OF THIS TIME, OF THAT PLACE
81
and hand as if to say that such amenities were beside the point.
Nevertheless he did take the chair. He put his ragged crammed
briefcase between his legs. His face, which Howe now observed
fully for the first time, was confusing, for it was made up of
florid curves, the nose arched in the bone and voluted in the
nostril, the mouth loose and soft and rather moist. Yet the face
was so thin and narrow as to seem the very type of asceticism.
Lashes of unusual length veiled the eyes and, indeed, it seemed as
if there were a veil over the whole countenance. Before the words
actually came, the face screwed itself into an attitude of prep·
aration for them.
"You can confer with me now?" Tertan said.
"Yes, I'd be glad to. There are several things in your two
themes I want to talk to you about." Howe reached for the packet
of themes on his desk and sought for Tertan's. But .the boy was
waving them away.
"These are done perforce," he said. "Under the pressure
of your requirement. They are not significant, mere duties."
Again his great hand flapped vaguely to dismiss his themes. He
leaned forward and gazed at his teacher.
"You are," he said, "a man of letters? You are a poet?"
It
was more declaration than question.
"I should like to think so," Howe said.
At first Tertan accepted the answer with a show of appre–
ciation, as though the understatement made a secret between him–
self and Howe. Then he chose to misunderstand. With his shrewd
and disconcerting contr,ol of expression, he presented to Howe a
puzzled grimace. "What does that mean?" he said.
Howe retracted the irony. "Yes. I am a poet." It sounded
strange to say.
"That," TeHan said, "is a wonder." He corrected himself
with his ducking head. "I mean that is wonderful."
Suddenly he dived at the miserable briefcase between his
legs, put it on his knees and began to fumble with the catch, all
intent on the difficulty it presented. Howe noted that his suit was
worn
thin, his shirt almost unclean. He became aware, even, of a
vague and musty odor of garments worn too long in unaired rooms.
Tertan conquered the lock and began to concentrate upon a search
(Continued on page 84)
