Degree Day was always an important day, even at this school of unaccredited degrees attended mostly by foreign students with enough cash to purchase their education. Donald Cuthbertson prided himself on being a model for his students and teachers, but he had lately begun to lose his focus, to drift into the past, with even his writing becoming fuzzy. On top of degree day, there was an evening costume party for his wife Lavinia's fortieth birthday, and she was not going to go quietly into middle age.