OF THIS TIME, OF THAT PLACE
87
"If
the society of the time had progressed far enough in science,"
De
Witt went 'm, "then there would be no problem for Mr. Ibsen to write
about. Captain Alving plays around a little, gives way to perfectly
natural biological urges, and he gets a social disease, a venereal disease.
If
the disease is cured, no problem. Invent salvarsan and the disease is
cured. The problem of heredity disappears and li'l Oswald just doesn't
get paresis. No paresis, no problem-no problem, no play."
This was carrying the ark into battle and the class looked at De Witt
with respectful curiosity. It was his usual way and on the whole they
were sympathetic with his struggle to prove to Howe that science was
better than literature. Still, there was something in his reckless manner
that alienated them a little.
"Or take birth-control, for instance," De Witt went on.
"If
Mrs.
Alving had some knowledge of contraception, she wouldn't have had to
have li'l Oswald at all. No li'l Oswald, no play."
The class was suddenly quieter. In the back row Stettenhover swung
his great football shoulders in a righteous sulking gesture, first to the
right,
then to the left. He puckered his mouth ostentatiously. Intellect was
always ending up by talking dirty.
Tertan's hand went up and Howe said, "Mr. Tertan." The boy
ahambled to his feet and began his long characteristic gulp. Howe made
a
motion with his fingers, as small as possible, and Tertan ducked his
head and smiled in apology. He sat down. The class laughed. With
more than half the term gone, Tertan had not been able to remember
that
one did not rise to speak. He seemed unable to carry on the life
of the intellect without this mark of respect for it. To Howe the boy's
habit of rising seemed to accord with the formal shabbiness of his dress.
Be
never wore the casual sweaters and jackets of his classmates. Into
lhe
free and comfortable air of the college classroom he brought the
ltUfly sordid strictness of some crowded metropolitan high school.
"Speaking from one sense," Tertan began slowly, "there is no blame
ucribable. From the sense of determinism, who can say where the blame
lies?
The preordained is the preordained and it cannot be said without
rebellion against the universe, a palpable absurdity."
In
the back row Stettenhover slumped suddenly in his seat, his heels
ld out before him, making a loud dry disgusted sound. His body sank
1ntil
his neck rested on the back of his chair. He folded his hands across
· belly and looked significantly out of the window, eXasperated not
ly with Tertan but with Howe, with the class, with the whole system
igned to encourage this kind of thing. There was a certain insolence in
movemer.t a::d Howe flushed. As Tertan continued to speak, Howe
lked casually toward the window and placed himself in the line of
ttenhover's vision. He stared at the great fellow, who pretended not
aee him. There was so much power in the big body, so much contempt
the Greek-athlete face under the crisp Greek-athlete curls, that Howe felt
ost
physical fear. But at last Stettenhover admitted him to focus and
