The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold

by Evelyn Waugh

Foreign students often chose them as the subject for theses, but those who sought to detect cosmic significance in Mr. Pinfold’s work, to relate it to fashions in philosophy, social predicaments or psychological tensions, were baffled by his frank, curt replies to their questionnaires; their fellows in the English Literature School, who chose more egotistical writers, often found their theses more than half composed for them.

Away from his parish he sought the least frequented Mass; at home he held aloof from the multifarious organizations which have sprung into being at the summons of the hierarchy to redeem the times.

After even the idlest day he demanded six or seven hours of insensibility.

“In a democracy,” said Mr. Pinfold with more weight than originality, “men do not seek authority so that they may impose a policy. They seek a policy so that they may achieve authority.”