He regretted the open question: the boy had presented him with an entirely spineless, insipid answer. All right, he said – and if that was so, if that was the best he could do, Phineas II was going to turn out as mediocre as everything about his prior existence had suggested he would be.
But perhaps this was not a lost cause yet? Perhaps he was finally of the age at which one might begin to do some moulding. At any rate, he wanted the boy to give him an inside view of the new professors this year, to pick out the weak links – but he had been distracted by the latter part of his statement, and his eyebrow arched at the phrasing.
Friends were hardly the point or the priority of his schooling, and he would probably be a better student with no associates at all, but nevertheless... “Hm. And would you say you have been succeeding?”
But perhaps this was not a lost cause yet? Perhaps he was finally of the age at which one might begin to do some moulding. At any rate, he wanted the boy to give him an inside view of the new professors this year, to pick out the weak links – but he had been distracted by the latter part of his statement, and his eyebrow arched at the phrasing.
Friends were hardly the point or the priority of his schooling, and he would probably be a better student with no associates at all, but nevertheless... “Hm. And would you say you have been succeeding?”
