The Theban Mysteries Read Online Free PDF Page B

abandoned with alacrity and without regret if she was successfully challenged. She had an enormous affection for youngsters and respect for them—so much was immediately clear; certainly she herself appeared to have retained many of their better qualities. The gift of being able to establish rapport with young adults is rare enough; many people are good, or they think they are, with young children. Once past early childhood, however, the children often begin to find the nurses, kindergarten teachers, and babylovers generally cloying and burdensome. Mrs. Banister was a rare specimen.
    “I feel particularly giddy today,” she told Kate, “because Andrew and I have finally solved the problem of New York transportation. Motorcycles. Last night we went to an evening thing complete with evening dress and I sat pillion behind Andrew. Marvelous. We had no trouble parking, and unlike the taxis we didn’t have to wait hours with our meters ticking away even to approach the entrance. Benefit concert, Lincoln Center,” she added, setting the scene.
    “But suppose it rains?” Kate asked, greeting Anne and the tuna-fish sandwiches.
    “Sou’westers, oilskin head to toe, and my evening slippers in a little plastic bag. One must move with the times or one is likely to get stuck in a traffic jam and never move at all. Not to mention pollution.”
    “Do you ride on a motorcycle to school?” Kate asked.
    “No. Andrew, who has to get about much more, takes it during the day. I bicycle. Healthier, less pollution still, same sou’wester and plastic bag in case of rain. I hear the girls are looking forward to your seminar.”
    “Do you?” Kate said. “I wish I could say the same. The fact is, I’ve got a bad case of stage fright.”
    “Nonsense. Julia Stratemayer tells me you’re frightfully good at your university. This is a bit more personal perhaps, but the twelves have one foot out the school door already. Quite grownup, really. I’ve got three of your
Antigone
bunch in one of my drama groups: Angelica Jablon, Betsy Stark, and Freemond Oliver.”
    “Is that actually her name?”
    “Absolutely. I strongly suspect there was a Susan or something in front of the Freemond once upon a time, but it’s plain Freemond Oliver as long as I’ve known her. She’s quite extraordinary at Greek and Latin
and
athletics. Betsy Stark’s quite another kettle of fish—devoted to every form of the comedy of manners from
The Way of the World
through Dorothy Sayers. She believes the great time in the theater after Shakespeare—and she insists, naturally, that
Much Ado About Nothing
is his greatest play—is the American comedy of the twenties and thirties, all sparkling confusions and wit with a wide streak of sentimentality up the middle.
The Philadelphia Story
, one gathers, is the prize of them all.”
    “My husband agrees with her. I’m surprised she wants to study the
Antigone
.”
    “Well, that may be just a little bit of my influence—not that you must think she’s been persuaded against her inclinations, nothing of the sort. She’s
very
fond of the
Odyssey
and considers the conversations between Odysseus and Athene the first witty man-woman exchanges in all literature. In fact, she says, there wasn’t another such till Beatrice and Benedick, but no doubt she’s exaggerating—the twelves do.”
    “And the third girl?” Kate asked, wondering how in the world she was going to conduct a seminar with an athletic Greek scholar and an admirer of George Kaufman’s burdened with neither Greek nor humility.
    “Angelica Jablon,” Mrs. Banister said in a dreamy sort of way. “A
most
unusual girl, though less easily catalogued than the other two, at least in Theban terms. She, you see, is committed,
engagée
as the French say.What excites her about the
Antigone
is that she feels it as the story of our times.”
    “Yikes. And no doubt she identifies with Antigone—I go to my death willingly for the right and all that sort of