“I won the Sigma Chi Derby with a skit I wrote. I guess you know that. Did you know the dean called us in? She had a fit because this character named Slut … it was about the Sigma Chis and in it they have this housemother named Slut. Anyway, she said goddamn a few times and the dean went crazy. I’m never writing anything else to put on here. How dare she tell us what to have in plays. I hate her. She’s so ugly. I bet she never had a boyfriend in her life.”

“She’s married to the head of the engineering school.”

“What?”

“The dean of women, Shirley Lang. She’s married to the head of engineering. They have two kids. I’ve been to their home for a reception. I think you’ll like this place I’m taking you to, Rhoda. It’s rustic. They have a big fireplace and they cook the steaks inside. We all go there now.”

“Donie said you were from Birmingham. I know a girl from there. May Garth Sheffield. Her family owns the bank. Anyway, she started drinking iodine in milk to make her bones thinner. Can you believe that? Can you believe anybody would do such a thing? Do you know them, the Sheffields?”

“Cal Sheffield? She’s Cal Sheffield’s daughter?”

“I don’t know. I just know her. I don’t know her father’s name.”

“He sold us out. Of course he thinks he’ll sit on the big court for it. Yeah, I know who they are. My father knows him.”

“I don’t know her very well. I just saw her twice. Well, that’s everyone I know in Birmingham.” I watched his face. Surely I could make him smile. Surely something made him smile. But no, he just kept watching me with that laconic expression. I guess my pride kicked in because I began to want to make him like me.

“I’m probably going back to Vanderbilt after this semester. I just came down here to please my dad. He gave me a car to try going to school in Alabama but I don’t think I’ll stay. The classes are so easy I don’t even go.”

“You can get an education anywhere. Who do you have? Who are your teachers?”

Donie came into the room. “Dinner’s ready,” she said. “We’d love to have you stay, Stanley. The housemother said it was all right. You want to eat with the girls?” She gave him a flirtatious look, then a pat on the shoulder.