Chapter 9: Headmaster Solent Reviews the Term's Classifications

The autumn menu came first.

Solent read it with the attention it deserved, which was not inconsiderable. He had learned over twenty years of administering Greymoor that the small logistical decisions — the ones that appeared trivial to men who had not thought carefully about institutional function — were precisely the ones that accumulated into character. A school that served cold soup in November was a school that had stopped noticing. He had never stopped noticing.

He wrote three marginal notes in his small, unhurried hand. The root vegetable portion on Thursdays was adequate but uninspired. The dairy allocation for the upper years wanted adjusting; the figures the kitchen had submitted reflected last term's enrollment, not this term's. The apple order should specify variety. He had mentioned the variety question before. He drew a neat line under the note to indicate it was not a new observation, returned the menu to its folder, and placed the folder in the out-tray.