Page:Herbert Jenkins - Patricia Brent Spinster.djvu/295

 "Love, my lord, is like a disease. If you are on the look out for it you catch it, if you ignore it, it does not trouble you. I was once with a gentleman who was very nervous about microbes. He would never eat anything that had not been cooked, and he had everything about him disinfected. He even disinfected me," he added as if in proof of the extreme eccentricity of his late employer.

"So I suppose you despise me for having fallen in love and contemplating marriage," said Bowen with a smile.

"There are always exceptions, my lord," responded Peel tactfully. "I have prepared the bath."

"Peel," remarked Bowen as he rose and stretched himself, "disinfected or not disinfected, you are safe from the microbe of romance."

"I hope so, my lord," responded Peel as he opened the door.

"I wonder if history will repeat itself," murmured Bowen as he walked through his bedroom into the bathroom. "I, too, hate Eastbourne."