Page 6 (1/2)

ELASTICITY

NEXTMark went back to Belbury by train This return-just sauntering in and hanging up his hat and ordering a drink-was a pleasant contrast to his first arrival The servant who brought the drink knew him Filostrato nodded to him After the drink he strolled upstairs to Cosser&039;s office

Steele and Cosser were both there Neither spoke "Ah-gooda pencil note "What is it, Mr Studdock?" he said without looking up

"I ca Cosser, "I&039;ve been thinking over the last section in that report---"

"What report&039;s this?" said Steele to Cosser

"Oh, I thought," replied Cosser, with a little twisty sood thing to put together a report on Cure Hardy Mr Studdock helped me"

"Well, never mind about that now," said Steele

"You can talk to Mr Cosser about it some other lime, Mr Studdock"

"Look here," said Mark, "I think we&039;d better understand one another Am I to take it that this report was simply a private hobby of Cosser&039;s ? And whose orders am I under?"

Steele, playing with his pencil, looked at Cosser "I asked you a question about my position, Mr Steele," said Mark

"I haven&039;t ti about your position"

Mark turned on his heel and left the roo to see the Deputy Director

At the door of Wither&039;s room he hesitated for a ry to wait He knocked and entered without noticing whether the knock had been answered

"My dear boy," said the Deputy Director, looking up but not quite fixing his eyes on Mark&039;s face,"I ahted to see you"

Mark noticed that there was a third person in the room, a man called Stone who in front of Wither&039;s table rolling and unrolling a piece of blotting-paper with his fingers

"Delighted to see you," repeated Wither "All the more so because you-er-interrupted me in what I am afraid Ito poor Mr Stone when you careat Institute should all work together like one fareatest unity of will and purpose, Mr Stone, the freest ues But then as you may remind me, Mr-ah-Studdock, even in fas And that is why, my dear boy, I ao, Mr Stone I have a great deal more to say to you"

"Perhaps I&039;d better come back later?" said Mark

"Well, perhaps in all the circu, Mr Stoneperhapsthe usualme, Mr Studdock, is to apply to my secretary and make an appointment Not, you will understand, that I have the least wish to insist on any formalities It is the waste of your time that I am anxious to avoid"

"Thank you, sir," said Mark "I&039;ll go and see your secretary"

The secretary&039;s office was next door Mark made an appointment for ten o&039;clock to-morrow, the earliest hour they could offer him As he came out he ran into Fairy Hardcastle

"Hullo, Studdock," said the Fairy "Hanging round the DD&039;s office? That won&039;t do, you know"

"I have decided," said Mark, " that I et my position definitely fixed or else leave the Institute"

She looked at hiuous expression and suddenly slipped her arh his

"Look, sonny," she said, " you drop all that, see? Co to talk about, Miss Hardcastle," said Mark "Either I get a real job here, or I go back to Bracton"

To this the Fairy made no answer, and the steady pressure of her arht him to her own offices on the second floor The outer office was full of what he had already learned to call Waips, the girls of the Women&039;s Auxiliary Institutional Police The h more numerous, were not often met with indoors, but Waips were constantly seen wherever Miss Hardcastle appeared Far fro the masculine characteristics of their chief they were sles Miss Hardcastle behaved to them as if she were a man, and addressed theallantry When they reached the inner office sheherself

"Cut it all out, Studdock," said Miss Hardcastle "And whatever you do, don&039;t go bothering the DD"

"That ood advice, Miss Hardcastle," said Mark, "if I were co here I&039;ve very nearly ht I&039;d just have a talk with his clear is the one thing the DD can&039;t stand," replied Miss Hardcastle "That&039;s not how he runs the place And mind you, he knohat he&039;s about It works, sonny You needn&039;t bother your head about all the Steeles and Cossers Not one of the"

"That&039;s just the line Cosser took about Steele," said Mark, "and it didn&039;t seeood when it came to the point"

"Do you know, Studdock," said Miss Hardcastle, "I&039;ve taken a fancy to you Because if I hadn&039;t, I&039;d be disposed to resent that last remark"

"I don&039;t mean to be offensive," said Mark "But- daood You don&039;t know enough yet for your point of view to be worth sixpence You&039;re being offered a chance And there are only two alternatives, you know; to be in the NICE or to be out of it And I knohich is going to be most fun"

"I do understand that," said Mark "Give ical Departoing to be scrapped It had to be there at the beginning for propaganda purposes"

"But what assurance have I that I&039; to be one of their successors?"

"You aren&039;t The real work has nothing to do with all these departy we&039;re interested in will be done by my people-the police"

"Then where do I come in?"

"If you&039;ll trust me I can put you on to a bit of your real hat you were brought here to do-straight away"

"What&039;s that?"

"Alcasan"

"You uillotined?" asked Mark, as completely bewildered

The Fairy nodded

"He&039;s to be rehabilitated," she said "Gradually You begin with a quiet little article-not questioning his guilt, but just hinting that of course he was a overnainst him Then you follow it up in a day or tith an article of quite a different kind Popular account of the value of his work You can h for that kind of article-in an afternoon By that time--"

"What on earth is the point of all this?"

