o be seen fraternizing with controversial characters.
One of the younger men, with a thin face and a mop of unruly hair,
advanced to meet him as he came in, as cordial as Handley was remote.

"Oh, hello, Ed!" he greeted, clapping a hand on Chalmers' shoulder. "I
was hoping I'd run into you. Can you have dinner with us this
evening?" He was sincere.

"Well, thanks, Leonard. I'd like to, but I have a lot of work. Could
you give me a rain-check?"

"Oh, surely. My wife was wishing you'd come around, but I know how it
is. Some other evening?"

"Yes, indeed." He guided Fitch toward the dining-room door and nodded
toward a table. "This doesn't look too crowded; let's sit here."

After lunch, he stopped in at his office. Marjorie Fenner was there,
taking dictation from Pottgeiter; she nodded to him as he entered, but
she had no summons to the president's office.

* * * * *

The summons was waiting for him, the next morning, when he entered the
office after Modern History IV, a few minutes past ten.

"Doctor Whitburn just phoned," Marjorie said. "He'd like to see you,
as soon as you have a vacant period."

"Which means right away. I shan't keep him waiting."

She started to say something, swallowed it, and then asked if he
needed anything typed up for General European II.

"No, I have everything ready." He pocketed the pipe he had filled on
entering, and went out.

* * * * *

The president of Blanley College sat hunched forward at his desk; he
had rounded shoulders and round, pudgy fists and a round, bald head.
He seemed to be expecting his visitor to stand at attention in front
of him. Chalmers got the pipe out of his pocket, sat down in the
desk-side chair, and snapped his lighter.

"Good morning, Doctor Whitburn," he said very pleasantly.

Whitburn's scowl deepened. "I hope I don't have to tell you why I
wanted to see you," he began.

"I have an idea." Chalmers puffed until the pipe was drawing
satisfactorily. "It might help you get started if you did, though."

"I don't suppose, at that, that you realize the full effect of your
performance, yesterday morning, in Modern History Four," Whitburn
replied. "I don't suppose you know, for instance, that I had to
intervene at the last moment and suppress an editorial in the _Black
and Green_, derisively critical of you and your teaching methods, and,
by implication, of the administration of this colle