The silent world of Nicholas Quinn Read Online Free PDF Page B

decimals)
    in every radio and TV news bulletin: the pound had a poor morning, but recovered
    slightly in later dealings; the pound had a better morning, but was later shaky against
    its Continental competitors. The pound, it seemed, occasionally sat up in its sick bed
    to prove to the world that reports of its death had been somewhat exaggerated; but
    almost invariably the effort appeared to have been overtaxing and very soon it was
    once more lying prostrate, relapsing, slipping, falling, collapsing almost—until finally it struggled up on to its elbow once more, blinked modestly around at the anxious
    foreign financiers, and moved up a point or two in the international money market.
    Yet although, during that autumn, the gap in the balance of payments grew ever wider;
    although the huge oil deficit could be made up only by massive loans from the IMF;
    although the number of the unemployed rose sickeningly to unpredicted heights;
    although the bankruptcy courts were enjoying unprecedented business; although
    foreign investors decided that London was no longer a worthy recipient for their ever-
    accumulating cash surpluses—still, in spite of it all, there remained among our foreign
    friends a firm and charming faith in the efficiency and efficacy of the British educational system; and, as a corollary to this, in the integrity and fair-mindedness of t1he British system of public examinations. Heigh-ho!
    On the night of Monday, 3rd November, many were making their ways to hotel rooms
    in Oxford: commercial travellers and small business men; visitors from abroad and
    visitors from home—each selecting his hotel with an eye to business expenses,
    subsistence allowances, travellers' cheques or holiday savings. Cheap hotels and
    posh hotels; but mostly of the cheaper kind, though they (Lord knew) were dear
    enough. Rooms where the cisterns groaned and gurgled through the night; rooms
    where the window sashes sagged and the floorboards creaked beneath the flimsy
    matting. But the five emissaries from the Sheikdom of Al-jamara were safely settled in
    the finest rooms that even the Sheridan had to offer. Earlier in the evening they had
    eaten gloriously, imbibed modestly, tipped liberally; and each in turn had made his
    way upstairs and slipped between the crisp white sheets. Domestic problems,
    personal problems, health problems—certainly any or all of these might ruffle the
    waters of their silent dreams; but money was a problem which worried none of them. In
    the years immediately after the Second World War, oil, of high quality and in large
    accessible deposits, had been discovered beneath their seemingly barren sands; and
    a benevolent and comparatively scrupulous despot, in the person of the uncle of Sheik
    Ahmed Dubai, had not only secured American capital for the exploitation of the wells,
    but had immeasurably enriched the lives of most of the inhabitants of Al-jamara.
    Roads, hospitals, shopping centres, swimming pools and schools had not only been
    planned—but built; and in such an increasingly westernized society the great demand
    of the wealthier citizens was for the better education of their children; and it was now
    five years since the first links with the Foreign Examinations Syndicate had been
    forged.
    The two-day conference started at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 4th, and at the coffee
    session beforehand there was much shaking of hands, many introductions, and all
    was mutual smiles and general bonhomie. The deeply-tanned Arabs were dressed
    almost identically in dark-blue suits, with sparklingly laundered white shirts and sober
    ties. Quinn had earlier viewed the day with considerable misgivings, but soon he
    found to his very great relief that the Arabs spoke a beautifully precise and fluent
    brand of English, marred, it was true, by the occasional lapse from purest idiom, but
    distinct and (to Quinn) almost childishly comprehensible. In all, the two days passed
    rapidly and delightfully: plenary sessions,