Free The Headmasters Papers by Richard A. Hawley Page A

it. My only worry is that I won’t be able to keep this place peaceful enough. I’ve let it get a little Grand Central-ish since Meg’s been gone. I suspect I could reverse that. The other problem is that I’ve generated the useful fiction that Meg is only routinely ill. If she comes home, more friends will want to see her, which would further exhaust and sadden her. I don’t want Meg to see her condition through the eyes of well-meaning but horrified friends. I guess I have to work this through. If I feel the same way in a week, home she comes.
    Terrible letter! Sorry. I’d tell you a little about school, but it’s no better at the moment.
    Thanks for your wonderful offer to come up here with Hugh for a Thanksgiving do. I am going to decline it—for purely selfish reasons. Even being minimally festive and pleasant would take energy from me, and my humble pail is nearly empty. I conserve what I have by minimizing routines, especially social ones, and sacking out whenever I can. (I have slept the night in my clothes, by mistake, twice this week.) One side benefit is that I am slimming down nicely. I have a few alumni fetes to preside over—one of them in Philadelphia, the worst city in the world—but otherwise I plan to “crash”, to use Brian’s phrase, for as much of the Thanksgiving break as I can.
    Best love to Hugh. I loved your account of his weekends on duty in the dormitory. Such is the case, I suppose, in small residential communities of healthy adolescent boys and girls. Why did anyone ever imagine it would be otherwise? “Love goes from love as schoolboys to their books,” Shakespeare has Romeo say. As about everything else, the bard knew all about co-ed.
    Love,
    John
    17 October
    Mr. Calvin Kingery
Timothy Dwight College
1121 Yale Station
New Haven, Connecticut
    Dear Calvin,
    It is always good to see you, although some times more than others.
    Tuesday was one of the others. Needless to say, I was disappointed by the program you and your Boolas gave us. You sang beautifully, all of you, and your presence on stage is impressive, but some of the material was inappropriate for us, and you know it. I cautioned you about “judgment” last spring when we confirmed the date, and Phil Upjohn said he spoke to all of you backstage and was given jocular assurance that all was going to be good clean fun.
    I suppose if a similar group, without a Wellsian among them, had given us the same show, I would be less disappointed, but every bit as disapproving. Calvin, you  know  what goes and what does not go on our stage. Thanks to your program, some of our boys will undoubtedly claim precedent for various vulgarities they have been contemplating but not yet dared.
    For what an old prude’s opinion is worth, I think your group is too musically sound to rely on the vulgar stuff for audience response. It is easy to hear the difference between delighted laughter and embarrassed laughter. The former is better; the latter is easier.
    So much from me. It must be reassuring for you to know that I haven’t changed with the times. Incidentally, we were going to give the Boolas a modest honorarium of $150 to help defray travel expenses. But since you didn’t quite keep your side of the agreement, I am donating it to United Way instead, on your behalf of course.
    In spite of all this, I hope we see you here again soon, with or without your  Boolas.
    Faithfully,
    John Greeve
    17 October
    Mr. William G. Truax
President, Fiduciary Trust Co.
New Haven, Connecticut
    Dear Bill,
    We are all set for the board, here, a week from Tuesday. Budget figures and other materials are in the mail today.
    I’ll be more than happy to set aside some open time to discuss the St. I. decision. I am not surprised there is some stink about it. I trust you would agree, though, that it’s necessary stink. Leacock and Bolwell are old Ionians, are they not? Some things run thicker