‘So who’s the cleverboots? Not Percy, that’s for sure. And don’t tell me the Americans have started trusting us again either.’ The grip tightened. ‘Dashing Bill Haydon, our latter-day Lawrence of Arabia, bless him; there you are, it’s Bill, your old rival.’ Martindale’s tongue poked out its head again, reconnoitred and withdrew, leaving a thin smile like a trail. ‘I’m told that you and Bill shared everything once upon a time,’ he said. ‘Still he never was orthodox, was he? Genius never is.’
‘Anything further you require, Mr Smiley?’ the waiter asked.
‘Then it’s Bland: the shopsoiled white hope, the redbrick don.’ Still he would not release him. ‘And if those two aren’t providing the speed, it’s someone in retirement, isn’t it? I mean someone pretending to be in retirement, don’t I? And if Control’s dead, who is there left? Apart from you.’
They were putting on their coats. The porters had gone home, they had to fetch them for themselves from the empty brown racks.
‘Roy Bland’s not redbrick,’ Smiley said loudly. ‘He was at St Antony’s College, Oxford, if you want to know.’
Heaven help me, it was the best I could do, thought Smiley.
‘Don’t be silly, dear,’ Martindale snapped. Smiley had bored him: he looked sulky and cheated; distressing downward folds had formed on the lower contours of his cheeks. ‘Of course St Antony’s is redbrick, it makes no difference there’s a little bit of sandstone in the same street, even if he was your protégé. I expect he’s Bill Haydon’s now – don’t tip him, it’s my party not yours. Father to them all Bill is, always was. Draws them like bees. Well, he has the glamour, hasn’t he, not like some of us. Star quality I call it, one of the few. I’m told the women literally bow down before him, if that’s what women do.’
‘Good night, Roddy.’
‘Love to Ann, mind.’
‘I won’t forget.’
‘Well, don’t.’
And now it was pouring with rain, Smiley was soaked to the skin and God as a punishment had removed all taxis from the face of London.
CHAPTER THREE
‘Sheer lack of willpower,’ he told himself, as he courteously declined the suggestions of a lady in the doorway. ‘One calls it politeness whereas in fact it is nothing but weakness. You featherhead, Martindale. You pompous, bogus, effeminate, nonproductive…’ He stepped widely to avoid an unseen obstacle. ‘Weakness,’ he resumed, ‘and an inability to live a self-sufficient life independent of institutions’ – a puddle emptied itself neatly into his shoe – ‘and emotional attachments which have long outlived their purpose. Viz my wife, viz the Circus, viz living in London. Taxi!’
Smiley lurched forward but was already too late. Two girls, giggling under one umbrella, clambered aboard in a flurry of arms and legs. Uselessly pulling up the collar of his black overcoat he continued his solitary march. ‘Shopsoiled white hope,’ he muttered furiously. ‘Little bit of sandstone in the street. You bombastic, inquisitive, impertinent-‘
And then of course he remembered far too late that he had left the Grimmelshausen at his club.
‘Oh damn!’ he cried sopra voce, halting in his tracks for greater emphasis. ‘Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn.’
He would sell his London house: he had decided. Back there under the awning, crouched beside the cigarette machine, waiting for the cloudburst to end, he had taken this grave decision. Property values in London had risen out of proportion, he had heard it from every side. Good. He would sell and with a part of the proceeds buy a cottage in the Cotswolds. Burford? Too much traffic. Steeple Aston, that was a place. He would set up as a mild eccentric, discursive, withdrawn, but possessing one or two lovable habits such as muttering to himself as he bumbled along pavements. Out of date perhaps, but who wasn’t these days? Out of date, but loyal to his own time. At a certain moment, after all, every man chooses: will he go forward, will he go back? There was nothing dishonourable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one’s own generation. And if Ann wanted to return, well, he would show her the door.