◆ SpookStack

Maclean—begi. ns da on top of ti . She still adored Cail afid had, probably for the first {ime in her married life, emerged from her protective shell, harmonious couple, and my wite and I were happy at the thought that we had made two extremely pleasant new friends. Our fare-¢. Maclean, after about six mont Well to them had been “See you: in Egypt, "was doing excepone soon in Cairo.” ally well'at the Embassy, and he Soon after ‘this Maclean and { too appeared at this time to be Melinda went off to Cairo and I enjoying his new post. Soon after this meeting my returned tp Beirut, and it was Tee, PALL, the following March wife joined me in Cairo andsome that I arrived ip-Calro. friends of ours at the Embassy 4, lent us their house, which was a few doors away from that occupied by the Macleans, Dislike We met 1s Neighbours The next day I received a message from Melinda, welcom- ing me to Cairo ghd inviting me | to cocktails that Jevening. The acleans were liging in a large, delightful house @ Gezireh, fur- {nished and kept up by the Office jet Works. A staff of four excel. | lent Berberine ‘servants and an English governess for the chil dren helped ‘to make life sm rynning and pleasant. :~ the Macleans Gucntly at the endless round of airo ‘parties, and on the rare evenings when neither of us had an engagement we would dine fre. was at this stage of their life that we got to know them well "It soon emerged that Maclean ‘was developing a deep dislike { Egypt nk as ee fle aa together and: play family bridge. ‘ and our liking for them increased. * ent given by a city trom whic! here seemed little escape, and; the contrast between the shock+| ing poverty of 08 per cent. of the Population and ‘the arrogant, | ostentatious wealth of the small ruling class minority outraged his liberal principles. \ J The work of « British diplo- | ‘ mat was complicated by the dit- cullies raised daily by an ine efficient Egyptian Government : seeking in the, still unresolv “Palestine war” a mea: tracting attention from its own extraordinary shortcomings and deflecting to’ the British a public unpopularity which should have been its own, British polley at that period was the traditional one of—doing nothing, of sitting back and see= ing what would happen, of “non- interference” tainted by the fact that our diplomatic influence and the presence of our troops in the Canal Zone constituted at least .@ passive interference. =| Maclean objected strongly to this policy, He felt that as we could not escape from the pre- dominant posi in Egypt, which our previous status there had” given us, we should ‘accept our responsibilities and jity to persuade the rulers of Egypt to institute the reforms which alone, in his opinion, could save the country from Commu- ;hism. ~ ? And. except to stress its dan- gers, that was all I ever heard him say about Communism. Nor, in the course of those Yrequen enings together, now him to drink too much, “ypcture of him at that time woul Show a tall, fair, rather care- | lessly-dressed man of thirty-six, slightly remote, a] restrained, sitting low in an arm- ; ; chair with one lanky leg crossed | over the other and the free foot constantly jerking up and down, ; commenting with cynical humour | 0 the stupidity ahd obtuseness ¥ of most of his fellows, t little” ‘too j to - ‘Mocking. His relations with Melinda’ eared entirely amicable, Slightly condescending, slightly mocking, for she clear! ly took no interest in and had no knowledge of the political and social prob- “lems whith we discussed in" the intervals “between hands of bridge, ok ter Melinda was on the whole gay and unconcerned by his mockery, How far she had come, this Tite American gir] who enly two or three years before in her native Washington had to be cajoled into receiving two or three Ruests, was shown about this time when she entertained the Duke of Edinburgh. He was on 8 visit to Cairo and was staying for some Gays at the British Embassy Melinda was asked at short notice to organise 2 “young people's party ® for Tt took place at the Macleans’ house in Gezireh, with Melinda as hostess. ‘elve” members of Cairo's “younger set” were invited to dine with the Duke and other Euests came in afterwards, They, Played slightly juvenile games— “murder"—and the party was a great success. At the end of the summer I left’ Cairo again. When I got back ‘the following February I beard rather odd stories about Maclea: ig antipathy to his. life in Egypt was increasing to such an extent, it was said, that he had begun fo drink too much. There had so far beer no scandal and, at any rate officially, the Embassy knew nothing about it, but his friends were alarmed. “. Seenes -- It would be ridiculous. to cali im an habjtual. drunkard. 1 pever saw. him. anything but sober. But from time to time during his life he had been known fo. seek refuge trom problems that were too much for him in 4 spel} of reckless drinking. His drinking had begun early. letter to hi aS = a9