The Old Boys by William Trevor

Author:William Trevor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241969267
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-09-12T16:00:00+00:00

12

There was a new classroom block.

Mr Jaraby examined it disapprovingly. It seemed a little gimcrack to him, a little out of keeping with the main buildings, worse even than New House, that architectural monstrosity that had appalled so many in the early thirties. Mr Jaraby should have felt proud. The Association had contributed handsomely at the time, and he himself had been instrumental in the organized dunning of its members. He sought the Headmaster, not so much to register a complaint as to express a hope that the projected annexe to the Chapel would not follow a similar pattern.

‘Those iron window frames, Headmaster!’

The Headmaster, who detested Old Boys for a private reason, smiled.

‘They displease you, Mr Jaraby?’

‘Do they please you? Can they please anyone? What a cheap, nasty building after all our efforts!’

‘The age we live in, Mr Jaraby, the age we live in.’

‘I saw the plans, they did not look a bit like what has gone up. Were they altered?’

‘It is difficult, is it not, to make much of architects’ plans? They were approved by the Governors, by Lord Glegg who gave us the bulk of the money, by the Old Boys’ Association and incidentally by me.’

‘Let us pray the Chapel annexe will not come from the same mould.’

‘That is far in the future, Mr Jaraby. What luck we have had with the weather!’

‘What?’

‘How goes the cricket? Shall we bend our steps in that direction?’

When he was President there would be no question of his wife attending this gathering. There was no need for Lady Ponders today. Simply, he would behave as an unmarried man. It would be like her, who had never taken an interest before, to develop suddenly an interest while she was in her present condition. As though divining his thoughts the Headmaster asked:

‘Mrs Jaraby? Is she well?’

‘No. She is far from well. She is in a sad, sorry state.’ He would have liked to continue, to go into detail and tell about his visit to Dr Wiley. But there was no need to shout it from the roof-tops. Already it was widely enough known that he was married to a mad woman.

‘I am sorry to hear that. Is it perhaps this hot spell of weather?’

‘It may well be. I have heard of that kind of thing. There is no way of telling; personally I have little faith in the medicos of today. Let us talk of something pleasanter. Who is this young man who is to take over Dowse’s?’

‘He is a good man, I believe. Certainly he comes with a high reputation.’

‘He has much to live up to. I refer to Dowse, not his successors.’

‘Ah, Dowse.’

‘Dowse,’ said General Sanctuary who was standing near by with Mr Nox. ‘We shall not forget Dowse, eh, Jaraby?’

‘I shall not,’ said Mr Jaraby, and the Headmaster slipped away.

‘Dowse,’ repeated General Sanctuary. ‘The most sinister figure I ever encountered.’

‘I was speaking of H. L. Dowse, our old Housemaster.’

‘So was I. So am I. H. L. Dowse was perverted, sadistic, malicious, and dangerous.

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