
“Indeed!” said Ben. “What was his name?”
“I don’t remember. Mrs. Vincent, do you remember the name of that young actor?”
“It was Ben Bruce,” answered his wife.
“I shall hope to see him act some time,” said Ben, smiling.
“And I too,” added Cyril Bentley.