The opportunity presented itself.

It was necessary to profit by it.

Mrs.Weldon did profit by it.
Cousin Benedict--it need not be said--would accompany her.
This cousin was a worthy man, about fifty years of age.

But, notwithstanding his fifty years, it would not have been prudent to let him go out alone.

Long, rather than tall, narrow, rather than thin, his figure bony, his skull enormous and very hairy, one recognized in his whole interminable person one of those worthy savants, with gold spectacles, good and inoffensive beings, destined to remain great children all their lives, and to finish very old, like centenaries who would die at nurse.
"Cousin Benedict"-- he was called so invariably, even outside of the family, and, in truth, he was indeed one of those good men who seem to be the born cousins of all the world--Cousin Benedict, always impeded by his long arms and his long limbs, would be absolutely incapable of attending to matters alone, even in the most ordinary circumstances of life.