We had gone back to our chairs before the fireplace. I saw that Alan was quite puzzled over Ben’s history.
“Thinking of Ben?”
“Yes. Never figured him out that way,” he said meditatively. “You know, with all the antagonism he roused in me, I used to envy him his disposition.”
“Envy!”
“Yes; I figured out a fellow like that would go on ambling through life, getting just about what he wanted from it, not worried by ideas or having much to struggle with. Guess I don’t know so much about human nature, after all.”
“There’s a law of averages comes in, even with Ben.”
“Suppose so. Did he take it hard?”
I nodded.
“Curious. I always thought of Ben as some robber baron of the Middle Ages. I’d sort of expect him to rig up a gallows and see justice done in good old mousquetaire fashion.”