Читать книгу An Affair of State онлайн

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"Thanks," Jeff said. "Thanks very much." All day he wondered how the clerk could guess.

On Monday Jeff reported at Dannenberg's office at ten-thirty, although examination time was not until eleven. Dannenberg seemed excited and fluttery. "It's not going to be here," he said. "It's going to be in the other building. And we've had a surprise. The Secretary himself is going to sit in on the examining board. It's the first time he's ever done it. He's deeply interested in recruitment, you know."

"Will it make a difference?" Jeff asked. "I mean, what'll it do to my chances?"

"Now, don't worry," said Dannenberg, "and don't be nervous. Just sit down and read a magazine, and take it easy, and when the Secretary is ready they'll call and I'll take you over."

Jeff sat down, and picked up a copy of Fortune, and turned the pages. His eyes scanned sentences and paragraphs, and pretended to read, but his mind did not know what his eyes were seeing. It was stupid to be scared. The presence of the Secretary might even better his chances, for the others would not want the Secretary to waste his time on a failure. Yet he recalled all the gossip of the awful ordeal of the oral, how even graduates of the Georgetown University school came out of it shaken, inarticulate, and disapproved.