Paradise Garden | Page 4

"I was positive of it."
"I can't imagine how you reach that conclusion," I put in rather tartly,
still reminiscent of the rubber stamp.
"Oh," he said, his eye twinkling, "simplest thing in the world. The
governor's rather brief with those he doesn't like."
"Brief! I feel as though I'd just emerged from a glacial douche."
"Oh, he's nippy. But he never misses a trick, and he got your number all
O.K."
As we reached the street I took his hand.
"Thanks, Ballard," I said warmly. "It's been fine of you, but I'm sorry

that I can't share your hopes."
"Rot! The thing's as good as done. There's another executor or two to
be consulted, but they'll be glad enough to take the governor's judgment.
You'll hear from him tomorrow. In the meanwhile," and he thrust a
paper into my hands, "read this. It's interesting. It's John Benham's brief
for masculine purity with a few remarks (not taken from Hegel) upon
the education and training of the child."
We had reached the corner of the street when he stopped and took out
his watch.
"Unfortunately this is the Thursday that I work," he laughed, "and it's
past two o'clock, so good-by. I'll stop in for you tomorrow," and with a
flourish of the hand he left me.
Still dubious as to the whole matter, which had left me rather
bewildered, when I reached my shabby room I took out the envelope
which Ballard had handed me and read the curious paper that it
contained.
As I began reading this remarkable document (neatly typed and
evidently copied from the original in John Benham's own hand) I
recognized some of the marks of the Platonic philosophy and read with
immediate attention. Before I had gone very far it was quite clear to me
that the pedagogue who took upon himself the rearing of the infant
Benham, must himself be a creature of infinite wisdom and discretion.
As far as these necessary qualifications were concerned, I saw no
reason why I should refuse. The old man's obvious seriousness of
purpose interested me.
"It is my desire that my boy, Jeremiah, be taught simple religious truths
and then simple moral truths, learning thereby insensibly the lessons of
good manners and good taste. In his reading of Homer and Hesiod the
tricks and treacheries of the gods are to be banished, the terrors of the
world below to be dispelled, and the misbehavior of the Homeric
heroes are to be censured.

"If there is such a thing as original sin--and this I beg leave to doubt,
having looked into the eyes of my boy and failed to find it there--then
teaching can eradicate it, especially teaching under such conditions as
those which I now impose. The person who will be chosen by my
executors for the training of my boy will be first of all a man of the
strictest probity. He will assume this task with a grave sense of his
responsibility to me and to his Maker. If after a proper period of time
he does not discover in his own heart a sincere affection for my child,
he will be honest enough to confess the truth, and be discharged of the
obligation. For it is clear that without love, such an experiment is
foredoomed to failure. To a man such as my mind has pictured,
affection here will not be difficult, for nature has favored Jerry with
gifts of mind and body."
Everywhere in John Benham's instructions there were signs of a deep
and corroding cynicism which no amount of worldly success had been
able to dispel. Everywhere could be discovered a hatred of modern
social forms and a repugnance for the modern woman, against whom
he warns the prospective tutor in language which is as unmistakable as
the Benham Wall. It pleased me to find at least one wise man who
agreed with me in this particular. Until the age of twenty-one, woman
was to be taboo for Jerry Benham, not only her substance, but her
essence. Like the mention of hell to ears polite, she was forbidden at
Horsham Manor. No woman was to be permitted to come upon the
estate in any capacity. The gardeners, grooms, gamekeepers, cooks,
house servants--all were to be men at good wages chosen for their
discretion in this excellent conspiracy. The penalty for infraction of this
rule of silence was summary dismissal.
I read the pages through until the end, and then sat for a long while
thinking, the wonderful possibilities of the plan taking a firmer hold
upon me. The Perfect Man! And I, Roger Canby, should make him.
CHAPTER II
JERRY

With Ballard the elder, to whom and to those plutocratic associates, as
had been predicted, my antecedents and acquirements had proven
satisfactory, I journeyed