Atdtda25: A jolly little chat, won't take long, 708-711

[Paul Nightingale]

Previously, Cyprian and Theign "were ... cosily, all but domestically,
established in a pensione in Santa Croce" (706). Here, "Theign [has]
half-invented a local operative, 'Zanni', to resolve whose fictional crises
he then [finds] brief but always welcome opportunities to get out of the
house" (708). Cf. the way he talks up the threat from the Russians on 702.
Subsequently, "[l]ater that evening", he will "[summon] Cyprian into his
office" (709); note, 'into', not 'to', indicating that the domestic
arrangements include clear boundaries, assuming that the office in question
is at the pensione. I'm not sure it matters either way; although his
reference to Cyprian occupying "rather a different cubbyhole" (bottom of
707) is an acknowledgement of lines being crossed (his phrasing--"I wouldn't
have preferred this scenario"--suggests the contemplation of several courses
of action to be evaluated fully, and dispassionately, in advance). Hence,
"into his office" (709) implicitly recognises the range of roles to be
played: a few lines down, Theign includes Cyprian among those "he might wish
one day to shop". The supreme bureaucrat.

Previously, we were told "[h]is remit here in Venice, at least officially,
was to look into a reported theft ..." etc (706); now, [h]is Naval
Intelligence job, in this city of masks, actually conceal[s] a deeper
project" (708). We're reminded here of Cyprian's take on the
newly-mysterious Theign, on 703, "passing electric lamplight flaring at
intervals, like a prison searchlight, off his eyeglass-lenses". And then, a
few lines down that page: "His eyes were difficult to make out ..." etc. All
of which contrasts sharply with Cyprian's own performance, eg the "sidewise
gaze known to produce reflexes of desire up to and including ... a proposal
of marriage" on 707. The discussion of shadowing (becoming "someone's ...
projection", 708) is apposite, given the role playing that both Cyprian and
Theign indulge in. Theign's reference to "you people" (on the next page,
"your sort"; followed by "you people" and "the homo brigade" on 709)
distances himself from the earlier intimacy, echoing the switch-off that
makes Cyprian tear up at the end of the previous section.

Finally, the bureaucratic perspective emerges when Theign introduces "the
fates of nations" (710). On 709 Cyprian finds he cannot leave the office
("why won't this door open?"); and Spider Theign ignores him ("... we really
must chat"), just as he effectively ignores Cyprian's insult at the bottom
of 706. In the latter part of the chapter Theign is inclined to anything but
silence; and the note he has delivered to Cyprian at the station is a tad
lengthy, hardly an afterthought (710). As he addresses "[t]he welfare, often
the sheer survival of millions" he elevates the discussion from the
particular to the general; the note then puts Cyprian firmly in his place.
As they part company, it also offers an ironic reminder that, upon meeting
Theign for the first time on 701, Cyprian wanted nothing so much as to
return 'home' to England.