Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
"Which is not to say that it isn't good for them. Have you traveled much? Tell me what it was that attracted you to this place. I should think a young man such as yourself would be at a loss outside the city, but perhaps you feel tired of city life, is that so?" So skillfully and engagingly that I was quite disarmed, he led me deftly from topic to topic, and I am sure that in this talk, which seemed only a few minutes but was really much longer, he managed to extract everything about me he
fascinating because their lives are so closely bound to fate that they really are predestined. But—" he laughed—"I'm afraid my students are never very in teresting to me because I always know exactly what they're going to do." I was charmed by his conversation, and despite its illusion of being rather modern and digressive (to me, the hallmark of the modern mind is that it loves to wander from the subject) I now see that he was leading me by circumlocution to the same points again and again. For
chick and she adores him." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Family's got money like you wouldn't believe. Millions and millions. Course it's about as new as it comes, but a buck's a buck, know what I mean?" He winked. "By the way. Meant to ask. How does your pop earn his filthy lucre?" "Oil," I said. It was partly true. Bunny's mouth fell open in a little round o. "You have oil wells?" "Well, we have one," I said modestly. "But it's a good one?" "So they tell me." "Boy," said Bunny,
red tendril spiraled up and curled over her pale toes, undulating in the water like a thread of crimson smoke. "Jesus, what did you do?" "I don't know. I stepped on something sharp." She put a hand on my shoulder and I held her by the waist. There was a shard of green glass, about three inches long, stuck in her foot just above the arch. The blood pulsed thickly with her heartbeat; the glass, stained with red, glittered wickedly in the sun. "What is it?" she said, trying to lean over to see. "Is
the direst circumstances." He shrugged. "If only he'd left the lamp on, anything to tip us off." "But that was going to be the big surprise, you see. Jumping out at us from the dark." "We walked in and turned on the light, and then it was too late. He woke up instantly. And there we were—" "—all white robes and bloody like something from Edgar Allan Poe," Francis said gloomily. "Jesus, what did he do?" "What do you think? We scared him half to death." "It served him right," said Henry. "Tell
