Free The Return of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov Page B

Iliad; few have, these days."
    "Pandarus, as I recall, was a go-between and gives us the word 'pander.' That, I take it, was the sly deed mentioned in the limerick."
    "Oh, no, no," said Avalon, unsuccessfully hiding his delight. "You're thinking now of the medieval Troilus tale, which Shakespeare drew on for his Troilus and Cressida. Pandarus was the go-between there. In the Iliad he was merely a Lycian archer who shot at Menelaus during a truce. That was the sly deed. He is killed in the next book by the Greek warrior Diomedes."
    "Ah," said Eldridge, smiling faintly, "it's easy to be fooled, isn't it?"
    "If you want to be," said Rubin, but he smiled as the London broil arrived. There was no mistaking the nature of the components there. He buttered a roll and ate it as though to give himself time to contemplate the beauty of the meat.
    "As a matter of fact," said Halsted, "we've solved quite a few puzzles in recent meetings. We did well."
    "We did lousy," said Trumbull. "Henry is the one who did well."
    "I include Henry when I say 'we,' " said Halsted, his fair face flushing.
    "Henry?" asked Eldridge.
    "Our esteemed waiter," said Trumbull, "and honorary member of the Black Widowers." Henry, who was filling the water glasses, said, "You honor me, sir."
    "Honor, hell. I wouldn't come to any meeting if you weren't taking care of the table, Henry."
    "It’s good of you to say so, sir."
    Eldridge remained thoughtfully quiet thereafter, as he followed the tide of conversation that, as was usual, grew steadily in intensity. Drake was making some obscure distinction between Secret Agent X and Operator 5, and Rubin, for some reason known only to himself, was disputing the point.
    Drake, whose slightly hoarse voice never rose, said, "Operator 5 may have used disguises. I won't deny that. It was Secret Agent X, however, who was 'the man of a thousand faces.' I can send you a photocopy of a contents page of a magazine from my library to prove it." He made a note to himself in his memo book.
    Rubin, scenting defeat, shifted ground at once. "There's no such thing as a disguise, anyway. There are a million things no one can disguise, idiosyncrasies of stance, walk, voice; a million habits you can't change because you don't even know you have them. A disguise works only because no one looks."
    "People fool themselves, in other words," said Eldridge, breaking in.
    "Absolutely," said Rubin. "People want to be fooled."
    The ice-cream parfait was brought in, and not long after that, Trumbull struck his water glass with his spoon.
    "Inquisition time," he said. "As Grand Inquisitor I pass, since I'm the host. Manny, will you do the honors?"
    Rubin said, at once, "Dr. Eldridge, how do you justify the fact of your existence?"
    "By the fact that I labor to distinguish truth from folly."
    "Do you consider that you succeed in doing so?"
    "Not as often as I wish, perhaps. And yet as often as most. To distinguish truth from folly is a common desire; we all try our hands at it. My interpretation of Pandarus' deed in Halsted's limerick was folly and Avalon corrected me. The common notion of disguise you claimed to be folly and you corrected it. When I find folly, I try to correct it, if I can. It's not always easy."
    "What is your form of folly correction, Eldridge? How would you describe your profession?"
    "I am," said Eldridge, "Associate Professor of Abnormal Psychology."
    "Where do you? . . . "began Rubin.
    Avalon interrupted, his deep voice dominating, "Sorry, Manny, but I smell an evasion. You asked Dr. Eldridge's profession and he gave you a title . . . What do you do Dr. Eldridge, to occupy your time most significantly?"
    "I investigate parapsychological phenomena," said Eldridge.
    "Oh, God," muttered Drake, and stubbed out his cigarette.
    Eldridge said, "You disapprove of that, sir?" There was no sign of annoyance on his face. He turned to Henry and said, "No, thank you, Henry, I've had enough coffee," with perfect calmness.
    Henry passed on to