Read Online An Imperfect Spy by Amanda Cross - Free Book Online Page B

not to drink, feeling the need to connect the names she hardly knew with the courses she had just heard about, and wanting to get an impression that might not be offered to her again. Kate never drank when she was working. She considered this reception, unlike that at the Theban, work. Why, I wonder? she asked herself.
    Blair introduced Kate to Professor Zinglehoff, who immediately intrigued her. He had two characteristics she found compelling, in the sense in which a horror scene is compelling. First, Zinglehoff never finished a sentence, always interrupting himself just before the eagerly anticipated end to introduce another qualification, and second, he wore under his dark jacket a black turtleneck sweater instead of a shirt and tie, which made him look exactly like a turtle. A tendency to thrust his head forward as he made his never syntactically concluded points increased the resemblance. Kate, who liked turtles, tried to turn this aspect into a compliment, but faltered.My god, she thought, I’m describing someone without even meaning to. But Zinglehoff is someone deserving of description; just think what Dickens might have made of him.
    “It must be a new experience, being taught by a woman,” Zinglehoff remarked, “not that there is anything untoward about a woman teaching in a law school, particularly a woman who is not a lawyer, and many intelligent women are not lawyers, in fact, I suppose you could say most intelligent women are not lawyers, but I have been curious as to how our students, who are a hardworking lot, particularly when you consider their outside jobs, and some of them are women like yourself—”
    “What do you teach?” Kate rudely interrupted. She wondered how his wife, if any, managed to converse with him. Perhaps she left notes. Perhaps at home he was unalterably silent. One could only guess. “Do you teach a basic course?”
    “Basic courses are, of course, the heart of any law school, unlike all those frills that can be added afterward, well, some of them are useful, I don’t doubt it, in their own way, and I have even taught Real-Estate Transactions from time to time, when the need arose, which in a small school like ours it sometimes does, due to leaves and other emergencies, and I can’t say that I approve of hiring adjunct professors to take up the—”
    “You teach Property?” Kate asked. She felt an overwhelming urge to shout, “Answer yes or no.” And indeed, a yes, trailing a long sentence behind it, had just passed his lips when Reed appeared tothe rescue, saying: “Kate, Professor Abbott would like to meet you. He’s over there; let me introduce you.”
    “Excuse me,” she said to Zinglehoff.
    “You looked in need of rescue,” Reed said, “and Abbott did ask to meet you. Be brave.” He grinned, and headed her toward Professor Abbott, who was indeed notable; in addition to being the only non-white person in the room, he was large, and handsome, and stately.
    “You’re not a lawyer,” he informed Kate, shaking her hand. “Blair Whitson has tried to explain to me why we want a nonlawyer teaching in a law school, but I’m afraid I didn’t altogether get the picture. Could you clarify it for me? I’d be grateful.”
    “Certainly,” Kate said. She looked at her empty glass.
    “Let me get you another drink,” Abbott said. “What was it? Gin?”
    “I’ve had enough,” Kate said, “but thank you for the offer. Actually, I was looking into my glass for inspiration to answer your question rather than for a drink.”
    “I know,” Abbott surprisingly said, “you think I’m an ‘old boy,’ as my daughter calls all academics my age, and I proudly proclaim that indeed I am. It is a privilege for me to be here, in such a fine law school, and I would like to see it continue to offer what I was so glad to be allowed to learn when I went to law school many years ago.”
    “And instead they are offering the sort of irrelevanceI teach,” Kate said. “I see your