The History Man (32 page)

‘You know,' says Marvin, leaning forward over the desk, ‘I've always thought of myself as a very busy man, with a full diary of engagements. But if what he says is true, what your diary's been like lately I can't imagine. I don't know when you've had time to wash and shave.' ‘And what have I been busy doing?' asks Howard. ‘Well, you know that, Howard,' says Marvin, ‘I hardly like to repeat these things.' ‘I should like to know what Mr Carmody believes he's found out about me,' says Howard. ‘Since you think they're matters important enough for the Vice-Chancellor to consider.' ‘He claims to have a record of promiscuous sexual intimacy,' says Marvin. ‘A rather circumstantial record.' ‘Can I have some details of this record?' asks Howard. ‘Well, it begins on Monday,' says Marvin, ‘You had I gather, a party; in the late evening you were in your downstairs room, and according to Carmody an intimacy took place, on the floor, with Miss Phee.' ‘Did I?' asks Howard. ‘On Tuesday you had recourse in a different direction, to the flat of one of our mutual colleagues. It was an upstairs flat, but with diaphanous curtains, and again Carmody surmised intimacy.' ‘Is that a matter for the Vice-Chancellor?' asks Howard. ‘I should hardly think so,' says Marvin, ‘but the evening continues. You returned home, your wife was out, and Miss Phee was in.' ‘Did you know Mrs Beamish was also there?' asks Howard. ‘I gather there was a significant time-lapse between your arrival home and Mrs Beamish's coming,' says Marvin. ‘It was largely occupied with an extended telephone conversation with you,' says Howard. ‘I shall ask you to testify to that if necessary.' ‘Ah, what a web it is,' says Marvin. ‘Of course I shall tell all I know.' ‘And on Wednesday?' ‘On Wednesday you stayed in,' says Marvin, ‘I gather a fruitless evening for the outside observer.' ‘I must have been recouping my strength,' says Howard. ‘Is there more?' ‘On Thursday you had dinner in a small French restaurant with Carmody's own adviser. The lady was present, so that we were all able to agree on the innocence of that occasion.' ‘The evidence is beginning to look rather thin, isn't it?' asks Howard. ‘Ah,' says Marvin, ‘until the weekend. I gather your wife was away for the weekend, and Miss Phee came and stayed in the house over this period, and is presumably still there. According to Mr Carmody, it's been rather a lively weekend. Indoors and out, so to speak.' ‘Did Mr Carmody also tell you that there were two children there, most of the time, and that Miss Phee was there to look after them?' ‘He claimed they were no barrier,' says Marvin.

‘Well,' says Howard, ‘thank you for telling me this. I think it completely clinches my case. I told you the man was a blackmailer. You failed to be convinced. Now he's exposed himself totally.' ‘He's certainly shown himself as vilely unpleasant,' says Marvin. ‘And of course it will save time if he goes to see the Vice-Chancellor. After all, he's the person to deal with this sort of illegality. Unless, of course, it's the courts. I'm only surprised, and I expect the Vice-Chancellor will be, that you've treated him as if he had some sort of case.' ‘Howard,' says Marvin, ‘I should like you to understand I have not taken Carmody's side. But I did warn you not to let this become a bone of contention, and you have. I have to look at it all objectively. The trouble is he believes himself to be the victim of an injustice, conducting enquiries to prove his innocence.' ‘I'm the victim of an injustice,' says Howard. ‘Perhaps you might now see that. I can answer these charges and show the corrupt motives behind them.' ‘Oh, that's good, then, Howard,' says Marvin. ‘I mean, I think you will need to explain yourself a little to the Vice-Chancellor. Once he sees the photographs.' ‘Carmody took photographs?' asks Howard. ‘Didn't I say?' asks Marvin. ‘He's obviously quite an adept with a camera. Of course the night shots are terribly unconvincing, pictures of shadows on closed curtains, and the like. Your problem will really be with the daytime pictures. I fear it is indubitably you and Miss Phee together in that ravine. And kissing in the dodgems.' ‘It's obscene,' says Howard. ‘All the apparatus of blackmail.' ‘I find it all awfully distressing, Howard,' says Marvin, ‘and I'm sure the Vice-Chancellor will too.' Marvin gets up; he walks round his desk, and pats Howard on the arm. ‘I do wish you'd listened to me,' he says. ‘Avoid bones of contention.' ‘I think when you've heard Miss Phee's evidence …' says Howard. ‘Oh, I shan't hear it,' says Marvin, walking Howard toward the door. ‘Happily that's the Vice-Chancellor's problem. It's all passed beyond me, I'm very glad to say. You know, this is one of those bleak moments when I'm actually pleased to think I lead an utterly boring and empty life.'

