An Elegant Solution(112)

Then Daniel was with me. The melee of the celebration had swept him past several times but we hadn’t talked. Now he was ready to speak. He sat across the table, deliberately, and I saw that, for all the jubilance in his laughs and grins, there was a calculation in his stare that contradicted all his jollity. He took a breath and his firm set jaw and bright eyes were like a duelist examining his opponent.

“Then Leonhard,” he said. “I should have known. That’s all right. We’ll have the best man win, then?”

“The best lot chosen,” I said. “I hope it’s yours.”

“I’ll see that it is. The best man will win.”

“Of us two, you’re the best. That won’t help with choice of the stone.”

“I don’t mean the best between us,” he said. “It’s the best between Brutus and me. That’s the game.”

“What do you mean, Daniel? You’ve said this over and over. What is it, really? Explain this plot that your father has, and how you’ll beat it, and what the game even is.”

He had a cup of dice in his hand, still there from some other table. “What’s your reason for asking?” he asked. He rolled the cup around and around and the dice tumbled inside it.

“I’d like to know. All this you have been saying for days!”

He shook his head. “No, that’s not the right answer. There are two reasons you might ask, and that’s what you’d say either way.”

“What reason would I have beside that you’re maddening with all your hints and threats?”

“What other reason? I’ll tell you. That you’re in the game, too, and wanting to know my next play.”

“What game, Daniel?”

“Take care, friend. Be a piece on the board, and defeat is only a disappointment. Make yourself a player, though, and the stakes are higher.”

“The stakes are to have the Chair, or to not,” I said firmly, not driven quite to anger. “The game is just chance, one chance in three. That’s all.”

“I’ll let you think that, if you really do. But I’ll give you this, Leonhard. If Brutus is under force to give the Chair to one particular man, and he doesn’t want to, what’s his move? He puts up another who might put the first out of the way. But how could that be done? That’s the question.”

“What force, anyway?” I said. “That’s my question.”

He only shook his head. “And,” he said, “to make that other glitter, he sends letters extolling him to Paris! He says he will, anyway. That’s all he needs to do to get you past his committee. I wonder if he’ll waste the paper and ink. He’s even stingier with his reputation, to spend it on recommendations.”

“Daniel.” They were harsh words. “The day has overwhelmed you.” Indeed, it had. His color was pale and his breath short.

“Your proof, though, that’s the nut of it. That’s elegant. Where did it come from, Leonhard?”

“Not from anyone.”

“It came at an opportune time. Almost as if it was for the moment of the Election. It certainly put you in the thick, didn’t it.”

“Daniel, I forgive you for what you’ve said about your father, and about me, and everyone else. You’re conquered by the day and your nerves. Go home, have some food that’s more wholesome than what you’ve had here, then sleep, and find your senses.”

“You’re a good man,” he said and laughed. “I’ll do that. I’m raving and you’re gracious in return.”

It was well into the afternoon. We left together and parted in the Square. I still had the letter from Russia in my pocket, but it still didn’t seem a right time to give it to him.



Grandmother was in the kitchen, sitting at the table, which I saw was set for lunch. Soup was in a pot hung near the fire, and bread with butter was on the sideboard; they were covered with a white cloth, but I knew what they were.

“I’m sorry to be late,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be taken to the inn.”

“Be taken?” she asked.

I corrected myself. “I didn’t mean to go to the inn. But they wanted me and I went.”

“You had reason to be with friends.” That meant she knew, though of course she would have known. I expected that.

“I wanted to come here first,” I said, and though she knew, I still had to say it. “I’ve been nominated, Grandmother. For the Chair in Physics.”

“That’s well done, Leonhard. I’m very pleased for you.”

“Thank you. And Master Johann nominated me.”