refill her glass. "Why, do you think we should?"
"If you're so settled I certainly, no. And please don't harbour the impression that I'm in any way, we regard you as an asset to the faculty."
Susanne wasn't sure what he had just contradicted. "I believe you were looking for me."
"Well, yes, or someone very like, if that can ever be said of anyone."
"No, I mean just now. You told Marshall."
"That would be your young, of course. Well, yes, a word." Clement replaced his glass on the television as though that was the only place he would be able to locate it again, and brought the matchbox out with a rattle that suggested he was expecting to find it had somehow emptied itself. "Your, yes, your course."
"Yes?"
"Yes." He stored the matchbox once again and called off the pipe's search for his mouth. "Yes," he said more contemplatively than ever, and Susanne was resisting a compulsion to repeat the word when he said, "Violence in all its forms."
"In which it's portrayed."
"Represented. Representation, yes, one appreciates that's the, yes. Only, now, the, forgive me, question one found it hard to, you understand, was why violence."
"Who was asking?"
"Initially, you mean to, yes." He touched one of his incisors with the pipe stem, and Susanne had the unsettling notion that he was about to play his teeth like a xylophone. "One gathers the Vice-Chancellor rather had mama rumbling in his office."
"Who, sorry?" Susanne's speech seemed increasingly to be acquiring characteristics of his. "Whose?"
"Of a student of yours. Elaine, would it be? Mrs., ah, who threatened you on television, I'm led to, you have it?"
"Nash."
Clement parted his lips as though Susanne had just told him what to do with his teeth. "Concerned about her daughter being exposed to, you'll have gathered as much."
"Her grown-up daughter."
"Age of majority, well, there is that. Not what it was or should be, mama maintains, but that's hardly for us to, appreciated, as I understand the veecee pointed out to her. A view received with a notable lack of enthusiasm, as we might have, yes. Appears to have stung her into vowing to take her complaint further."
"In which direction?"
"Ha," Clement said, not so much a laugh as a description of one he'd heard someone else emit. "To the media was apparently the threat. An idea we may presume she got from, well."
"Do we need to be worried?"
"Well, funding, you understand. Always potentially contentious, and in these frugal times, dear me. Should we really be spending money on and so forth. It might be wise to provide the powers that be with answers they can issue as appropriate."
"About my course."
"Why violence, as I think I, yes."
"Because we're surrounded by it and representations of it. Because people consume it even if they think they don't, and it's our job as educators to equip people to analyse."
"As I recall you told us when you originally, yes. Now, the agreement rather was that a written statement from you would be ideal."
"I don't remember that."
"No, one agreed today with the veecee that it would be useful for issuing if necessary to the media."
"I can do that."
"Capital. We'd expect no less of you. Whenever's convenient within the next few, yes? By Monday would be first rate."
Susanne had the impression that he'd managed to get out of first gear at last and was coming at her faster than she liked. "It's so the University can back me up," she said.
She was seeking confirmation, but perhaps her words didn't sound sufficiently questioning, because he took them for agreement. "Splendid," he said, and dug out the matchbox with a vigour which suggested he was about to celebrate. "Shall we join your other," he said, clamping the pipe stem between his teeth so as to reach for the doorknob.
Susanne had been peripherally aware of some mumbling in the hall. It must have been closer than she'd had a chance to realise, because as Clement opened the door a man fell backward into the room. He recovered himself,
"If you're so settled I certainly, no. And please don't harbour the impression that I'm in any way, we regard you as an asset to the faculty."
Susanne wasn't sure what he had just contradicted. "I believe you were looking for me."
"Well, yes, or someone very like, if that can ever be said of anyone."
"No, I mean just now. You told Marshall."
"That would be your young, of course. Well, yes, a word." Clement replaced his glass on the television as though that was the only place he would be able to locate it again, and brought the matchbox out with a rattle that suggested he was expecting to find it had somehow emptied itself. "Your, yes, your course."
"Yes?"
"Yes." He stored the matchbox once again and called off the pipe's search for his mouth. "Yes," he said more contemplatively than ever, and Susanne was resisting a compulsion to repeat the word when he said, "Violence in all its forms."
"In which it's portrayed."
"Represented. Representation, yes, one appreciates that's the, yes. Only, now, the, forgive me, question one found it hard to, you understand, was why violence."
"Who was asking?"
"Initially, you mean to, yes." He touched one of his incisors with the pipe stem, and Susanne had the unsettling notion that he was about to play his teeth like a xylophone. "One gathers the Vice-Chancellor rather had mama rumbling in his office."
"Who, sorry?" Susanne's speech seemed increasingly to be acquiring characteristics of his. "Whose?"
"Of a student of yours. Elaine, would it be? Mrs., ah, who threatened you on television, I'm led to, you have it?"
"Nash."
Clement parted his lips as though Susanne had just told him what to do with his teeth. "Concerned about her daughter being exposed to, you'll have gathered as much."
"Her grown-up daughter."
"Age of majority, well, there is that. Not what it was or should be, mama maintains, but that's hardly for us to, appreciated, as I understand the veecee pointed out to her. A view received with a notable lack of enthusiasm, as we might have, yes. Appears to have stung her into vowing to take her complaint further."
"In which direction?"
"Ha," Clement said, not so much a laugh as a description of one he'd heard someone else emit. "To the media was apparently the threat. An idea we may presume she got from, well."
"Do we need to be worried?"
"Well, funding, you understand. Always potentially contentious, and in these frugal times, dear me. Should we really be spending money on and so forth. It might be wise to provide the powers that be with answers they can issue as appropriate."
"About my course."
"Why violence, as I think I, yes."
"Because we're surrounded by it and representations of it. Because people consume it even if they think they don't, and it's our job as educators to equip people to analyse."
"As I recall you told us when you originally, yes. Now, the agreement rather was that a written statement from you would be ideal."
"I don't remember that."
"No, one agreed today with the veecee that it would be useful for issuing if necessary to the media."
"I can do that."
"Capital. We'd expect no less of you. Whenever's convenient within the next few, yes? By Monday would be first rate."
Susanne had the impression that he'd managed to get out of first gear at last and was coming at her faster than she liked. "It's so the University can back me up," she said.
She was seeking confirmation, but perhaps her words didn't sound sufficiently questioning, because he took them for agreement. "Splendid," he said, and dug out the matchbox with a vigour which suggested he was about to celebrate. "Shall we join your other," he said, clamping the pipe stem between his teeth so as to reach for the doorknob.
Susanne had been peripherally aware of some mumbling in the hall. It must have been closer than she'd had a chance to realise, because as Clement opened the door a man fell backward into the room. He recovered himself,
Similar Books
