"I want to go to Egypt and India and see what is
happening in the East, all this wonderful waking up of the East, I
know nothing of the way the world is going-- . . ."
"India!" cried Lady Marayne. "The East. Poff, what is the MATTER
with you? Has something happened--something else? Have you been
having a love affair? --a REAL love affair?"
"Oh, DAMN love affairs!" cried Benham. "Mother!--I'm sorry, mother!
But don't you see there's other things in the world for a man than
having a good time and making love. I'm for something else than
that. You've given me the splendidest time-- . . ."
"I see," cried Lady Marayne, "I see. I've bored you. I might have
known I should have bored you."
"You've NOT bored me!" cried Benham.
He threw himself on the rug at her feet. "Oh, mother!" he said,
"little, dear, gallant mother, don't make life too hard for me.
I've got to do my job, I've got to find my job."
"I've bored you," she wept.
Suddenly she was weeping with all the unconcealed distressing grief
of a disappointed child. She put her pretty be-ringed little hands
in front of her face and recited the accumulation of her woes.
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