Fiction-Extended-Edition 01-05-2013 by Fantasy

Author:Fantasy [Fantasy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

But Adam looked more bewildered than inspired.

"This has been truly fascinating, sir," he mumbled. "But, uh, when you invited me to this meeting, I'd rather hoped that you, uh, that you might, uh, uh, have heard of a tenure-track job available somewhere—"

"Oh, that's been taken care of," shrugged Threefoot. "Did you think I'd see my daughter married to a pauper? Good heavens, she might have wanted to move back home, baby, husband, and all! Lovely girl, of course, but—Ah, here comes Dean Duggan again."

The old gentleman was headed for the elevators, while his train of grad students stayed behind, all of them by now either drunk or getting there fast. Threefoot waved at him and when he approached, said, "Dick, this is the young man I was telling you about."

"Ah, Mr. Clarke," said Duggan. "I look forward with interest to reading your Curriculum Vitæ. We've been searching for somebody in what I'm told is your—er, er—specialty." He said good night, bowed a little tipsily, and departed with the small, slow steps of the aged.

"Better send it to him quick," said Threefoot. "I don't believe he'll last much longer. Strange to think what a rounder he was, back in the days when we'd escape the Rock for an evening of riotous living amongst the blowsy barmaids of Pittsburgh."

Incredulous, ecstatic, Adam tried three times to express his thanks, only to find his tongue tied in the proverbial knot. Meanwhile, Threefoot nattered on.

"Duggan's publishing his memoirs— Molding the Young Mind: My Life in the Groves of Academe. It sounds incredibly tedious, but I've agreed to review the hardcopy version, and I know as if by a flash of prophetic insight that the review will be a warm, nay, passionate endorsement. Of course, I'll only read the dust jacket and the first and last pages. Whilst preparing for my comps, I did that with The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and received compliments from the Committee on my profound grasp of all its major themes."

"Sir, I—I—I—"

"Don't try to thank me, my boy. Take Kate off my hands, be kind to her and my grandchild, and above all make a good job of your dissertation. You must establish yourself as an expert on something , you know. Duggan, for instance, has built a distinguished career solely upon knowing in detail what happened between ten and eleven-thirty A.M. on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg."

"Oh," said Adam, thrown back into gloom. "The dissertation. I still don't have a topic, and Dean Duggan will expect me to include something about it in my C.V."

"Far be it from me," murmured Threefoot, "to thrust a topic upon a rising young scholar who might have other ideas. Yet I happen to know that the Tilton University Press would be delighted to publish a biography of myself, provided it were filled with the sort of warm, tender, intimate touches that bring life to one who might otherwise seem cold and distant, a mere Colossus of scholarship.

"But no debunking.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.