Marjory Brownlow

Marjory Brownlow is a veteran university secretary whose long service makes her both a keeper of institutional knowledge and a quiet presence in the conflicts around her. Formerly employed in English and later Jacob Rose’s secretary in Liberal Arts, she has turned down several administrative opportunities and kept a private interest in returning to her former department. Her interactions with William Henry Devereaux, Jr. move easily between confidential concern, practical help, and irreverent humor.

Identity and Institutional Background

Marjory has worked at the university longer than anyone William Henry Devereaux, Jr. knows. She began as a secretary in English and followed Jacob Rose to Liberal Arts when he became dean. Since then, she has been offered half a dozen administrative positions and declined them all. The narrator assumes she did so out of loyalty to Jacob or contempt for the administration associated with Dickie Pope, but makes clear that this is his interpretation rather than knowledge of her private reasoning.

Her position gives her a vantage point on university life that department chairs may overlook. The narrator reflects that secretaries to deans know the campus’s informal business, while gender and class bias can keep chairs from dealing directly with them. Marjory’s importance, then, is not simply the length of her service: she occupies a place from which information circulates, even as formal authority rests elsewhere.

A Confidential Wish to Return

In late November, Marjory contacted William Henry Devereaux, Jr. to ask whether she might return to English if Rachel ever left her position. He promised to consider her if Rachel gave notice, while telling her that, as far as he knew, Rachel was content in the job despite having him as her boss. Marjory made clear that she wanted to discuss the matter but could not disclose its reason, and asked him not to tell Jacob.

He promised to keep her confidence, but later admits that he did so by forgetting what he was not supposed to reveal. Seeing her again brings the conversation back to him, along with the suspicion that Marjory knew or anticipated something about the campus situation before it became apparent to him. The distinction matters: the narrative presents this as his suspicion, not proof that she possessed definite advance knowledge. Her earlier inquiry nevertheless suggests that her wish to return to English was connected, in some way he does not understand, to the unsettled university climate.

Practical Help and Familiarity

When William Henry Devereaux, Jr. reaches Jacob’s office, he asks Marjory to tell him everything and assures her he can take it. She responds not with the information he seeks but by noticing that he is limping. The detail redirects the encounter from campus intrigue to his physical condition, and her attention is immediate enough to interrupt his performance of control.

Marjory hands him the phone book when he asks for it. He finds his doctor, Phil Watson, reads out the number, and Marjory dials before passing him the receiver. Her assistance is unceremonious and efficient: she helps him make the call while Jacob is on the phone in the adjoining room. When the doctor’s office asks William Henry Devereaux, Jr. to hold, his reply turns his difficulty into a joke about his inability to do so. Marjory leaves, smiling, and later returns. These small gestures show the ease of a relationship built over years of working together; she recognizes his condition and responds without requiring him to explain himself at length.

Humor and Narrative Role

That familiarity also makes Marjory an effective audience for the narrator’s sharp, sometimes poorly timed humor. After he makes a joke about performing an act during halftime of a donkey basketball game, a braying sound erupts behind him. Marjory has returned and is laughing so hard that it takes her a moment to compose herself; tears of mortification stand in her eyes as she apologizes to Jacob. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. is nearly as ashamed as she is, but cannot look at Jacob and instead sees Marjory begin braying with laughter again. The scene lets her humor briefly break through the formality of the dean’s office, while also exposing the narrator’s embarrassment at having made the moment awkward for Jacob.

Marjory’s appearances therefore join several kinds of knowledge and care: she knows the institution through long service, keeps a confidence about her possible return to English, recognizes when William Henry Devereaux, Jr. is in pain, and shares his comic instincts even when they create discomfort. She is not shown making the university’s major decisions, but her position and relationships reveal how much campus life depends on people who work beside its officials and remember what the official story leaves out.