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Queenan?”
    Zimmer spoke. “That’s not fair.”
    Andrus turned on him, but more excited than angry. “What’s not fair, Mr. Zimmer?”
    “You’re putting her in an impossible position.”
    “Am I?”
    “Yes. You’re asking her to sacrifice her principle.”
    “No, I’m not. I’ve been asking Ms. Queenan, and you, if you agree with a given rule of society, and then I’ve been asking you about the ethic you have that drives that rule, that justifies it. Both of you seem to think that the no-torture rule makes sense, and both apparently for the same ethical reason, the sanctity of human life. Now I’m just asking Ms. Queenan a simple question. Ms. Queenan, how about it? Is the kidnapper’s life more important than the little girl’s?”
    “No. I mean, they’re equally important.”
    “Equally,” said Andrus. “Let me get this straight. No doubt that the girl will die from lack of air if the police don’t find her.”
    “All right.”
    “And no doubt that the police have the right man. Both an eyewitness and his own confirming confession.”
    “Yes.”
    “But still no torture?”
    Queenan looked around the room. For the last few minutes every head had moved to each player in turn, like a tennis audience at match point.
    Queenan said, “If I use torture, I save this girl, but I open up a lot of people to torture in the future.”
    “So you let the girl die.”
    “I have to. I mean, otherwise I break this rule and everybody might get tortured.” “Mr. Zimmer. Do you let the girl die?”
    Zimmer took a very deep breath. “No.”
    “No?”
    “No. I torture the guy to save her.”
    “You do? Why?”
    “Because she’s more innocent than he is. Also, if I torture him, maybe nobody dies. If I don’t, we know she’ll die.”
    “Ms. Queenan, does Mr. Zimmer’s new logic persuade you?”
    “No. I mean, no, it’s not new logic. Now he’s sacrificing his principle.”
    “Sacrificing his principle. Mr. Zimmer, are you doing that?”
    “No. If the principle behind the rule is to have the government protect human life, then torturing him advances that principle.”
    “How, Mr. Zimmer?”
    “Torturing the kidnapper saves her life without killing him.”
    Andrus said, “Ms. Queenan, if you don’t save the girl by torture, haven’t you let your rule control the reason or ethic behind the rule instead of the other way around, instead of the ethic or reason controlling the rule?” Queenan shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    “Not acceptable, Ms. Queenan. That answer is not acceptable in this class. You must always come up with a response to an opponent’s argument. Otherwise, the opponent has won. To close this hour, let me make an argument you might have made, an argument I’ll be asking several of you to pursue next time. Mr. Zimmer?”
    “Yes?”
    “Mr. Zimmer, what if he dies?”
    “What...?”
    “What if, in torturing the kidnapper, he has a heart attack and dies before telling you where the girl is?” Zimmer opened and closed his mouth twice before saying, “Then I broke the rule and got nothing for it.”
    For the first time since she’d left the stage at the beginning of the class, Andrus returned to the podium. “Did you? Or did you, and Ms. Queenan, find yourselves in a conflict between rule and purpose, between the rule you use to protect society and the purpose you had in mind in imposing the rule on society to protect it. These conflicts will arise, and you must learn to reason them through even if they present unattractive alternatives for action. We shall see you next time.”
    Andrus closed her own notes and exited the classroom immediately. Manolo of the Pompadour jumped up and elbowed a male student out of the way to follow her.
    A black woman sitting next to Zimmer stood, clapping him on the shoulder. “Hey, Zim. Gonna be a long season, I’m thinking.”

    With the change of class, more students were milling around in the halls. By the time I found my prospective