His composure had returned when he and Chrystal called on me after hall.
‘It’s nothing to do with the Mastership,’ he said affably. ‘We just want to make sure that we’ve got everything comfortable for Sir Horace.’
‘Can you give us a line on his tastes?’ said Chrystal.
‘We noticed last time that he took an intelligent interest in his dinner,’ said Brown. ‘We thought you might have picked up some points that we missed.’
They were competent and thorough. They took as much trouble over putting up Sir Horace as over the campaign for the Mastership. No detail was too trivial for them to attend to. I could not help at alclass="underline" anything I could have told them they had docketed and acted on already. Chrystal asked me to have Sir Horace to breakfast on the Wednesday morning.
‘He’ll have got tired of our faces by then,’ he said. ‘I want him to feel he’s moving about without us following him.’ He gave his tough smile. ‘But I don’t intend him to get into the wrong hands.’
‘Winslow was asking,’ said Brown, ‘whether Sir Horace was down for any particular purpose. And if not why we should upset the seating arrangements for the feast. He wondered whether we had mistaken Sir Horace for a person of distinction.’
‘Winslow is amusing,’ said Chrystal. He made the word sound sinister. ‘Anyway,’ he added, ‘things are pretty well tied up for Sir Horace now.’
‘If we get him down, that is,’ said Brown. ‘There are forty-eight hours before Tuesday, and the last I heard from the Lodge wasn’t very reassuring.’
I told them what Joan had said that afternoon.
‘I’m not ready to say we’ve got Sir Horace down here,’ said Brown, ‘until I see the feast begin and him sitting at table.’
‘It’s lamentable,’ said Chrystal.
There was a rap on the door. With surprise I saw Nightingale come in. He was looking harassed, pale and intent. In a strained effort to keep the proprieties, he said good night to me, and asked if I minded him intruding. Then he addressed himself to Brown.
‘I looked in your rooms last night and tonight. You weren’t there, so I had to try your friends.’
‘Ah well,’ said Brown, ‘you’ve found me now.’
‘Is it anything private?’ I said. ‘We can easily leave you together.’
‘It may be private,’ said Nightingale. ‘But it’s nothing that Chrystal and you won’t know.’
He had sat down, and leant over the arm of his chair towards Brown and Chrystal.
‘I want to find out,’ he said, ‘how the offices will go round, once Jago is Master.’
Chrystal looked at him, and then at Brown. There was a pause.
‘Well, Nightingale,’ said Chrystal, ‘you know as much as we do.’
‘No, not quite,’ said Nightingale.
‘You know as much as we do, Nightingale,’ Chrystal repeated. ‘The only office that can possibly be affected is a tutorship. You know as well as we do that tutors are appointed by the Master.’
‘You’re only telling me pieces out of the statutes,’ said Nightingale. ‘I can read them for myself.’
‘I’m telling you the position.’
‘I know all about that. Now I want to know how everything has been arranged behind the scenes,’ Nightingale smiled, with the dreadful suspiciousness of the unworldly: it is the unworldly who see neat, black, conscious designs hidden under all actions.
‘I take you up on that, Nightingale,’ said Chrystal, but Brown interrupted him.
‘If Jago becomes Master, as we hope, you’ll find that he’ll have a completely open mind about the appointment. Not a word has been said — either by him or anyone else.’
‘That’s the fact,’ said Chrystal. ‘The normal practice is for the Master to ask for advice—’
‘I know all about that,’ said Nightingale again.
‘But he needn’t follow it.’ Chrystal’s temper was very near breaking. ‘I’ve known cases where it wasn’t followed. If you’re asking me what Jago will do, I can only tell you what I think. It won’t take you very far. I assume he will make Brown Senior Tutor. That doesn’t need saying. For the other tutor he’ll have to look round.’
‘No, it doesn’t need saying,’ said Nightingale, looking at Brown.
‘It would be an outrage if it did need saying. Anyone in his senses would offer Brown that job if he had the chance,’ I burst out angrily.
For a moment Nightingale was quiet. Then he said: ‘I’ll take your word for it that the other tutorship isn’t earmarked yet. I want you to know that I expect to be considered for it myself.’
We looked at him. He went on: ‘I’m a long way senior of all the people without offices in this college. Except for Crawford who doesn’t need them. I’ve been done out of every office since I was elected. I want to prevent it happening again.’
Brown said, knowing that he had to be soothed: ‘I’m sure you can be absolutely certain that Jago will consider you very seriously. Put it another way: your standing in the college means that you’re bound to be the first person considered. So now I shouldn’t worry if I were you, until the vacancy has really happened.’
‘I’ve been fobbed off like that before,’ said Nightingale. ‘It’s too vague by half.’
‘No one can be any more definite,’ said Chrystal crisply.
‘Is that as much as you can tell me?’ Nightingale asked, half-threatening, half-pleading.
‘It is,’ said Chrystal.
‘I don’t think anyone could possibly go any further,’ said Brown, anxious to conciliate him. ‘We couldn’t conceivably commit Jago in any shape or form. You must see that that is quite unreasonable. If, when he had to make the appointment, he happened to ask our advice (as I dare say he might feel inclined to do), you can rest assured that we are the last persons to overlook your claim. We can guarantee that you’ll receive an absolutely fair hearing.’
‘It’s not good enough,’ said Nightingale.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Chrystal.
‘I’m very sorry indeed,’ said Brown. ‘We’re really going to the extreme limit, you know. I don’t quite see what more we can possibly do.’
‘I see what I can do.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I shall go and tackle Jago myself,’ said Nightingale.
It was late, too late for him to go round that night, I thought with relief, but he left at once.
14: Commemoration of Benefactors
I woke early next morning, and lay listening to the series of quarter chimes, thinking of the alignment in the college. The parties had stayed constant since the two caucus meetings: no one had changed sides, although Francis Getliffe and Winslow had made an attempt to seduce Eustace Pilbrow. That was the only open attempt at persuasion so far made. Roy Calvert and I had wanted to have a go at old Gay, but Brown said wait. Both sides, in fact, were holding back; it was taken for granted that one or two in each caucus were waverers, but it was not yet time to attack them. In secret, Brown felt content because Pilbrow had been approached too early.
But, from the beginning, Nightingale had been our weakest spot. Waiting for Bidwell to announce nine o’clock that morning, I doubted whether we should ever hold him. How could one handle him in his present state? Last night he had wanted a promise. He would not be satisfied with less.
Looking down into the court after breakfast, I saw Jago walking through. I thought he should be warned at once, and so went down to meet him. I asked if he had seen Nightingale recently. He said no, and asked me why.
‘He’s coming to see you,’ I said.
‘What for?’