"Oh, it was never laid before them. As I tell you, Mandeville and I
decided that it could not be regarded as a report, or even as an
indication of Maturin's opinion. We only referred to Maturin at all
because--because we wanted to be absolutely candid."
May smiled; absolute candour resulted, as it seemed to her, in giving
rise to an impression that the Professor had been in favour of the merits
of the Alethea.
"And you won't show it to the directors?"
"No," said Quisante, "certainly not." He paused for a moment and then
added slowly, "In fact it has not been preserved. What is stated there is
based on my own personal discussions with the Professor, and on
Mandeville's; the few lines he wrote added nothing."
It had not been preserved; it had sunk from a report to a draft report,
from a draft report to considerations, from considerations to a few lines
which added nothing; the minimising process, pursued a little further,
had ended in a total disappearance. And nobody knew that it had ever
existed, even as considerations, even as a few lines adding nothing,
except her husband, cousin Mandeville, and herself.
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