Like his daughter, his hair was coarse and wiry and his features
squashed and puglike.
All the Morgans were built that way. It was the proper course of
things, and Davids exotic appearance was out side the natural order. It
was from his mother's side, of course. All that dark hair and flashing
eyes, and the temperament that went with it.
Well, David. First off, I want to congratulate you on your final
results. I was most gratified, Paul Morgan told him gravely, and he
could have added - I was also mightily relieved. David Morgan's
scholastic career had been a tempestuous affair. Pinnacles of
achievement followed immediately by depths of disgrace from which only
the Morgan name and wealth had rescued him.
There had been the business with the games master's young wife. Paul
never did find out the truth of the matter, but had thought it
sufficient to smooth it over by donating a new organ to the school
chapel and arranging a teaching scholarship for the games master to a
foreign university. Immediately thereafter David had won the coveted
Wessels prize for mathematics, and all was forgiven, until he decided to
test his house-master's new sports car, without that gentleman's
knowledge, and took it into a tight bend at ninety miles an hour. The
car was unequal to the test, and David picked himself up out of the
wreckage and limped away with a nasty scratch on his calf. It had taken
all Paul Morgan's weight to have the house-master agree not to cancel
David's appointment as head of house. His prejudices had finally been
overcome by the replacement of his wrecked car with a more expensive
model, and the Morgan group had made a grant to rebuild the ablution
block of East House.
The boy was wild, Paul knew it well, but he knew also that he could tame
him. Once he had done that he would have forged a razor-edged tool. He
possessed all the attributes that Paul Morgan wanted in his successor.
The verve and confidence, the bright quick mind and adventurous spirit,
but above all he possessed the aggressive attitude, the urge to compete
that Paul defined as the killer instinct.
Thank you, Uncle Paul, David accepted his uncle's congratulations
warily. They were silent, each assessing the other. They had never
been easy in the other's company, they were too different in many ways,
and yet in others too much alike. Always it seemed that their interests
were in conflict.
Paul Morgan moved across to the picture windows, so that the daylight
back-lit him it was an old trick of his to put the other person at a
disadvantage.
Not that we expected less of you, of course, he laughed, and David
smiled to acknowledge the fact that his uncle had come close to levity.
And now we must consider your future. David was silent.
The choice open to you is wide, said Paul Morgan, and then went on
swiftly to narrow it. Though I do feel business science and law at an
American University is what it should be. With this obvious goal in
mind I have used my influence to have you enrolled in my old college,
Uncle Paul, I want to fly, said David softly, and Paul Morgan paused.
His expression changed fractionally.
