The Headmaster's Dilemma Read Online Free PDF Page A

troubles. And not only are you doing a splendid job in Legal Aid—you know you love it."
    It was true, Ione reflected ruefully. She
was
doing a decent job, and she
did
love it. A good nurse looked after the children in the daytime, and she was home by six and all the weekend. It was a good life. But she knew what people would say. "He gave up a great career because his selfish wife wanted to keep her trumpery job." She had always believed that in a perfect modern marriage the minor career should bow to the bigger one. She knew that Michael would have surrendered his had she been offered the headship of a great girls' school in another state.
    "We needn't argue about it, my dear," she said conclusively. "I shall tell Legal Aid tomorrow that I'm leaving them—whether or not you accept the Averhill offer. So my job will cease to be a factor in your decision."
    She went on to insist that their new life at the school would present an exciting challenge for both of them. It was easy for her immediately to see that this attitude was distinctly gratifying to him. Oh, yes, he wanted that job, so long as he could have it with a clear conscience!
    "Well, I will say this about it," he commented. "It's really a post for both of us. A headmaster's wife, like a diplomat's, is a partner of her husband."

3

    A FULL PARTNER ? An equal partnership? Well, for a time Ione had tried to see it that way. The first year at Averhill had been a busy and distracting one for her: rearranging and redecorating the rather worn headmaster's residence, getting the children settled at the local nursery school, meeting the faculty and the faculty wives, acquainting herself with academic ways and traditions. But after that it became apparent that there was a wide and impassable gap between the new headmaster's hectic and crowded days and her own so much more placid ones.
    For there was really little enough for a headmaster's wife to do, in the highly organized academic schedule, that seemed worthy of her training in law or even of her general aptitudes. There was the duty of entertainment, to be sure: visiting parents, trustees, and alumni had to be greeted and sometimes fed; "parlor nights," when selected groups of students came to her house for games and cider, had to be organized; faculty wives had to be visited and certain school functions attended. But it was all a bit like being royalty on a very minor scale; a trained and efficient staff did most of the work, and a gracious smile often sufficed as her contribution. Nor did she find any particularly congenial friends among the faculty wives, who struck her on the whole as a rather dreary lot. Everyone was very kind, very helpful, but she was a long way from the glittering world of her parents, which she at last fully appreciated. And the contrast of her life with Michael's zestful and industrious one was not pleasant.
    For he had plunged with energy and enthusiasm into what he didn't hesitate to call the challenging job of hauling the school into the modern era. The introduction of coeducation had substantially enlarged the student body; a new dormitory had to be constructed, classrooms expanded, women teachers employed. Courses in science and philosophy had to be added to the schedule, and Michael himself, despite the endless administrative demands on his time, had insisted on teaching a new class in current events that included everything from the arts to government. He even lent an occasional hand in football coaching, and he always attended the Saturday afternoon games with neighboring schools. There was little relief for him, either, on weekends, when he made himself available for conferences with worried parents when he was not traveling to New York or Boston to address alumni on fund drives.
    One period each day, however, was rigidly kept for him to be alone with his wife, and that was the half-hour before their bedtime when they discussed the events of the day over a nightcap.
    "Darling,