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going to do great things some- day.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    “Well I am right,” he said. “That’s something I just know. But Ben?”
    “What.”
    “I think—” He dropped an ash from his cigarette into the ash tray.
    “I think you ought to be taking it a little easier right now than you seem to.”
    Benjamin nodded.
    “Sow a few wild oats,” Mr. Robinson said. “Take things as they come.
    Have a good time with the girls and so forth.”
    Benjamin glanced at the door.

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    “Because Ben, you’re going to spend most of your life worrying. That’s just the way it is, I’m afraid. But right now you’re young. Don’t start worrying yet, for God’s sake.”
    “No.”
    “Before you know it you’ll find a nice little girl and settle down and have a damn fine life. But until then I wish you’d try and make up a little for my mistakes by—”
    Mrs. Robinson, dressed again in the green dress and the gold pin she had worn to the party, stepped into the room.
    “Don’t get up,” she said.
    Benjamin sat back down in the chair. Mrs. Robinson seated herself on the couch and picked up her unfinished drink from the floor.
    “I was just telling Ben here he ought to sow a few wild oats,” Mr.
    Robinson said. “Have a good time while he can. You think that’s sound advice?”
    Mrs. Robinson nodded.
    “Yes I sure do,” her husband said.
    Benjamin finished his drink quickly and set it down on the table beside him. “I’ve got to go,” he said.
    “Just hang on here, Ben,” Mr. Robinson said. “Wait’ll I finish my drink, then I’m going to have you spin me around the block in that new car out front.”
    “Maybe he’s tired,” Mrs. Robinson said.
    “Tired, Ben?”
    “Oh no. No.” He picked up his glass and held it up to his mouth till the ice cubes clicked down against his teeth. Then he replaced it on the table.
    “Do you want another?” Mrs. Robinson said.
    “What? No.”
    “Sure,” Mr. Robinson said. “You have yourself a few flings this summer. I bet you’re quite the ladies’ man.”
    “Oh no.”
    “What?” Mr. Robinson said, grinning at him. “You look like the kind of guy that has to fight them off.”

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    Benjamin reached for his glass.
    “Are you sure you won’t have another?” Mrs. Robinson said.
    “No. No.”
    Mr. Robinson turned to his wife. “Doesn’t he look to you like the kind of guy who has trouble keeping the ladies at a distance?”
    “Yes he does.”
    “Oh say,” Mr. Robinson said. “When does Elaine get down from Berkeley.”
    “Saturday,” she said.
    “Ben, I want you to give her a call.”
    “I will.”
    “Because I just know you two would hit it off real well. She’s a wonderful girl and I’m just awful sorry you two haven’t got to know each other better over the years.”
    “I am too,” Benjamin said. He watched Mr. Robinson until he had taken the last swallow from his glass, then stood. “I’ll take you around the block,” he said.
    “Great.”
    Benjamin walked ahead of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson through the hall and to the front door and opened it. Mrs. Robinson stepped out onto the front porch after them.
    “Benjamin?”
    He put his hands in his pockets and walked down across the flagstone path without answering her.
    “Benjamin?”
    “What.”
    “Thank you for taking me home.”
    Benjamin nodded without turning around.
    “I’ll see you soon, I hope,” she said.
    “Hey Ben,” Mr. Robinson said, opening the door of the car and getting in. “What do you say we hit the freeway with this thing and see what she does.”

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Chapter 2
    During the next week Benjamin spent most of his time walking. On his twenty-first birthday he ate breakfast, then went out the front door, walked around the block, walked around the block again, then walked downtown. He walked back and forth along the main street till it was time to eat lunch, then went into a cafeteria. All during the afternoon he