Proteus - The Old Man of the Sea

This is Proteus. Those fortunate students who attended class Tuesday before Thanksgiving and witnessed the miracle of the second group's presentation will know that I am reffering to Quilty when I speak of Proteus, and I speak of Jared (whom, with imagination, the above picture can be seen to represent) when I speak of Quilty. Proteus was, in Greek mythology, the herdsman of Posiedon's seals. He can foretell the future to someone who can catch him (the sly, elusive type) but will shape-shift into many different forms to avoid being captured. The challenge is in "pinning him down," to steal Dr. Sexson's words (we are all theives in the laquered night).
Quote Humbert: A veritable Proteus of the highway, with bewildering ease he switched from one vehicle to another. This technique implied the existnce of garages specializing in "stage-automoblie" operations, but I could never discover the remises he used. He seemed to patronize at first the Chevorlet genus, beginning with a Campus Cream convertible, then going on to a small Horizon Blue sedan, and thenceforth fading into Surf Grey and Driftwood Grey. Then he turned to other makes and passed through a pale dull rainbow of paint shades, and one day I found myself attempting to cope with the subtle distinction between our own Dream Blue Melmoth and the Crest Blue Oldsmobile he had rented; greys, however, remained his favorite cryptochromism, and, in agonizing nightmares, I tried in van to sort out properly such ghosts as Chrysler's Shell Gray, Chevrolet's Thistle Gray, Dodge's French Gray..

Humbert is bumbling, trying to catch the elusive Proteus as he slips from one disguise to the other. So this is a warning: watch Jared, he is a shifty one. Catch him and he may be able to tell you how you will do in this class.