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. Melinda was 1 should wrap all th= Macleans’ he early days presents and that hould take side me atthe them to them on ‘\ day before let me do the Christmas. Our gifts were barely as, Now that noticed. Melinda, distraught and jittery, could hardly hold a glass. a Kim spent the whole Christmas very dis- Day in bed, partially insensible. Thete were no presents for me. 1 drifted around the flat like a lost sou. i 18 a relief to; at ‘sophisti-! r Kim’s drunken binge lasted into ! ilter all that “the New Year. He would surface . -¥, and there every few days and, for an hour -thought-out' or so, would be his old self again, ¢ whole plot but then something in his conscious- : : ness would trigger off a new bout tovend is of depression and drinking. 1 usible,' and , probed in vain for the cause of : his behaviour: I reviewed in my ; keeps ON mind the whole course of our rela- -at, any ate, — tionship and of his career, as ] knew has-any real it. I could not pinpoint what had gone wrong. His relations with Sergei seemed unaffected; his work on the Lonsdale memoirs seemed to be making steady progress; the Russians were as soliciious and deferential as ever. He could not therefore be worried about his work. Was I the cause of his unhappi- ness ? One day early in January Melinda Tang up ry the verge of tears, * am " e in an awful state,’ she said,‘ Donald : ange Shear “has become quite impossible and I Bea can’t live with him any mores I'm a moving the flat about so ‘that I can aL igesless, and ave a oom to, myself.’ I'm taking i er, Ticky’s room [her son] and he’: SNe eitwith ne eee 1 Shé seemed so helpless, weepy and _ broken-up, that I agreed to go round and give her a hand. Together we * moved furniture and rearranged one , of their two bedrooms. She had her _ own telephone extension in there and a record player; one or two nice pieces of furniture and a few repro- ductions of the better-known Im- Pressionists. 11 was quite a cosy little “business ! ’ Yokn Le. Carrés mthere, he sat. ‘ Could not help other attentions nes : In the New Year, Kim fell into the habit of going out more and more .. frequently. He also started making -, long: and mumbled telephone calls 2. from our flat. Occasionally I would overhear a word in Russian, He never explained what furtive busi- ness he was up to, or who his stealthy ‘interlocutor was. At first 1 sup- posed these calls had to do with his work, but then, from the look in his eye behind his cupped hand, I was sure he was talking to a woman. He must, I thought, be having an affair with a Russian woman, a scasual passion ignited in my absence in the US and which would, no’ ~* doubt, soon burn itself out. . “-"T had no one to turn to except Melinda. ‘ Look,’ I said to her one <i day. * I'm worried about Kim. He's drinking too much; he’s so nervous and denressed that [sometimes think... T i settled down to dinner and a p~ ne of Scrabble. ° ' After dinner, in the cosine. 4f the dacha, Kim asked me to read aloud to them from ‘ Burgess and Maclean’ by Anthony Purdy and Douglas Sutherland, a book which he had recently received from England. They particularly wanted me to read the chapter entitled ‘And Now, Melinda,’ which describes her escape with her children from Switzerland to the Soviet Union. Stupidly, I | agreed. I remember there was a paragraph, reeking of Hollywood cliché, which described Melinda as a woman of tremendous courage, acting with the 4 did not, « T finally got him back to Mosc: put him to bed and summoned doctor,’ A bone was broken in wrist, Kim was rarely at home after th Tt appeared that his work with Lo: dale was more and more demandi: but I was sure that he was w Melinda much of the time.’ One day Kim. told me he wor be very late. en he left the hoi I rang Melinda\to learn from 1 maid that she too was gone for ; day. She usually managed to get h pretty drunk by the time he got hon 50 that he was not much help to n TURN TO PAGE 23 ALONE! Ina squalid room Home is often a tiny basement room that lacks adequate heating, lighting, plumbing, cooking facilities. No relatives are around to care. No friends visit. Thousands and thousands of old people in Britain today are condemned to similar conditions. 1, million of them live completely alone. More than 300,000 jack suitabie housing. Many live in great distress. Even a Welfare State cannot keep pace with the growing need, but YOU can help through Help the Aged. Money given to Help the Aged builds specially designed flatlets or converts existing houses into suitable accommodation where the needy aged can bring their own personal belongings, settle in, make friends and have the protection of a resident warden, Help the Aged is also combating loneliness by creating Day Centres where the elderly can meet together for lunch and social gatherings and benef from various welfare services. Will you please enable Help the Aged to launch new projects for the distressed aged. Every £1 donated generates nearly £10 worth of new accommodation in the form of official loans and gifts. Give £2 or more and have your mame recorded in the Book of Donors. £100 will name a room in a @atlet scheme ia memory of a dear one. Please send all you can to: ROOM 20, 139 OXFORD STREET, - LONDON, W.1. Hel ihe aged Supporters include: Mrs Margaret Thatcher, Richard Baker, The Earl Cadogan, Viscount Richardso Mackintosh, Ychudi Menuhin, Sir Ralph Lord Luke, Lady Spencer-Churchill, Sir John Wolfenden. | |