‘How are you getting on?’ asked Charteris.
‘Oh, fairly well. It’s rather slow.’
‘The grub seems all right.’ Charteris
absently reached out for a slice of cake.
‘Not bad.’
‘And you don’t have to do any work.’
‘No.’
’Well, then, it seems to me you’re having
a jolly good time. What don’t you like
about it?’
‘It’s so slow, being alone all day.’
’Makes you appreciate intellectual conversation
all the more when you get it. Mine, for instance.’
‘I want something to read.’
’I’ll bring you a Sidgwick’s Greek
Prose Composition, if you like. Full of racy
stories.’
’I’ve read ’em, thanks.’
’How about Jebb’s Homer? You’d
like that. Awfully interesting. Proves that
there never was such a man as Homer, you know, and
that the Iliad and the Odyssey were
produced by evolution. General style, quietly
funny. Make you roar.’
’Don’t be an idiot. I’m simply
starving for something to read. Haven’t
you got anything?’
‘You’ve read all mine.’
‘Hasn’t Welch got any books?’
’Not one. He bags mine when he wants to
read. I’ll tell you what I will do if you
like.’
‘What?’
‘Go into Stapleton, and borrow something from
Adamson.’ Adamson was the College doctor.
‘By Jove, that’s not a bad idea.’
’It’s a dashed good idea, which wouldn’t
have occurred to anybody but a genius. I’ve
been quite a pal of Adamson’s ever since I had
the flu. I go to tea with him occasionally, and
we talk medical shop. Have you ever tried talking
medical shop during tea? Nothing like it for giving
you an appetite.’
‘Has he got anything readable?’
‘Rather. Have you ever tried anything of
James Payn’s?’
‘I’ve read Terminations, or something,’
said Tony doubtfully, ‘but he’s so obscure.’
‘Don’t,’ said Charteris sadly, ’please
don’t. Terminations is by one Henry James,
and there is a substantial difference between him and
James Payn. Anyhow, if you want a short biography
of James Payn, he wrote a hundred books, and they’re
all simply ripping, and Adamson has got a good many
of them, and I’m hoping to borrow a couple—any
two will do—and you’re going to read
them. I know one always bars a book that’s
recommended to one, but you’ve got no choice.
You’re not going to get anything else till you’ve
finished those two.’
‘All right,’ said Tony. ’But
Stapleton’s out of bounds. I suppose Merevale’ll
give you leave to go in.’
‘He won’t,’ said Charteris.
‘I shan’t ask him. On principle.
So long.’
On the following afternoon Charteris went into Stapleton.
The distance by road was almost exactly one mile.
If you went by the fields it was longer, because you
probably lost your way.
