OF THIS TIME, OF THAT PLACE
97
"I'd like to know. I'd prefer believing that you were bluffing to
believing that you really thought this."
Blackburn's eyebrows went up. From the height of a great and
firm-based idea he looked at his teacher. He clasped the crags for a
moment and then pounced, craftily, suavely. "Do you mean, Dr. Howe,
that
there aren't two opinions possible?"
It
was superbly done in its air of putting all of Howe's intellectual
life into the balance. Howe remained patient and simple. "Yes, many
opinions are possible, but not this one. Whatever anyone believes of
'The Ancient Mariner,' no one can in reason believe that it represents
1 -
a honey-sweet world in which we can relax."
"But that is what I
feel,
sir."
This was well done too. Howe said, "Look, Mr. Blackburn. Do
you really relax with hunger and thirst, the heat and the sea-serpents,
the dead men with staring eyes, Life in Death and the skeletons? Come
now, Mr. Blackburn."
Blackburn made no answer and Howe pressed forward. "Now you
say
of Wordsworth, 'Of peasant stock himself, he turned from the effete
life of the salons and found in the peasant the hope of a flaming revolu–
tion which would sweep away all the old ideas. This is the subject of
hia
best poems'."
Beaming at his teacher with youthful eagerness, Blackburn said,
"Yes, sir, a rebel, a bringer of light to suffering mankind. I see him
a
a kind of Prothemeus."
"A kind of what?"
"Prothemeus, sir."
"Think, Mr. Blackburn. We were talking about him only today and
I mentioned his name a dozen times. You don't mean Prothemeus. You
mean-"
Howe waited but there was no response.
"You mean Prometheus."
Blackburn gave no assent and Howe took the reins. "You've done
1
bad job here, Mr. Blackburn, about as bad as could be done." He saw
Blackburn stiffen and his genial face harden again. "It shows either a
lack
of preparation or a complete lack of understanding." He saw
Blackburn's face begin to go to pieces and he stopped.
"Oh, sir," Blackburn burst out, "I've never had a mark like this
before, never anything below a B, never.
A
thing like this has never
uppened to me before."
It
must be true, it was a statement too easily verified. Could it be
that
other instructors accepted such flaunting nonsense? Howe wanted
to
end the interview. "I'll set it down to lack of preparation,'' he said.
"I know you're busy. That's not an excuse but it's an explanation. Now
111ppose you really prepare and then take another quiz in two weeks.
We'll
forget this one and count the other."
Blackburn squirmed with pleasure and gratitude. "Thank you, sir.
You're really very kind, very kind."
