When Colonel Staveley, with his buxom Belle, returned from Cap d'Ail
and found no daughter to receive him, he was bewildered and shocked.
Still, as everything was comfortable and the servants were welcoming
and kind, and even more because it is not so simple or desirable to
lose one's temper in the presence of second wives as first, the Colonel
controlled himself; but when Ben called, he relaxed.
"I can't conceive why you aren't satisfied to go on here," he began.
"Your mo--I mean Belle--would be delighted to have you. She likes you,
I know. She's said so, often. She said so again only last night. And
you like her, don't you?"
"Yes," said Ben. "I do. But I don't think this is the place for me any
longer. So long as you were alone I was glad to do what I could; but
you've got Belle now. It's her house. It wouldn't be right--apart from
anything else--for me to live here now. I can't think why you don't see
that."
"She doesn't understand the servants as you did," said the Colonel.
"She--she doesn't understand me. Those sandwiches you used to cut me at
eleven--no one gets me those any more. I mean, not as they ought to be:
thin and soft and without crust."
"I'm sorry," said Ben.
"Sorry!" exclaimed the Colonel. "Sorry is as sorry does. If you really
were sorry you'd come back. Where are you pigging it, may I ask?"
"I'm sharing Melanie Ames's flat in Aubrey Walk," said Ben. "It comes
far cheaper and there's plenty of room. And as soon as I can"--here she
produced the bombshell--"I'm going to open a business."
For an old warrior the Colonel took the blow badly. He had no words at
all at first. "Business!" he then gasped; "what business?"
To his growing exasperation Ben told him our plans.
"Oh! he's in it," said her father, referring to my own modest financial
share, and adding, if I know anything about him, "I never cared for the
man, as you are probably aware."
He stamped up and down the room for a while and then began again.
"I'm not narrow-minded, thank God!" he declared. "Whatever else I may
be, I'm not narrow-minded; but I'm bound to say I don't think it's
quite fair to me to open an office of this sort. If you were taking
up the secretaryship of a ladies' golf club I shouldn't mind. I'm all
for women playing golf, so long as they have links of their own. Or a
secretaryship to an M.P., say, as long as it wasn't a damned Labour
member. But an office with a brass plate and your name--my name--on it,
no! I draw the line there."
"It won't have our name," said Ben. "It's to be called 'The Beck and
Call.'"
"Oh, is it?" he cried. "Is it? I like that! Colonel Staveley's daughter
advertising herself at anyone's beck and call. A nice pill for an old
soldier to swallow, a nice thing to explain away to one's friends."
Ben was silent for a while. Then, "I think you're taking it too
seriously," she said. "Many changes have come about since you were
young. The world has given up a lot of its sillinesses, and one of them
is the prejudice against people going into business. I am convinced
that no girl of twenty-two ought to be just a drone."
"I can't think why you never married," said the Colonel, peevishly.
"I suppose because it takes two to make a marriage," said Ben.
"You must have played your cards devilish badly," her father retorted.
"There's Alicia, she's married, even though her husband is dead. And
Merrill's married. And most of your cousins are married. I can't
understand what you've been doing."
"Some girls must be single," said Ben. "Why, there are millions more
women than men in this country alone. I read the figures only the other
day."
"It is the duty of every woman of spirit," said the Colonel,
oracularly, "not to be one of them. And what," he continued, "will you
do when all the money's gone?"
"I don't see why it shouldn't succeed," said Ben.
"Succeed!" the Colonel snorted.
"Well, some things succeed," said Ben. "Everything doesn't fail. Look
at the people round you: they're not all bankrupt."
"Very nearly," said the Colonel.
"They seem to have money for a good many frivolities and luxuries
still," said Ben. "Anyway, I mean to do my best to make it succeed. And
I hope," she added, "that if you're in any difficulty here you'll come
to 'The Beck and Call.' I must send Belle some cards when we're ready."
"You needn't trouble," said the Colonel. "If you ever see Belle or
myself on your premises or catch us recognizing this nonsense of yours,
I'll"--well, you know how that kind of man always finishes that kind
of sentence--"I'll eat my hat."
"Don't do that, father," said Ben. "Promise me a new one instead."
"With the greatest pleasure in the world," said the Colonel.