Bradfield, all the years and sacrifice and patience, all the promises of marriage and children of her own. It had come down to fighting like alley cats in the faculty lounge.
"Susan Reinert pursues me," Bill Bradfield swore to her. "The woman's neurotic. She's looking for a stepfather for her children and somehow she's chosen me!"
"You're lying!" Sue Myers said. "Even when you were in New York studying Latin last summer, her number showed up on our phone bill. Why're you so cruel as to bill those calls to our phone? Do you like to torment me?"
"I don't see her in the way you think!" he said. "I felt sorry for her. She's pathetic. Sure, I've called her. I've given her advice because she begs me for help. My God, I wouldn't have anything to do with a woman like that, not in the way you imply. She's not even an adequate teacher. I can't even stand her absurd politics!"
Sue Myers had heard a good deal on that subject. Her "absurd politics" meant that Susan Reinert was not politically conservative enough to suit Bill Bradfield. Now that Ezra Pound was long dead, his greatest living hero was William F. Buckley, Jr. In fact, he once went to a National Review dinner in a new suit he bought for the occasion.
One afternoon, Sharon Lee, who'd arranged the Great Gatsby party, received a very strange visit in her homeroom from Bill Bradfield. He was visibly distressed. His brow knitted anxiously. His blue eyes ached with concern. Though he had never told a living soul that he'd had any sort of romantic involvement with Susan Reinert, he did admit to Sharon Lee that he was a friend and adviser to the troubled woman. And in that Sharon Lee was Susan Reinert's close friend, Bill Bradfield wanted her assistance.
"I know I can trust you to make Susan understand," he said. "Tell her to stay away from Sue Myers. I'm concerned for her welfare. I fear that Sue Myers is insanely jealous. She might actually do harm to Susan Reinert." And then he added, "Or even to her children."
Susan Reinert wondered if any man was worth it all. She made up her mind to tell Bill Bradfield that he had to choose between Sue Myers and herself, and must do it at once. On the other hand, she told her friend and fellow teacher Pat Schnure that Bill Bradfield could not just simply walk away from Sue Myers without properly preparing the way, and that there was a reason for this. It seemed that he'd experienced a great loss in his own life and couldn't bear to make others suffer loss without easing it as much as possible.
There had been a girl in Annapolis with whom he was desperately in love. She was diagnosed as having terminal cancer. The disease ravaged her quickly and one day when he went to her family home to see if the prognosis was at all hopeful he was told that Cod had taken her suddenly and mercifully.
By and by, in the throes of despair, he found himself in the place where they'd first kissed. Theirs had not been a sexual love. It was pure and chaste. On the very spot where they'd vowed their fidelity, he experienced a catharsis, he said. He wept as only poets weep. And he was whole again.
This man, Susan Reinert informed her friend, was worth waiting for. He swore that the wait would be a short one.
She dabbed a little more liniment on her bruises and decided to be patient.
Chapter 5
Mr. Chips
Sue Myers often worried that Bill Bradfield would never see himself as half the success in academia that his father had been in the world of business. Yet she found him to be talented as well as inspiring. True, he was sometimes erratic, always eccentric, frequently late or absent while doing a dozen other things unrelated to his job, but that ability to inspire was a gift, she believed.
But their sex life was diminishing even more. He was so often away on conferences, or seminars, or lectures, or various other outings that she frequently found herself alone, listening to the kiddie clock running down.
Added to this was a brand-new worry for a frugal,
"Susan Reinert pursues me," Bill Bradfield swore to her. "The woman's neurotic. She's looking for a stepfather for her children and somehow she's chosen me!"
"You're lying!" Sue Myers said. "Even when you were in New York studying Latin last summer, her number showed up on our phone bill. Why're you so cruel as to bill those calls to our phone? Do you like to torment me?"
"I don't see her in the way you think!" he said. "I felt sorry for her. She's pathetic. Sure, I've called her. I've given her advice because she begs me for help. My God, I wouldn't have anything to do with a woman like that, not in the way you imply. She's not even an adequate teacher. I can't even stand her absurd politics!"
Sue Myers had heard a good deal on that subject. Her "absurd politics" meant that Susan Reinert was not politically conservative enough to suit Bill Bradfield. Now that Ezra Pound was long dead, his greatest living hero was William F. Buckley, Jr. In fact, he once went to a National Review dinner in a new suit he bought for the occasion.
One afternoon, Sharon Lee, who'd arranged the Great Gatsby party, received a very strange visit in her homeroom from Bill Bradfield. He was visibly distressed. His brow knitted anxiously. His blue eyes ached with concern. Though he had never told a living soul that he'd had any sort of romantic involvement with Susan Reinert, he did admit to Sharon Lee that he was a friend and adviser to the troubled woman. And in that Sharon Lee was Susan Reinert's close friend, Bill Bradfield wanted her assistance.
"I know I can trust you to make Susan understand," he said. "Tell her to stay away from Sue Myers. I'm concerned for her welfare. I fear that Sue Myers is insanely jealous. She might actually do harm to Susan Reinert." And then he added, "Or even to her children."
Susan Reinert wondered if any man was worth it all. She made up her mind to tell Bill Bradfield that he had to choose between Sue Myers and herself, and must do it at once. On the other hand, she told her friend and fellow teacher Pat Schnure that Bill Bradfield could not just simply walk away from Sue Myers without properly preparing the way, and that there was a reason for this. It seemed that he'd experienced a great loss in his own life and couldn't bear to make others suffer loss without easing it as much as possible.
There had been a girl in Annapolis with whom he was desperately in love. She was diagnosed as having terminal cancer. The disease ravaged her quickly and one day when he went to her family home to see if the prognosis was at all hopeful he was told that Cod had taken her suddenly and mercifully.
By and by, in the throes of despair, he found himself in the place where they'd first kissed. Theirs had not been a sexual love. It was pure and chaste. On the very spot where they'd vowed their fidelity, he experienced a catharsis, he said. He wept as only poets weep. And he was whole again.
This man, Susan Reinert informed her friend, was worth waiting for. He swore that the wait would be a short one.
She dabbed a little more liniment on her bruises and decided to be patient.
Chapter 5
Mr. Chips
Sue Myers often worried that Bill Bradfield would never see himself as half the success in academia that his father had been in the world of business. Yet she found him to be talented as well as inspiring. True, he was sometimes erratic, always eccentric, frequently late or absent while doing a dozen other things unrelated to his job, but that ability to inspire was a gift, she believed.
But their sex life was diminishing even more. He was so often away on conferences, or seminars, or lectures, or various other outings that she frequently found herself alone, listening to the kiddie clock running down.
Added to this was a brand-new worry for a frugal,
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