“The par value is forty thousand dollars,” Benton grinned.  “But the governor bought it at ten cents on the dollar.  If we get what he paid, we’ll be lucky.  That’ll be two thousand apiece.  I brought you a blank form.  I’m going down with you on the Bug to-morow to send mine.  I’d advise you to have yours signed up and witnessed before a notary at Hopyard and send it too.”

“Of course I will,” she said.

“It isn’t much,” Benton mused, leaning on the foot of the crib, watching her smooth the covers over little Jack.  “But it won’t come amiss—­to me, at least.  I’m going to be married in the spring.”

Stella looked up.

“You are?” she murmured.  “To Linda Abbey?”

He nodded.  A slight flush crept over his tanned face at the steady look she bent on him.

“Hang it, what are you thinking?” he broke out.  “I know you’ve rather looked down on me because I acted like a bounder that winter.  But I really took a tumble to myself.  You set me thinking when you made that sudden break with Jack.  I felt rather guilty about that—­until I saw how it turned out.  I know I’m not half good enough for Linda.  But so long as she thinks I am and I try to live up to that, why we’ve as good a chance to be happy as anybody.  We all make breaks, us fellows that go at everything roughshod.  Still, when we pull up and take a new tack, you shouldn’t hold grudges.  If we could go back to that fall and winter, I’d do things a lot differently.”

“If you’re both really and truly in love,” Stella said quietly, “that’s about the only thing that matters.  I hope you’ll be happy.  But you’ll have to be a lot different with Linda Abbey than you were with me.”

“Ah, Stella, don’t harp on that,” he said shame-facedly.  “I was rotten, it’s true.  But we’re all human.  I couldn’t see anything then only what I wanted myself.  I was like a bull in a china shop.  It’s different now.  I’m on my feet financially, and I’ve had time to draw my breath and take a squint at myself from a different angle.  I did you a good turn, anyway, even if I was the cause of you taking a leap before you looked.  You landed right.”

Stella mustered a smile that was purely facial.  It maddened her to hear his complacent justification of himself.  And the most maddening part of it was her knowledge that Benton was right, that in many essential things he had done her a good turn, which her own erratic inclinations bade fair to wholly nullify.

“I wish you all the luck and happiness in the world,” she said gently.  “And I don’t bear a grudge, believe me, Charlie.  Now, run along.  We’ll keep baby awake, talking.”

“All right.”  He turned to go and came back again.

“What I really came in to say, I’ve hardly got nerve enough for.”  He sank his voice to a murmur.  “Don’t fly off at me, Stell.  But—­you haven’t got a trifle interested in Monohan, have you?  I mean, you haven’t let him think you are?”