The Captain's Sculpture, parts 29 - 32

 

29. I realized right away that the important thing was to steer clear of the topic altogether. I dreaded the moment when she would lose her self-control and launch into an indictment of the policemen in the class, and so make a fool of herself in their eyes.

30. As the class progressed it seemed that her anger would not erupt, but there was constantly an undercurrent of sarcastic patronizing anger in her observations about the their works, but for some reason they never seemed to notice.

31. Meanwhile all but one of them took to working with the plaster casts and were happy to give up their hopeless struggle to get their lumps of clay to have any sort of animation.  The one who continued with the clay was an elderly man, long retired from the police force. He was a taciturn, quiet individual, and always sat by himself at the far end of the studio with his back to us.

32. Of all the civil servants in the class this retired “Captain,” was the only one in the room that Mrs. Festini had any grudging respect for. He was about seventy years old, and I imagine that Agnes respected him because of his serious standoffish nature.