OF THIS TIME, OF THAT PLACE
Howe looked at him stupidly. "What do you mean?" he said.
"What's his trouble?" the Dean said more neutrally.
93
"He's very brilliant, in a way. I looked him up and he has a top
intelligence rating. But somehow, and it's hard to explain just how,
what he says is always on the edge of sense and doesn't quite make it."
The Dean looked at him and Howe flushed up. The Dean had surely
read Woolley on the subject of "the Howes" and the
tour d'ivresse.
Was
that quick glance ironical?
The Dean picked up some papers from his desk and Howl? could
see that they were in Tertan's impatient scrawl. Perhaps the little gleam
in the Dean's glance had come only from putting facts together.
"He sent me this yesterday," the Dean said. "After an interview
I had with
him.
I haven't been able to do more than glance at it. When
you said what you did, I realized there was something wrong."
Twisting his mouth, the Dean looked over the letter. "You seem
to
be
involved," he said without looking up. "By the way, what did
you give him at mid-term?"
Flushing, setting his shoulders, Howe said firmly, "I gave him
A-minus."
The Dean chuckled. "Might be a good idea
if
some of our nicer
boys went crazy-just a little." He said, "Well," to conclude the matter
and handed the papers to Howe. "See if this is the same thing you've
been finding. Then we can go into the matter again."
Before the fire in the parlor, in the chair that Howe had been
occupying, sat Blackburn. He sprang to his feet as Howe entered.
"I said my office, Mr. Blackburn." Howe's voice was sharp. Then
he was almost sorry for the rebuke, so clearly and naively did Blackburn
seem to relish his stay in the parlor, close to authority.
"I'm in a bit of a hurry, sir," he said, "and I did want to be sure
to speak to you, sir."
He was really absurd, yet fifteen years from now he would have
grown up to himself, to the assurance and mature beefiness. In banks,
in consular offices, in brokerage firms, on the bench, more seriously
affable, a little sterner, he would make use of his ability to be admin–
istered by his job. It was almost reassuring. Now he was exercising
is
too-great skill on Howe. "I owe you an apology, sir," he said.
Howe knew that he did but he showed surprise.
"I mean, Doctor, after your having been so kind about letting me
attend your class, I stopped coming." He smiled in deprecation. "Extra–
curricular activities take up so much of my time. I'm afraid I undertook
ore than I could perform."
Howe had noticed the absence and had been a little irritated by it
after Blackburn's elaborate plea. It was an absence that might be in–
rpreted as a comment on the teacher. But there was only one way for
· to answer. "You've no need to apologize," he said. "It's wholly
