4th October, 1894 — The Headmaster’s Office
“Phineas,” he declared at the feeble knock at the door, without looking up. “Come in.”
He had asked his son here for a progress report. He had meant to do this sooner – his son had been here a month, and they had not yet crossed paths (besides being in the same hall for dinner) – but countless other things had... taken precedence. So he had sent instructions for Phineas to visit the Headmaster’s Office that evening. Once the boy had stepped far enough in, he raised a lazy hand to see him halt there at an almost unreasonable distance, where he could still see him from head to foot over his desk, and where he would not be infected with whatever contaminants were no doubt on him from mixing with his more feral classmates.
“Tell me,” he added, in a tone that already bordered on bored – “how have you been getting on?” Though he was speaking to the boy, he did not pause in his annotations, instead preferring to feign that he was in the midst of most important work. (He was making a list of suspected ingredients in a new moustache wax.)
He had asked his son here for a progress report. He had meant to do this sooner – his son had been here a month, and they had not yet crossed paths (besides being in the same hall for dinner) – but countless other things had... taken precedence. So he had sent instructions for Phineas to visit the Headmaster’s Office that evening. Once the boy had stepped far enough in, he raised a lazy hand to see him halt there at an almost unreasonable distance, where he could still see him from head to foot over his desk, and where he would not be infected with whatever contaminants were no doubt on him from mixing with his more feral classmates.
“Tell me,” he added, in a tone that already bordered on bored – “how have you been getting on?” Though he was speaking to the boy, he did not pause in his annotations, instead preferring to feign that he was in the midst of most important work. (He was making a list of suspected ingredients in a new moustache wax.)
