HERBERT GOLD
125
hid his crimes even from himseI£? I slumped into existential trauma. High
above Cayuga's waters,
I
was in the pink of trouble.
At first
all
I could say was:
"No."
"Okay, let's test this out," said impartial, slender, imperceptibly
thicker
C.
Provost. "On which weekends did Professor Gold go, uh, in
the ... hotel with you, Penelope?"
She had a list of weekends, stormy afternoons, terrific midnights.
I had a friend in New York. I had come armed with records of
chartering a small plane on one of those weekends - grandiose birthday
gesture - and on another my friend from New York was registered at
the Faculty Club. The top private eye of Ithaca stated - affadavit on
yellow paper - that
I
was a smart customer who had managed to give
him
the slip.
"Ah,"
said the Provost, "so we have here a puzzle."
Perhaps, Dr. Watson, but Visiting Professor Sherlock has the answer:
THE GIRL IS NUTS.
"And has anyone ever seen you with Professor Gold?" the Provost
asked.
"Oh no, of course not, that would just ruin his reputation," she an–
swered. "The doctor said we could never be seen together, never, ever,
never. But our love was all the deeper."
"Ab. He said that." She nodded vigorously. "But then could any–
body verify by ocular analysis" - he turned to the parents:
"Seeing
-
that
Professor Gold and you ... ?"
"Of course not, such would be impossible," she said. "But our love
would be - "
"Yes, yes, of course," said the Provost. "All the deeper. Yuh."
"And he tried to do almost the same thing with another girlfriend
of mine. That made me so mad."
"Who?" I asked. "Who, who, who?"
She named the friend. I had never heard of her. Penelope said: "He
stopped her in the snow, touched her hair, and asked her for her tele–
phone number. That really burned me up. That really teed me off. He
stroked her hair so softly, so gently, like he used to stroke mine."
"Get that girl in here," I said.
"That's my thought too," said the Provost, "and in fact, we have
arranged for her to join us."
He buzzed his secretary. "Sirocco, please." I wondered why he
hadn't told me about this in advance. I was surrounded by enemies. The
door opened.
She turned out to be Penelope's roommate, Sirocco Jones, and now
I remembered her. It was the girl paralyzed by the Gorgon sight of my
face in the snow on the slope near Willard Straight Hall. She had just