"I&039; you, Studdock Alcasan is to be rehabilitated Made into a ruest a bit of real work you expect to have the whole plan of caet on here The great thing is to do what you&039;re told You don&039;t seem to realise e are We&039;re an army"

"Anyway," said Mark, "I didn&039;t come here to write newspaper articles And if I had, I&039;d want to know a good deal more about the politics of the NICE before I went in for that sort of thing"

"Haven&039;t you been told that it&039;s strictly non-political?"

" &039;ve been told so s that I don&039;t knohether I&039;m on my head or oing to start a newspaper stunt without being political Is it Left or Right papers that are going to print all this rot about Alcasan?"

"Both, honey, both," said Miss Hardcastle "Don&039;t you understand anything? Isn&039;t it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce Right both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That&039;s hoe get things done Of course we&039;re non-political The real power always is"

"Well," said Mark, "this is all very interesting, but it has nothing to do with me I don&039;t want to become a journalist at all: and if I did I should like to be an honest journalist"

"Very well," said Miss Hardcastle "All you&039;ll do is to help to ruin this country, and perhaps the hu your own career"

The confidential tone in which she had been speaking up till now had disappeared and there was a threatening finality in her voice The citizen and the honest man which had been awaked in Mark by the conversation, quailed a little: his other and far stronger self, the self that was anxious at all costs not to be placed a the outsiders, leaped up, fully alarmed

"I don&039;t mean," he said, " that I don&039;t see your point I was only wondering "

"It&039;s all one to me, Studdock," said Miss Hardcastle "Go and settle it with the DD He doesn&039;t like people resigning, but, of course, you can He&039;ll have so you here We&039;d assuht sharply before Mark as a reality the plan, which had up till now been slightly unreal, of going back to Edgestow and satisfying himself with the career of a Fellow of Bracton On what tero back ? Would he still be a member of the inner circle even at Bracton? And the salary of aafter the drea for the last few days Married life was already turning out more expensive than he had reckoned Then came a sharp doubt about that two hundred pounds for membership of the NICE club But no-that was absurd

"Well, obviously," he said in a vague voice, "the first thing is to see the DD"

"You&039;d better run along now," said Miss Hardcastle ,"Have a nice talk with the DD Be careful not to annoy the old nations"

The rest of that day he passedout of people&039;s way as much as possible lest his lack of occupation should be noticed He wandered round to the back parts of the house, where the newer and lower buildings joined it Here he was surprised by a stable-like sns, in fact, of a considerable zoo At first he did not understand, but presently he reraling economy, was one of the plans of the NICE He had not been particularly interested and had thought vaguely of rats, rabbits, and an occasional dog The confused noises fro very different As he stood there one great yawn-like howl arose, and then, as if it had set the key, all hter even, which shuddered and protested for a s and whines Mark had no scruples about vivisection What the noise randiosity of this whole undertaking froet the job: heof the autu Mark ate his breakfast by artificial light, and neither post nor newspaper had arrived It was a Friday, and a servant handed him his bill for the portion of a hich he had already spent in the Institute He put it in his pocket after a hasty glance with a resolution that this, at any rate, should never be mentioned to Jane Neither the total nor the items were of the sort that wives easily understand

The odd half-hour which he had to wait before keeping his appointment with the Deputy Director passed slowly No one spoke to hio and knock on Wither&039;s door

The conversation was not easy to begin because Wither said nothing Mark, divided between his desire toabout no longer and his equally keen desire not to lose the job if there were any real job going, did not perhaps speak very well At all events the Deputy Director left him to run down-to pass into disjointed repetitions and thence into coo," said Mark at last

"You are Mr Studdock I think?" said Wither tentatively after another prolonged silence

"Yes," said Mark impatiently "I called on you with Lord Feverstone a few days ago You gaveme a position on the---"

"One moment, Mr Studdock," interrupted the Deputy Director "It is so important to be perfectly clear You are no doubt aware that in certain senses it would beanyone a post in the Institute You ine that I hold any kind of autocratic position, nor, on the other hand, that the relation between my own sphere of influence and the powers-their temporary powers, you understand-of the permanent committee are defined by any hard-and-fast system of-er-a constitutional, or even a constitutive, character For example--"

"Then, sir, can you tell me whether anyone has offered me a post, and, if so, who?"

"Oh," said Wither suddenly, changing both his position and his tone as if a new idea had struck him "It was always understood that your co-operation with the Institute would be entirely acceptable-would be of the greatest value"

"Well, can I-I htn&039;t we to discuss the details? Iunder?"

"My dear friend," said Wither with a smile, "I do not anticipate that there will be any difficulty about the-er-&039; the financial side of the matter As for---"

"What would the salary be, sir?" said Mark

"Well, there you touch on a point which it is hardly for me to decide I believe that ed you as occupying usually draw so for fluctuations calculated on a very liberal basis All questions of that sort will adjust thereatest ease"

"But when should I know, sir?"

"You mustn&039;t suppose, Mr Studdock, that when Ithe possibility of soure I don&039;t think any of us would "

"I should be perfectly satisfied with fifteen hundred," said Mark

"I wasn&039;t thinking of that But-but--" The Deputy Director&039;s expression became more and more courtly and confidential, so that when Mark finally blurted out, "I suppose there&039;d be a contract or so of the kind," he felt he had coarity