“The Assistant Headmaster” from “Remembering Eternity”

“If Bunker was the supreme leader, more ceremonial and symbolic in nature, his adjutant, Mr. Browning, was the man of the people. Browning was charming, in the most old-fashioned sense of the word. A New Englander who carried all the shadings of that origin, he wore black glasses that constantly slipped down onto the ridge of his nose. Avuncular, academic, and oh-so-East-Coast was Browning. His silver hair, long past recession and into depression, covered only the back fifth of his pate; though combed back, it occasionally tufted in the rear. His equine face, featuring long jawbones and a narrow nose, had been nicely crafted in the English style. Although his upper-class Bostonian accent and Harvard pedigree gave Browning an imposing air, he was capable of flicking an endearing smile out at the world when something struck him as either funny or clever. Were he sculpted alongside his superior, Mr. Browning’s significator would be a bow tie. He always wore one, no matter where the currents of fashion flowed, bringing some London-antique-dealer or Boston-Brahmin-curator influence into the school.”