I decided at that
moment I would respect her objections and only shake hands with William
in future. I am sure she preferred it, and I should hate to displease
her.
Besides, beards do rasp one so.
Henry now emerged from the study full of hearty greeting and
_bonhomie_. He seemed less surprised at William's altered appearance
than I did, and was certainly more pleased about it.
'What made you let him do it?' I said reproachfully to Marion when we
were alone, 'he was a really handsome man before, and now----'
'That's just it,' she interrupted, 'he was too handsome, and it wasn't
safe for him.'
'Not safe, Marion?'
'Women wouldn't leave him alone--they all flirted with him. It would
have been all right if he'd been used to it before, but getting
good-looking so suddenly unbalanced him. From a kind of puzzled wonder
that he should thus attract the opposite sex, he began to develop an
interest in what he termed "their bewildering number of types." He
said he used to think they were all exactly alike. It was when he
declared his intention of writing a eulogy on woman that I stepped in
and insisted on his letting his beard grow again. Don't you think I
acted for the best?'
'No doubt you did,' I said pensively, 'but he had such an attractive
mouth.'
Marion regarded me severely. 'That's what all the other women seemed
to think. I feel I was justified in protecting him.
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