“You were strong and you faced them, but you lied. Why?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s almost one, Miss Angoff, and—”

“I don’t care about that. Mr. Paton, I’ve been with the school for four years. That isn’t very long, I suppose, but even so, I feel a part of Caxton High. It means a great deal to me.”

Harley Paton nodded, realizing that he would have to say it now.

“You mean a great deal to me too,” Miss Angoff said, then added quickly: “in the sense that I’ve always respected you, I’ve always felt that—well, that we thought alike. Even when you decided to go along with the Board; even then. But when you went down there just now—”

“Yes?”

The English teacher trembled slightly. “Mr. Paton, are you really against integration?”

Harley Paton picked up the 8-ball and turned it upside-down.

“I realize I’m overstepping myself,” she said, “but I’ve got to know. Because if you don’t believe, you can’t fight with me. And I can’t fight alone.”

The slender man turned in his chair and faced the window for a time; then he turned back.

“You won’t be fighting alone,” he said.

“Then why—”

“Miss Angoff, I’m going to tell you something now. I’ve never told anyone else, except my wife, and if you repeat it to a living soul I’ll deny it. I’ll say you misquoted me. Is that understood?”

Miss Angoff nodded.

“All right. I am in favor of integration. It has, in fact, been a dream of mine ever since I can remember. I not only want it to happen, I know that it must happen. And that is why I lied to them a few minutes ago and why I shall go on lying. If I took a radical stand now; if I proclaimed myself an antisegregationist, I would lose my power to help. The people would no longer trust me. And they have to trust me, that is vitally important.” He looked at Miss Angoff. “Do you understand?”

She hesitated, then said: “I think so.”

“But you’re not sure. I know. It took me a long time to get it clear. I thought, Whom will you offend by telling the truth? Only the bigots, the fools—but that isn’t true. If it were only the bigots and the fools we had to contend with, we’d have no problem. No; it’s the ordinary people, Miss Angoff. It’s our own friends. Mrs. Gargan and Mr. Spivak and Mrs. Seifried, schoolteachers, businessmen, politicians . . . Intelligent, honest, kind people. They’re the ones we’re contending with.”

Miss Angoff shook her head.