Chapter 6

"It was honest," she said. "Which is different."He looked at her across the desk in the small office, with the afternoon light coming through the single window, and thought about the difference between effective and honest; and thought about the closure notice in his breast pocket; and thought about 214 children in eleven years; and thought—with a specificity he did not usually permit in assessments of this kind, because specificity made decisions more complicated—about a candle going in the dark, only in your head."What would the shortfall require?" he said.She was very still for a moment, then, with the controlled composure of a woman who has learned not to let herself believe things before they are confirmed: "Annually?""Annually. To sustain current operations and address the capital repair backlog."She named a figure. It was not large. It was the amount that, he noted, she had calculated to the nearest pound and had presumably been calculating for two years, and it was a number he could authorize before breakfast without examining the accounts."I will consider it," he said."That is more than I expected," she said, with the precision of a woman who does not perform gratitude for things that are not yet given."You expected closure.""I expected closure," she confirmed. "And I intended to argue against it as fully as I was able, and then, if the argument failed, to find another means of continuing." She looked at the register. "I had a letter drafted to three possible donors. I was not simply waiting for your decision.""No," he said. "I did not think you were."He stood, which was the close of the business portion of the interview. "I will return tomorrow. I would like to see the afternoon session."She looked up at him. "Why?""Because," he said, with a directness he did not usually employ in professional exchanges, "I have been making decisions about this foundation for an hour, and I have done so entirely on the basis of documents, and one composition book, and thirty-seven children I observed for four minutes. That is not sufficient information." He picked up his hat. "I do not make insufficiently informed decisions."Agnes Burch looked at him for a moment with the gray eyes that had been assessing him since the doorway and said, "The afternoon session begins at 1:00."

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