Afterward, when the war was over and his terrible book,
_War_, appeared, no one was pleased, for the excellent reason that it
was published at a moment when the whole world wanted to forget
war entirely. The pay of a private, however, had not allowed him to
continue David's allowance, and so David, displaying unusual energy,
had found a job for himself as tutor for the summer to William Cord's
son. Ben had not quite approved of a life that seemed to him slightly
parasitical, but it was healthy and quiet and, above everything, David
had found it for himself, and initiative was so rare in the younger
man that Ben could not bear to crush it with disapproval.
Increasingly, during the two years he was in France, Ben was
displeased by David's letters. The Cords were described as kindly,
well-educated people, fond one of another, considerate of the tutor,
with old-fashioned traditions of American liberties. Ben asked himself
if he would have been better pleased if David's employers had
been cruel, vulgar, and blatant, and found the answer was in the
affirmative. It would, he thought, have been a good deal safer for
David's integrity if he had not been so comfortable.
For two summers Ben had made no protest, but the third summer, when
the war was over and the allowance again possible, he urged David not
to go back to Newport. David flatly refused to yield. He said he saw
no reason why he should go on taking Ben's money when this simple way
of earning a full living was open to him.
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