"It was the awfulest thing to listen to!" Anastasia said. "Maurice has a way about him… I don't know how he does it, but he seems to make everybody worse than they really are. I couldn't believe it was Uncle Ira I heard saying 'There's nothing on this campus can't be bought by the man who can pay the price.' Then Maurice began teasing that Uncle Ira liked to pretend to be selfish and hard-hearted, but actually he was a sentimental old do-gooder (which is just what I think!). The more Maurice teased him about founding the Lying-in Hospital and raising me out of pure generosity, the more Uncle Ira swore he'd done those things for nobody's benefit but his own. When Maurice saw how upset Uncle Ira was, he vowed he'd do that business with Chancellor Rexford for nothing, the day Uncle Ira could prove it wasn't simple good-heartedness with me and the Unwed Co-eds' Hospital."
"You see what a Dean o' Flunks he is?" Max cried to me — who was gripping my stick with anger.
"It got worse and worse," Anastasia declared. "After a while Uncle Ira was claiming he'd built the hospital just so he could interview the girls himself — he said he liked to ask them questions about how they'd gotten in trouble, and see them cry when they told their stories; he even said he liked to watch, in the delivery-room — I know it isn't true! And Maurice said so himself, that Uncle Ira was trying to sound flunkèd, because he was ashamed of his passèdness… Well, I burst in and said I'd heard the whole thing, and told Uncle Ira he should be ashamed of himself for such fibs, and Maurice for leading him on. Uncle Ira was furious, but Maurice just laughed and said 'What about her? Does she let you watch when the boys — [I can't say it; you know what I mean]?' Uncle Ira turned white — I did too! — but then he seemed to get hold of himself, and he said, 'Stacey, this man is a wicked liar who'll say anything that suits his purpose; but he also knows every flunkèd thing there is to know about people that they wish nobody knew of. So when he says you've been letting all those boys [you-know-what], he might be lying or he might not. I want you to tell me the plain truth now,' he said: 'if he's lying I'll throw him out, and Lucky Rexford can do his flunkèdest to break me to pieces. But if he's telling the truth, I'm going to thrash you like no co-ed on this campus was ever thrashed!'
"It seemed to me Maurice got worried when Uncle Ira said that, because he said, 'What do you expect her to do when you put it that way? You're begging her to lie about it, even if it costs you your business! And you call yourself a selfish man!' But Uncle Ira hardly heard him, he was staring so at me; and you know, I almost did tell a lie, he scared me so much. And especially I didn't want to get a spanking there in front of Maurice! But then Uncle Ira looked like he was ready to have a stroke, and the only thing I could think of was how important it was to calm him down and get it out of his system. And I hated to tell a lie anyhow, especially when it might ruin his business — "
"I wish I didn't hear this," Max said. "I wish this was finished."
"I'll bet anything you told him the truth," I hazarded.
Anastasia nodded sorrowfully. "I couldn't say a word at first, but I bent over his desk, the way I always did for spankings, and that was the same as admitting about the boys. Believe me, it was just for Uncle Ira's sake; and Maurice — he's so clever about these things — when Uncle Ira started spanking me, Maurice laughed and asked me wasn't it true what the boys had told him, that I didn't make love to them for my own sake at all, but just because they said it would hurt them if I didn't? At first I thought he was saying that for my benefit; Uncle Ira even stopped spanking me for a minute and asked me was it true, and Maurice said, 'Sure, it wasn't her fault; they told her they'd commit suicide or flunk their exams if she didn't help them, and she believed them."
"Why, that was decent of him, wasn't it?" I exclaimed. The image of Anastasia bent over the desk was much with me.
But she shook her head. "Don't you see? As soon as he said it I realized that if I agreed that that was how it was — I mean on my side of it, because I'm sure those boys never said what they did just to take advantage of me — if I agreed, Uncle Ira might stop and drive Maurice away, and lose his business and all. So, awful as it was, I had to tell a worse lie yet: I had to say it was me that persuaded the boys to do what they did, because I wanted to fool Uncle Ira and because — I just enjoyed doing flunkèd things!"