The Headmaster's Dilemma by Louis Auchincloss Read Free Book Online Page B

to have been pretty well determined, but it's been very much on my mind that it's been determined at the expense of yours."
    "I shouldn't so much mind that if I could be sure that you were on the right path for yourself."
    "You're not content with what I'm doing here? I can hardly blame you. I am constantly running into problems that make me see how inadequately I was prepared to be a headmaster."
    "No, no, I don't mean that at all!" she emphasized. "You're doing great as a headmaster. Everyone agrees to that. Everyone, that is, but that ass, Spencer, and with him it's just jealousy and spite. No, what I'm getting at is that I have the highest ambition for you. I'm very proud of your record here, but I don't see Averhill as your final goal. I want much more for you. Much more, my darling."
    "Dear me. How far will you take me? To the White House?"
    "Don't laugh at me. But it's true that I set no limits. You might be the head of a great university."
    He shrugged. "Well, let's leave all that to the future. In the meantime I have my hands full at Averhill."
    "Well, of course you have. But haven't you already, and in only three years, basically achieved what you set out to do?"
    "How do you mean?"
    "Girls are admitted now. That was the great step. And Latin made optional after the third form. And Catholic and Jewish students exempted from compulsory chapel. Racial prejudice is down, and kids no longer get suspended for the dirty talk they've learned at their own fireside. Weekends home are allowed once a term, and you even have a fairy as chaplain—"
    "Darling, your tone!" Michael interrupted reproachfully.
    "Oh, I know, I know, but when I've had to mind my p's and q's all day and night in your temple of political correctness, it's a relief every once and a while to play the philistine."
    "But that term! And from you!"
    "All right, call him gay, homosexual, whatever you want. I know he's still in the closet, but something tells me he's about to pop out. Anyway, my point is that the main bastions of the old days have been leveled. Isn't it at least time to consider your next step?"
    "Darling, if I stop for a minute, I may fatally lose momentum. I might indeed lose all. What I've accomplished so far is as precarious as a clearing in the jungle. If the bulldozers are idle for even a month, regrowth will swallow it up. I don't know when the time will come for me to consider a change, but it's a long way away. And now, if you'll forgive me, I'll go back to my study to prepare for tomorrow's class. You should finish your drink and get some sleep to cure that headache."
    Ione was silenced for the time being, but she was glad she had broken the ice on a subject that she had no intention of dropping. She was determined to cling to the notion that his real job at the school had been largely accomplished. It allowed her to indulge in a dream that the time was approaching when a headmaster could be tempted, like Alexander the Great, to look about for new lands to conquer. She tried to see this in the light of a natural desire to spur her husband on to the achievement of higher and nobler goals and not to a selfish yearning on her part to escape the ennui of her life at Averhill. She detested the idea that she might be motivated by any concern for her own welfare. At the same time, however, she was too honest and too intelligent not to see both sides of her dilemma.
    She was much relieved, therefore, when something in the next week happened to glorify Michael's alternative to remaining a headmaster in such a way as to reduce to nothing any question of a benefit to herself. She had gone to New York to attend a big dinner party celebrating her parents' wedding anniversary, and she found herself seated next to Timothy Armstrong, chairman of the board of the famed Gladwin Foundation. Michael had had to remain in Averhill for class reunion day.
    Well trained by her mother in how to handle tycoons, Ione induced the stout, ivory-haired,