The Groves of Academe: A Novel (Transaction Large Print Books) by Mary McCarthy Read Free Book Online

could count on Domna, he would gladly have spared her these next moments, which might very well reactivate the traumatic experience; for, desperate and harried as he was, he did not deceive himself as to what Catherine meant to her, what their long morning talks and endless cups of black coffee had done to make Jocelyn habitable for this lonely, affection-starved child. (And the fact that Cathy had given herself always without stint, not ever letting Domna guess that her health was not up to such demands on it, would no doubt add a belated remorse to the poor girl’s other feelings.)
    Silently, he took the letter from his breast pocket and handed it across the desk. While she unfolded it, he dropped into the side-chair still warm from the student’s bottom and affected to study his fingernails while watching her beneath his granulated lashes. Truth to tell, he was quite curious to trap her first reaction, not because he doubted her at all, but merely from professional interest: would Hoar’s move come as a surprise to a fellow-member of the teaching caste or had they all been quietly anticipating it while only he had been gulled? But the girl’s eyes, moving across the typescript, betrayed nothing, really. She turned white, he thought, for an instant, and then a light flush that might have been anger reddened her pointed cheekbones. “No!” she finally whispered in a shocked and scarified voice, as she passed the letter back to him—from which he was able to glean that rumors of his debts and generally poor prospects had reached her; she knew, then, that this was the end for Henry Mulcahy and Co. They sat and stared at each other without a word. Mechanically, she took a package of cigarettes from her smock pocket and offered it to him, as a warden offers a smoke to a condemned prisoner, and he silently waved it aside.
    They heard the bell ring for the next class before she roused herself to speak and then she only said, absently, “When did you get it? This morning?” That she made no other inquiry struck him at once as peculiar. Was her mind already busy with the next step, with remedies and recourses, or had she somehow known all along? Had the department been consulted? Was it a departmental decision, taken without his knowledge? Could she, even, have concurred in it? “But appointments are not made until spring,” she suddenly objected, just as he was giving up hope of any spontaneous response from her. He drew a quick breath of satisfaction; she too, then, like himself, was simply stunned by the irregularity of these proceedings. Relieved, he decided to take the bull by the horns. “Domna,” he said, hurriedly, “I have something to tell you, in confidence. But first I must be able to trust you. Answer me honestly, is this the first word you have heard of this dismissal?” She nodded swiftly twice. “On my word of honor.” “There’s been no criticism of me in the department?” “Absolutely not. I swear it.” Her tone had grown very positive, yet he thought he had heard, deep down, a little wavering in it, as of some qualification quickly overridden…. He waited. A faint, lurking smile appeared at the corners of her lips. “Some think you go too far,” she murmured, “on the Buildings and Grounds question. Your scrambled eggs….” A crinkle of laughter was in her voice, half-apologetic, as if inviting him to join in this belittling view of his activities. He stiffened. “Who thinks this?” he demanded, eyes narrowing. Domna flushed. “All of us. No one in particular. I, if you want, for one.” Having made this confession, Domna obviously grew confused and began to let out more than she had intended. “But nobody,” she explained, “takes a strict view of it, not even Maynard.” Henry raised his eyebrows. “You’ve discussed it with him?” he cried. “Of course,” she answered, self-justificatory, and would plainly have said more but he raised his hand to forestall it—it was