The Palace Theif

The title story is Canin’s most accomplished. A teacher of ancient history, Mr. Hundert, retired from an exclusive private school after a lifetime’s service to three generations of boys, reviews his career so he can warn other students of history concerning the corrupt course of a powerful business leader and politician. As a boy, Sedgewick Bell arrives at St. Benedict’s School as a student with the formidable support of a father who is a ruthless United States senator. Hundert finds himself drawn into a losing battle of wits with both the father and his bullying, lying son. At the annual tournament in Roman history, a public ritual attended by parents and graduates, Bell almost wins the competition by cheating. Consulting his headmaster, Hundert is advised to ignore the trespass—Senator Bell is in the audience. Later, Hundert is intimidated by both school authorities and Senator Bell from pursuing disciplinary action against Sedgewick.

In the ensuing years, Sedgewick Bell becomes chairman of the nation’s second-largest corporation, while Hundert fails to obtain the headmaster position he believes he deserves and is forced into retirement. Lacking family or close friends, he has become a fussy and foolish old man. Then comes an invitation from Bell to preside over a rematch of the Roman history competition. This time it is held on one of Bell’s islands before a select audience of academics, policymakers, and corporate captains. Bell answers all but one of his former teacher’s questions correctly. Yet Hundert realizes that Bell has again cheated, and Hundert himself again fails a moral test: He does not expose the powerful Bell before this powerful public. When the two meet for a farewell, they take each other’s measure and agree that neither has changed. Bell proceeds to follow his father into the Senate, while Hundert sinks into solitary obscurity.