Chapter 14 fourth quarter

After the elementary get out of class was over, the advanced class continued without much time, and Ripnin didn't bother to leave the classroom during this time.His office was on another floor at the end of a very echoing passage, next to the staff toilet, where the Literary Treasury, carelessly wrapped in his green neckerchief, now sat on a filing cabinet.Before 1950 (now it is 1953 - how time flies!), he shared an office in the German department with a young lecturer, Mr. Müller, and later he had an office by the door The special office marked with the word "Russia", which was originally a dilapidated room, is now completely painted.For a whole spring, he happily puning it.Into the room were brought two rough chairs, a bulletin board made of cork, a can of floor wax that a workmate forgot to take away, and a poor desk with a pedestal made of unidentifiable wood.He also had a small steel cabinet with a lovely lock from the administration.Young Miller, at Pnin's command, carried over part of one of Pnin's knock-down bookcases.Pnin bought another three dollars for a faded Turkish rug from old Mrs. McChrystal in the board-and-white house in which he lived a dull winter (1949-19 Fifty years).With the help of his co-workers, he also keeps a pencil sharpener on the side of his desk—a very satisfying, very philosophical tool that rattles and swallows sweet wood and bright yellow paint when it's turned. , in the end, as we all must, end up in a silently swirling void.He also had grander plans, buying an armchair and a high lamp or something.But one summer, he went to Washington to teach a class, and when he came back into the office, he saw a fat dog lying on his carpet, and his furniture was moved to a darker corner to make room for it. An ornate stainless-steel desk and matching swivel chair sit a newly imported Austrian academic, Dr. Budor von Faternfuss, writing and smiling to himself.From then on, Pnin was less enthusiastic when he talked about the word "Russia" in the office.