He walked very slowly downstairs. His brow was knit in thought.
Mr. Bennison was still talking to Mrs. Brown in the drawing-room.
“Oh, yes, that is one of my very firmest tenets. I have laid stress on that in all my books. The child’s curiosity must always be appeased. No matter at what awkward time the child propounds the question, he or she must be answered courteously and fully. Curiosity must be appeased the moment it appears. If a child came to me in the middle of the night for knowledge,” he laughed uproariously at his joke, “I trust I should give it to the best of my ability, fully, and—er—as I said.... Ah, here, is our little Willie-for-short.”
Still holding his “Child’s Encyclopædia of Knowledge,” William turned and quickly left the room.
*****
Mr. Bennison had had a good dinner and a pleasant talk with Ethel before he came to bed.
The talk had been chiefly on his side, but he preferred it that way. He was thinking how pleasant would be a life in which he could talk continuously to Ethel, while he looked at her blue eyes and auburn hair.
He wrote a chapter of his new book, heading it “Common Mistakes in the Treatment of Children.”
He insisted in that chapter that children should be treated with reverence and respect. He laid down his favourite rule: “A child’s curiosity must be immediately satisfied when and where it appears, irrespective of inconvenience to the adult.”
Then he got into bed.