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.’Mark shot a malicious glance at Digby, who was annoyed to feel himself blushing.‘I wonder how many of you have read Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens?’ asked the Professor.‘Not one of the great plays, but there are some fine passages in it, and it may be appropriate here…’‘Felix, this is intolerable—you will have to tell them.You can’t keep them in suspense any longer,’ Miss Clovis burst out.‘Could not you tell them, my dear Esther? It might come better from a woman.’‘I? Certainly I will tell them.’ She paused and took a gulp of wine, then began speaking in short gruff sentences.‘It is this.There is no money.And there are no research grants.Father Gemini has stolen it.We heard last night.’Nobody knew what to say.‘Oh, dear,’ Digby ventured, feeling that the feebleness of his utterance accorded well with the character he had just been given.‘Sire, this is grievous news,’ said Mark, the shock making him flippant.The girls did not say anything at first, but after a while Vanessa asked what Father Gemini had to do with it and how could he have ‘stolen’ the money.‘Somehow, perhaps we shall never know how,’ said Miss Clovis, ‘he persuaded Mrs.Foresight to let him have the money she had promised to us for a research project of his own.Gertrude—Miss Lydgate—telephoned me last night to tell me.I am not sure that she herself is entirely guikless, though I cannot believe that she can have been a party to such a dastardly plan,’ she concluded dramatically.‘Then Mrs.Foresight had not actually given the money?’ asked Mark.‘Well, no,’ Miss Clovis sounded flustered, ‘but she had promised it.Isn’t that so, Felix?’‘Yes, certainly she had promised it,’ he said in a casual, almost uninterested tone.‘Now, I wonder if you can see why I am reminded of Timon of Athens? You have forgotten the play? Let me refresh your memory of the banquet scene.When the dishes are uncovered they are found to contain nothing but warm water.’‘Well, that certainly doesn’t apply here,’ said Digby, magnanimously, he felt.‘Afterwards,’ continued Professor Mainwaring, ‘Timon retires to a cave, but I don’t think I can carry the parallel as far as that.I am very sorry that this has happened.Naturally I shall do all I can to see that you get grants for field research from somewhere, though really,’ he mused, ‘I often wonder whether the whole business of going out into the field to study a primitive tribe isn’t vasdy overrated.Heat, discomfort, illness, frustration … and at the end of it all-what?’He faced his hearers almost challenging them to answer him, but his sentence fell into silence.‘And now,’ he went on, ‘I shall retire to my—er—cave, there to meditate on the machinations of Minnie—Mrs.Foresight,’ he added quickly.‘Henry will order a taxi to take you to the station as I have no motorcar of my own.’The young people stood up rather sheepishly, then Vanessa went forward and shook his hand, thanking him for his hospitality; the others followed her example.Miss Clovis stayed with them and they had coffee together in the smoking- room.‘I can’t help feeling that the Jesuits are behind this,’ she said.‘But Father Gemini isn’t a Jesuit, is he?’ asked Mark.Miss Clovis snorted.‘No, he isn’t.The Jesuits are men of intellect, even their enemies must allow that.But he is known to have visited one of their establishments several times this year.I can imagine the plotting that went on there.Father Gemini is weak —he would be as wax in their hands.And Mrs.Foresight has taken him for a drive in her motor-car on more than one occasion.Who can tell what may have passed between them then?’‘It might have been interesting to have heard their conversation,’ said Digby mildly.‘Interesting! I should think so indeed.’‘If I may venture a criticism,’ said Mark.‘I think it would have been better if Professor Mainwaring had been sure of the money before he attempted to award the grants.’‘I feel rather sorry for him,’ said Vanessa warmly.‘This whole thing must have been a blow to his prestige.I think you can see by his rather odd behaviour that he is feeling it very deeply.’‘Oh, he will do another tour in the United States,’ said Miss Clovis.‘He has not yet lost the power of persuading elderly ladies to part with their money.’ There was a touch of contempt in her tone.‘It is a power we should all like to have,’ said Mark.‘I wonder if a young man would have any chance of acquiring it?*‘Oh, you will go far, Mr.Penfold,’ said Miss Clovis.‘That is obvious.’‘But in what direction?’ asked Digby.‘We none of us know at the moment,’ said Mark.‘I suppose we’d better see to our packing.’‘I hope this unfortunate affair doesn’t mean that I shan’t be seeing you at the research centre,’ said Miss Clovis as they waited by the taxi.‘Oh, no, we shan’t hold it against you,’ said Mark almost insolently, but he might perhaps be excused for feeling that their relationship had undergone some subtle change which justified the tone.‘I think Miss Clovis was very upset,’ said Digby, when they were in the train.‘After all it was rather a dreadful thing to happen-it will take some living down [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]