[Scene III] Academic pursuits - Amanda...

[Airbornexo]

Just in time Amanda makes the hall as the puffing professor comes waddling a high speeds down the corridor. He notes her and smiles a thin smile, "can I help you miss? Were you waiting for me?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, Professor, if you're not too busy," says Amanda, smiling back with more sincerity. "We have a mutual acquaintance: Hector Hornley."

[Airbornexo]

"Yes, yes Mister Hornley is one of my more dedicated students. Perhaps you'll step into my office for a moment, I must confessed that I find myself somewhat vexed this morning. I had come in early and...well you don't need to...come in, come in." The fifty, or so, year old professor is jovial and charming. His deep voice is the kind that Amanda might expect coming out of a radio reading the news, melodious and comforting.

As he speaks he comes across as a much younger man, Amanda puts this down to his natural enthusiam. He shuffles some papers from a spare chair and waves the young woman to sit down. "What can I do to help you miss?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Amanda, taking the proffered seat. "Mr. Hornley was reading this book of poetry that you had told him about...what was it called again?"

[Airbornexo]

The Professor takes a seat and steeples his fingers together thinking for a moment..."Oh, yes, yes. I mentioned an obscure English writer to Hector a few months ago. Lucian Vawdrey, died eighteen-seventy or so. He was the only child of a wealthy landowner, and managed to squander his inheritance over his lifetime. Never did a day’s work in his life, apart from writing two books of poetry."

"I used to know 'A Journey Into Lonely Places' quite well. When I was an undergraduate, some friends and I used to hold contents. You start reading a section out loud, and try to get as far as you can before you can no longer contain your mirth. Absolutely abominable, turgid, ludicrous writing. There should be a copy in the library, I urge you not to read it my dear for the sake of your sanity."

"The other book, though, 'The Invisible Path' was the title. A very strange book. His style was very different, not more mature, just as poor and laboured, but there was something interesting about it. I read parts of it, and slept poorly that night. It had no artistic merit, mind you, but it… well, even a penny-dreadful tale of blood and gore can sow nightmares, I suppose."

"Hector, though, he seems to think there was something in it. When I saw him last week, he said something about rescuing Vawdrey from obscurity." He pauses for a moment, "Are you a friend of Hector's, he didn't mention someone as charming as you, I'd have remembered. I didn't catch your name my dear?"

[Mr. Handy]

Amanda smiles again. "You're too kind, Professor," she says. "My name is Amanda Somerville. I'm Mr. Hornley's neighbour, but we keep different hours, so we don't often see each other. Does the library also have a copy of The Invisible Path?"

[Airbornexo]

"The library? Well I assume so, whether it has more than one copy though I'm not sure and Hector has been fervently checking that book out. As far as I'm aware there are only a few copies that have survived the ravages of time, I'm sure if you were after a copy the British Musuem's collection should have one. The reading room there has the most extensive collection in the Empire." He smiles thinly, "A project you and Hector are working on perhaps? It would be nice to see him actually interact with someone else, he has been so introverted of late."

[Mr. Handy]

"Sadly, no," says Amanda, looking down. "You're right, he hasn't been very outgoing lately. It's a shame, he's always been such a nice and friendly fellow." She doesn't want to break the news of Hector's death to the professor. Not only does she want Grimes to judge his first reaction to hearing the news, but she doesn't have the heart to tell him. I wish I'd gotten to know Hector better, she thinks. I'd have gladly gone out with him, if only he'd asked me. "I suppose he's been spending all this time on his obsession with Vawdrey. But surely there must have been someone else who shared his interest, someone he'd have spent time with?"

[Airbornexo]

The professor shakes his head "Hector is a fine student of good family. Very bright, very dedicated… I worried when he roomed with Fitzgerald, who’s a hellraiser and a cad, but in his studies he is very much the island of a man. He's studying Modern Literature and Journalism. I think he has his eye on becoming a critic, eventually."

"He is a voracious reader, spent all his first year evenings in the library. That’s where I met the boy and took him under my wing, so to speak. Academically, he's good, not especially exceptional, but good most definitely, and in the last few weeks his work has been slipping...I put it down to fatigue or illness. Hopefully he's getting some rest as we speak, unless Fitzgerald has had him out on the tiles all night long."

[Mr. Handy]

"Oh, Fitzgerald is a bounder all right!" says Amanda, knowing the man all too well. "I can't imagine Horace spending nights with him. I think he must be staying up late because of his work on Vawdrey. Has anyone tried to dissuade him from it?"

[Airbornexo]

"No I don't believe anyone has tried to steer him clear of the studies, I don't think it was bordering on the unhealthy mind you. He is such an intense young man, I mentioned that he might be wasting his time, but he was convinced there was something more to it."

[Mr. Handy]

"Perhaps he was right, then," says Amanda. "Does Vawdrey have any living decsendants?"

[Airbornexo]

"Goodness, I'd not really considered that to be honest. Genealogy is not really a passion of mine, I'm sure that you should be able to find that out in the records office of his local parish. His writing suggests he was a bitter bachelor though, if I were to guess." The professor begins to shift in his chair as though he wants to return to his search for his missing papers.

Then something occurs to him, "there might be something in the 'Home Counties families' by Twerpp; I think I have a copy...one moment." He jumps up and pours over the spines in a crammed bookcase, he retrieves a heavy volume and plonks it down on the desk with a thump.

"Yes, yes here is something that might help your curiosity. Vawdrey, according to this, was the scion of a declining family of landowners. He was very ill as a child, and never married. He self-published a book of poetry which was savaged by critics and roundly ignored by everyone. He locked himself away in his family mansion outside Oxford, and never emerged again except to publish a few copies of 'The Invisible Path'. He died in a mysterious fire in 1871." He looks pleased with himself, hoping his has impressed the young woman...

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you, that is helpful," says Amanda with a smile. "What made the fire that claimed his life mysterious?"

[Airbornexo]

"I'm sorry dear, as I said I'm no historian - I wouldn't know apart from it alludes to the mysterious circumstances here in the Twerpps. Now if there is nothing else I really should get back to my work?" He half-stands as a polite way to encourage his guest to leave...

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you for your time, Professor," says Amanda, rising. "It was a pleasure meeting you." She exits the office and makes her way to the library, checking her watch to see how long she has before the rendezvous.

[Airbornexo]

OOC:   Amanda has around three hours before she is scheduled to meet the rest of the party at the station...

[Mr. Handy]

Realizing that Hector most likely had the college's only copy of the rare book The Invisible Path, which was probably the book that had been burned in the fire, Amanda goes outside and walks to the British Museum in Great Russell Street. They might not have let me check it out anyway, she thinks, seeing as I'm not a student there.

[Airbornexo]

Amanda sets off at a brisk pace, she pauses on the half hour leisurely walk for a coffee and a light breakfast to fortify her for the travel to Oxford later in the day. The British museum comes into sight and Amanda walks to the Reading Room arriving there just before 10.30am...

OOC:   Please move to the Library thread Where Millicent and Sam have just settled down to conduct a bit of research. OR Please move to the [Scene III Interview in Bloomsbury - Grimes and Felix] thread as she bumps into Grimes and Felix on their way out of the reading room, to interview the last person to check out the Invisible Path from the British Museum.