Marvin holds open the door of his room, and stands there as Howard walks out. In the department office beyond, Miss Ho types furiously, not looking up, as Howard passes through. He steps out into the corridor, and walks along it to the lift. He goes down, out through the foyer, across the Piazza. On the far side of the Piazza stands the Humanities Building, a different affair altogether from Social Sciences, a place not of height, mass and dark, but of length, light and air. There are corridors here lit by long windows, with bushes growing against them; there are noticeboards on the walls speaking of theatrical productions, poetry readings, lectures followed by wine. Child art, for some reason, is displayed along the passages; students sit on benches and talk. The doors have bright nameplates; Howard inspects them as he walks. Then, before one labelled ‘Miss A. Callendar' he stops, he knocks. There is no response, so he knocks and waits again. The door of a room adjoining opens a little; a dark, tousled-haired head, with a sad visage, peers through, looks at Howard for a little, and then retreats. The face has a vague familiarity; Howard recalls that this depressed-looking figure is a lecturer in the English department, a man who, ten years earlier, had produced two tolerably well-known and acceptably reviewed novels, filled, as novels then were, with moral scruple and concern. Since then there has been silence, as if, under the pressure of contemporary change, there was no more moral scruple and concern, no new substance to be spun. The man alone persists; he passes nervously through the campus, he teaches, sadly, he avoids strangers. Howard knocks on this man's door; hearing no reply, he opens it. The novelist is not immediately visible; he sits out of the light, in the furthest corner, hunched over a typewriter, looking doubtfully up at his visitor. ‘I'm sorry to disturb you,' says Howard, ‘but I'm looking for Miss Callendar. Do you know where she is?' ‘I don't think I do,' says the man. ‘You've no idea?' asks Howard. ‘Well, I thought she'd better go home,' says the man, ‘she's in a very upset state.' ‘Well, this is a very urgent matter,' says Howard, ‘I wonder whether you'd give me her address.' ‘I'm afraid I can't,' says the man. ‘It's very important,' says Howard, ‘Miss Callendar's not easy to find out about,' says the novelist, ‘she's a very private person.' ‘Do you know her address?' asks Howard. ‘No,' says the man, ‘no, I don't.' ‘Ah, well,' says Howard, ‘if you want to find things out about people, you always can, with a little research. A little curiosity.' ‘It's sometimes better not to,' says the man. ‘Never mind,' says Howard, ‘I'll find it.' ‘I wish you wouldn't,' says the novelist. ‘I will,' says Howard, going out of the room, and shutting the door.

He goes from the light and air of Humanities to the dark and mass of Social Science; he sits at his desk and goes through the faculty address book, the Watermouth telephone directory. He rings the Registry, where these matters are supposed to be on record; it is not held there. He rings the English department secretary; he rings the Professor of English. He rings the Accommodation Officer; he rings the university library. He rings the university bookshop; ‘Yes,' says the manager, ‘we require a home address for an account. I'll look and ring back.' Howard puts on his coat and his hat, and sits at the desk, waiting for the telephone to ring. ‘Glad to help,' says the manager, ‘here it is.' Howard writes down the address, goes to the car park, gets in the van, drives, through the bleak and wintry day, into town. The address is as hard to discover in reality as it is in record, being in a part of town that Howard rarely enters, the quaint and holiday town. Castle Mount is banned to cars; it is a bendy, cobbled, Victorian street overlooking the harbour. You find the house by walking up the steep hill towards the castle bailey; here you ask at a newsagents shop, selling souvenirs, which will misdirect you, and then at a cafe, which will set you right again. Spirals of mist come off the harbour; there are little hoots from fishing boats. At a house in a line of ornate Victorian properties, there is a bellpush marked 3A, with no name against it; it is so clearly the destination that he pushes it. He stands in the mist; after a while steps occur in the house, descending a staircase. The door opens, and there is Miss Callendar, in the ornate doorway, in a black trouser suit, with a suspicious, dark expression. ‘Oh, it's you,' says Miss Callendar, ‘how did you find out where I live?' ‘It wasn't easy,' says Howard. ‘It's not supposed to be easy,' says Miss Callendar. ‘No disrespect, Dr Kirk, but I hoped it was impossible.' ‘But why?' asks Howard. ‘I told you,' says Miss Callendar, ‘I don't want just any old Christian existentialist or Leavisite or Sociologist dropping by, just on the offchance.' ‘But we can all be found,' says Howard. ‘How?' asks Miss Callendar. ‘Let me in, and I'll tell you,' says Howard. ‘It's very much against my principles,' says Miss Callendar. ‘I haven't come to accuse you or seduce you or convert you,' says Howard, ‘I just want to tell you a story.' ‘A story,' says Miss Callendar. ‘It's very cold here,' says Howard. ‘Very well, then,' says Miss Callendar, ‘Come up.'

