He was surprised. Beth saw it; saw, too, that he had observed how Bedient talked to her last night. Mrs. Wordling had not missed comment here…. Cairns must not think, however, that she would avoid Andrew Bedient. She fell into her old resource of laughing at the whole matter.
"I can't afford to take any chances, David. He's too attractive. Falling in love is pure dissipation to one of my temperament, and I have too many contracts to fill. I'm afraid of your sailor-man. Think of the character you built about him to-day in this room. If he didn't prove up to that, what a pity for us all! And if he did, what a pity for poor Beth, if he started coming here!… Anyway, I've ceased to be a bachelor-girl. I'm a spinster…. That word hypnotizes me. I'm all ice again. I shall know Mr. Bedient ethically and not otherwise."
Cairns laughed with her, but something within hurt. His relation with Beth Truba had been long, and increasingly delightful, since the ordeal of becoming just a friend was safely past. He realized that only a beautiful woman could speak this way, even in fun to an old friend…. His work dealt with wars, diplomacy and politics; his fictions were twenty-year-old appeals, so that Beth felt her present depth of mood to be fathoms deeper than his story instinct.
"You know, David, I've said for years there were no real lovers in the world," she went on lightly. "But your friend was full of touches last night such as one dreams of: that colored pane in the hall-way, when he was a little boy somewhere, and the light that frightened him from it…. 'One of the Chinese knifed me, but he died.'… That big 'X' of the Truxton flung stern up, as she sank; … and about the old Captain wriggling his shoulder bashfully for his young friend's arm at the last…. It is altogether enticing, in the light of what you have brought to-day. Really you must take him away. Red-haired spinsters mustn't be bothered, nor imprisoned in magic spring weather. When does he return to his Island?"
"He hasn't spoken of that, but I do know, Beth, that Bedient will never sink back into the common, from your first fine impressions. I've known him for years, you see——"
She put down her brush and said theatrically, "I feel the fatal premonitive impulses…. Spinster, spinster; Beth Truba, spinster!… That's my salvation."
"You're the finest woman I know," Cairns said. "You know best, but I doubt if Bedient will go back to Equatoria without seeing more of you——"
"Did he speak of such a thing?"
"That isn't his way——"
"I am properly rebuked."