The headmaster stood thinking.... The new order....
"Bruce," he said.
"Yes, sir?"
"Tell me, do I look very old?"
Bruce stared.
"Do I look three hundred years old?"
"No, sir," said Bruce, with the stolid wariness of the boy who fears that a master is subtly chaffing him.
"I feel more, Bruce," said the headmaster, with a smile. "I feel more. You will remember to congratulate your father for me, won't you?"
Outside the door Jack Bruce paused in deep reflection. "Rum!" he said to himself. "Jolly rum!"