The big Victorian house has a faint smell of must. Howard follows Miss Callendar's velvet bottom up the stairs; then up more stairs, and more, until they are at the top of the house. A dark brown door leads off the landing; Miss Callendar opens it, and leads him in. ‘There we are,' says Miss Callendar, ‘my very convenient flat.' ‘Yes, you told me about it,' says Howard. The flat is quite small; it has twisted walls, with water-stained Victorian prints on them, and a burning gas fire, a ragged red Afghan carpet, a standard lamp with a fringed and flowered lampshade, two armchairs and a sofa done out with chintz loose-covers. ‘How did you?' asks Miss Callendar, standing in front of the gas fire. ‘You're not in the telephone book,' says Howard. ‘Owning no phone,' says Miss Callendar. ‘And you're not on the electoral register,' says Howard. ‘Owning no vote,' says Miss Callendar. ‘But you are on the list at the bookshop, because they need a home address to open an account,' says Howard. ‘Ah, well,' says Miss Callendar, ‘it's a lot of trouble to go to, just to come and tell me a story.' ‘You did hear his version,' says Howard, ‘don't you think you ought to hear mine?' ‘I'm very fair-minded,' says Miss Callendar, ‘but everyone seems to be treating me as if I'm some kind of expert in stories. Which I'm not.' ‘I thought it was your field,' says Howard, taking off his coat. ‘Oh, no,' says Miss Callendar, ‘we live in an era of high specialization. My expertise is in the lyric poem, a very different kettle of fish.' ‘What's the difference?' asks Howard. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?' asks Miss Callender, ‘I find stories very thirsty.' ‘Thank you,' says Howard. Miss Callendar goes through another brown door, and there is the clank of a kettle. ‘You didn't explain the difference,' calls Howard. ‘Oh, a great difference,' says Miss Callendar, ‘if there was a logical difference between form and content, which of course we're agreed there isn't, then stories would be very given to content and lyric poems very given to form.' ‘I see,' says Howard. ‘You see, my devotion, Dr Kirk, is to form. I'm afraid I find stories very lax and contingent.'

‘I see,' says Howard, peering through a third brown door. It is another room Miss Callendar had described to him; the bedroom, with the bed in it. ‘I'm glad you were hungry the other night,' he calls into the kitchen. ‘I relished the scampi,' says Miss Callendar. ‘I thought you'd bring me here then,' says Howard. ‘I know you did,' says Miss Callendar, ‘but as I explained then, there are limits to my appetite. Clearly very fortunately.' ‘Why fortunately?' asks Howard. ‘Well, I don't think I'd really have liked to end up in the record, with all the others.' ‘Would it have been so bad?' asks Howard. ‘Ah,' says Miss Callendar, coming back into the room, carrying a tray with a small brown teapot on it, ‘you think it's an honourable roster. A roll of souls redeemed. Is that the gist of your story?' Howard stands in front of the window, which has a view across to the castle, and the wintry sea beyond; he says, ‘At least I hope you don't believe Mr Carmody's version.' ‘I listen to all stories with a certain healthy scepticism,' says Miss Callendar. ‘Do you take milk?' ‘Thank you,' says Howard, coming and sitting down on the sofa. ‘Well,' says Miss Callendar, ‘a tale of sexual heroism. Do go on.' ‘I gather you know that I'm being accused of giving good marks to Miss Phee in exchange for her sexual favours?' says Howard. ‘Yes,' says Miss Callendar, ‘sugar?' ‘And of general moral corruption,' says Howard, ‘with political overtones. No, thanks.' ‘I think you're basically being accused of intellectual persecution,' says Miss Callendar. ‘Fig biscuit?' ‘Thank you,' says Howard, ‘but the key question is now my relationship with Miss Phee. You remember Miss Phee?' ‘Do I?' says Miss Callendar. ‘Yes,' says Howard, ‘you saw me with her in my downstairs study, when you were leaving the party.' ‘Then that was one of your episodes,' says Miss Callendar, ‘I did rather think so.' ‘It's a pity you don't know her better,' says Howard, ‘then perhaps, instead of supporting Carmody's crazy story, you'd understand what repressed, evil nonsense it is.' ‘I don't support his story,' says Miss Callendar, ‘I don't know whether his interpretation of what he saw is right at all. I just have some reason, don't I, for thinking he saw what he saw.'