A Taste for Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

Strong minister/arionett,
    wn men; the weaker degenerated into ' DepartmtIv�
    0 /
    that this would necessamly worry therir puppteve!/d
    heads were adept at concealing from thalglieshMnt!r�v
    the gentlest jerk of strings and wire. But Ygossip t0ho,0IPau
    needed his private source of department ;nee abat?a0i
    that there was nothing' of ths' limp subserv ,teru
    Berowne /,nd heldt
    He came forward from behind his desk os a facste,'t3
    hand as if this were a first meeting. His vias tran/rev
    even a little melancholy in repose, which ' - gl
    when he smiled. He smiled now. He said:,4otice. I'qla))'rta 'I'm sorry to bring you here at short larly imp0aarv
    we managed to catch you. It isn't partiO/ .tJn�,
    but I think it ma become so.' Deing remde?itt
    Dalghesh coulYnever see him without 3erowne, th,'llisti
    to his king His only notable recorded .ait. But it ha)'
    commission Van Dyck to paint his porlly, a vicotjl,'t,o
    been enough to ensure him, at least pictor ,shire hadlon�,.iisn
    immortality. The manor house in Ham
    since passed from the family, the fortune
    but Sir Hugo's long and melancholy fo
    collar of exquisite lace still stared with
    scension at the passing crowd, the definif
    century Royalist gentleman. The present
    to him was almost uncanny. Here was the
    vas dimmed
    e framd by
    :rrogant ;0adc
    ye seventat
    aronet's eae
    me long.ne,
    9inted c th
    face, the high cheekbones tapering to a f the lefielic
    same widely spaced eyes with the droop ame stea bO
    the same long-fingered pale hands, the
    slightly ironic gaze. ,ost dear, Iw
    Dalgliesh saw that his desk top was al'
    b
    on(
    n
    eye
    ty
    it'
    minions and when a score of carefully composed hand-written minutes by the Department's legendary eccentrics were adequate to control events which now required three divisions and a couple of under secretaries. This new building was no doubt excellent of its kind, but if the inten-tion had been to express confident authority tempered by humanity he wasn't sure that the architect had succeeded. It looked more suitable for a multinational corporation than for a great Department of State. He particularly missed the huge oil portraits which had dignified that impressive Whitehall staircase, intrigued always by the techniques by which artists of varying talents had coped with the challenge of dignifying the ordinary and occasion-ally unprepossessing features of their sitters by the visual exploitation of magnificent robes and by imposing on their pudgy faces the stern consciousness of imperial power. But at least they had removed the studio photograph ora royal princess which until recently had graced the entrance hall. It had looked more suitable for a West End hairdressing salon.
    He was smilingly recognized at the reception desk, but his credentials were still carefully scrutinized and he was required to await the escorting messenger, even though he had attended enough meetings in the building to be reasonably familiar with these particular corridors of power. Few of the elderly male messengers now remained, and for some years the Department had recruited women. They shepherded their charges with a cheerful, maternal competence as if to reassure them that the place might look like a prison but was as gently beneficent as a nursing home and that they were only there for their own good.
    He was finally shown into the outer office. The House was still in recess for the summer and the room was un-naturally quiet. One of the typewriters was shrouded and a single clerk was collating papers with none of thc urgency which normally powered a minister's private office. It would have been a very different scene a few weeks earlier. He thought, not for the first time, that a system which required ministers to run their departments, fulfil their
    20
    parliamentary responsibilities, and spend the weekend listening to the grievances of their constituents, might have been designed to ensure that major decisions were made by men and women tired to