44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith [128]
“Don’t worry. This won’t go very far. And if it were going to cave in, it would have done so a long time ago.”
“Quite right,” added Angus Lordie. “Safe as houses.”
They made their way down the side-tunnel, walking more slowly, as there was less room, and they could barely fit two abreast. The tunnel was not quite straight, and from time to time it veered slightly to the left or right, but its general direction was westwards.
Pat shivered. The air was cooler now, and she began to regret not having fetched a jersey or a coat from the flat before they began their expedition. But she had been unwilling to go into her flat in case she should disturb Bruce and Sally, and so she had come lightly dressed. Of course there was no reason to believe that Bruce and Sally would be there: they were probably still in the Cumberland Bar, for all she knew, or having dinner together, over a candle-lit table. Would they be talking about her? she wondered. Of course they would not – there was no reason for them to be interested in her. Bruce tolerated her –
that was all – and Sally disliked her. So she was nothing to them, and they would have no reason even to think about her, let alone discuss her.
She was aware of Angus Lordie walking beside her, while Domenica was a few steps ahead, the light from her torch bobbing up and down as she walked.
“What an adventure!” Angus Lordie whispered. “Did you imagine that we would find ourselves taking a subterranean promenade together?”
“No,” she said. “I did not.”
He sighed. “I am conscious, of course, that there are many 268 A Further Tunnel – and a Brief Conversation About Aesthetics others with whom you would prefer to take such a walk. That young man in the bar, for example.” He paused for a moment.
“Don’t throw your heart away, my dear. I recognise the signs so well. An impossible passion. Don’t waste your time on him.”
She was going to remain silent, but her answer slipped out, almost without her willing it.
“It’s not so easy,” she said. “I’d like to stop, but I find that I can’t. You can’t stop yourself feeling something for somebody else. You just can’t.”
“Oh yes, you can,” said Angus Lordie, his voice raised slightly.
“You can stop yourself from loving somebody perfectly well. You simply change the way you look at them. People do it all the time.”
Domenica now joined in. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But you can’t really expect to have a confidential conversation in a tunnel. I have heard every word you’ve whispered, and I feel that I must agree with Angus. Of course you can change the way you feel about something or somebody. But it requires an effort of the will – a conscious decision to recognise what you have missed.”
“Precisely,” said Angus. “And this is exactly what the Professor of Aesthetics at Harvard did. She decided that she found palm trees beautiful – before that she thought them an unattractive sort of tree. Then she discovered that she liked the way that their fronds made striped light. And after that, palm trees were beautiful.”
This conversation on aesthetic theory might have continued, and indeed Angus Lordie was mentally marshalling arguments in favour of his position – and that of the Professor of Aesthetics at New York – when Domenica suddenly drew to a halt.
“Are we reaching the end?’ asked Pat. It was difficult to see what lay ahead, as the beam of the torch was, as she had feared, becoming rather weaker. But it seemed as if there was a blockage of some sort there.
“I think we are,” said Domenica. “Look, it seems to go fairly sharply upwards.”
They moved forward cautiously, Domenica playing the beam of the torch up towards the ceiling of the tunnel. Suddenly, and without warning, she flicked the switch of the torch and the beam An Interesting Discovery
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of light disappeared. They were not in total darkness, though –
weak rays of yellow light came from above them, emanating from what appeared to be cracks in the roof above them. There was not a great deal of light, but it was sufficient for