The Sunday Philosophy Club (21 page)

The paper, which was clearly written, began with a story. Clinical geneticists, Dr. Chao said, were often confronted with misattributed paternity, and these cases posed difficult issues of how, if at all, these mistakes should be revealed. Here is a case, he wrote, which involved just such an issue.

Mr. and Mrs. B. had given birth to a child with a genetic illness. Although the child could be expected to live, the condition was sufficiently serious to raise the issue of whether Mrs. B. should be tested during future pregnancies. Some fetuses would be affected, while others would not be. The only way to tell was prenatal screening.

So far, so good, thought Isabel. Of course, there were broader issues about screening, including major ones of eugenics, but Dr. Chao did not seem concerned with those, which was quite right: this was about truth telling and paternalism. Dr. Chao continued: Mr. and Mrs. B. had to have a genetic test to confirm their carrier status. In order for this particular condition to manifest itself, both parents of the affected child would have to be carriers of the relevant gene. When the doctor received the test results, however, these showed that while Mrs. B. was a carrier, Mr. B. was not. The child who had been born with the condition, then,
must have been by another man.
Mrs. B. (Mrs. Bovary perhaps, thought Isabel), who was not described,
had a lover.

One solution was to tell Mrs. B. in private and then to leave it up to her to decide whether she would confess to her husband. At first blush this solution seemed attractive, as it would mean that one could avoid being responsible for possibly breaking up the marriage. The objection to this, though, was that if Mr. B. were not told, then he would go through life thinking that he was carrier of a gene which he did not, in fact, possess. Was he entitled to have this knowledge conveyed to him by the doctor, with whom he had a professional relationship? The doctor clearly owed him a duty, but what were the limits of this?

Isabel turned the last page of the article. There were the references, all set out in the correct form, but there was no conclusion. Dr. Chao did not know how to resolve the issue that he had raised. That was reasonable enough: it was quite legitimate to ask questions which one could not answer, or which one did not want to answer. But, on the whole, Isabel preferred papers which took a position.

It occurred to Isabel to ask Grace for her view on this. It was time for morning coffee, anyway, and she had an excuse to go
through to the kitchen. There she found Grace, unloading the dishwasher.

“I am going to tell you a rather tricky story,” said Isabel. “Then I’m going to ask you to give me your reaction. Don’t bother about reasons, just tell me what you would do.”

She related the story of Mr. and Mrs. B. Grace continued to unload plates as she listened, but abandoned her work when the story came to an end.

“I would write Mr. B. a letter,” she said firmly. “I would tell him not to trust his wife.”

“I see,” said Isabel.

“But I wouldn’t sign my own name,” Grace added. “I would write anonymously.”

Isabel could not conceal her surprise. “Anonymously? Why?”

“I don’t know,” said Grace. “You said that I should not bother with reasons. I should just tell you what I would do. And that’s it.”

Isabel was silent. She was used to hearing Grace express unusual views, but this curious preference for an anonymous letter astounded her. She was about to press Grace further, but her housekeeper changed the subject.

“Cat phoned,” she said. “She did not want to disturb you, but she would like to pop in for tea this afternoon. I said that we would let her know.”

“That’s fine,” said Isabel. “I would like to see her.”

Truth telling. Paternalism. She was no further forward, she felt, but suddenly she decided. She would ask Grace her views.

“Here’s another one, Grace,” she said. “Imagine that you found out that Toby was seeing another girl and not telling Cat about it. What would you do?”

Grace frowned. “Difficult,” she said. “I don’t think I’d tell Cat.”

Isabel relaxed. At least they thought the same way on that issue.

“But then,” Grace went on, “I think I’d probably go to Toby and tell him that unless he gave Cat up, I’d tell the other girl. That way I’d get rid of him, because I wouldn’t want somebody like that to marry Cat. That’s what I’d do.”

Isabel nodded. “I see. And you’d have no hesitation in doing that?”

“None,” said Grace. “None at all.” Then she added, “Not that this would ever happen, would it?”

Isabel hesitated; here was another occasion on which a lie could slip out. And the moment’s hesitation was enough.

“Oh my God!” said Grace. “Poor Cat! Poor girl! I never liked that boy, you know, never. I didn’t like to say it, but now you know. Those strawberry jeans of his, you know the ones he wears? I knew what they meant, right from the beginning. See? I knew.”

C
AT ARRIVED FOR TEA
at three-thirty, having left Eddie in charge of the shop. She was let into the house by Grace, who looked at her strangely, or so Cat thought; but then Grace was strange, she always had been, and Cat had always known that. Grace had theories and convictions about virtually everything, and one never knew what was going on in her head. How Isabel put up with those conversations in the kitchen, Cat had no idea. Perhaps she ignored most of it.

Isabel was in her summerhouse, correcting proofs. The summerhouse was a small octagonal building, constructed of wood and painted dark green. It stood at the back, against the high stone wall that enclosed the garden; in his illness her father had spent whole days in it, looking out over the lawn, thinking and reading, although it was hard for him to turn the pages and he would wait for Isabel to do that. For some years after his death she had been unable to go into it, such were the memories, but gradually she had taken to working in it, even in winter, when it could be heated by a Norwegian wood-burning stove which stood in one corner. It was largely undecorated, save for three framed photographs which had been hung on the back wall. Her father,
in the uniform of the Cameronians, in Sicily, under a harsh sun, standing in front of a requisitioned villa; all that bravery and sacrifice, so long ago, for a cause that was utterly, utterly right. Her mother—sainted American mother; once awkwardly referred to by Grace as her sanitized/American mother—sitting with her father in a café in Venice. And herself as a child with her parents, on a picnic, she thought. Foxed at the edges, the photographs needed restoration, but at present they were undisturbed.

It was a warm day for spring—more of a summer’s day, really—and she had opened the double glass doors of the summerhouse. Now she saw Cat approaching her across the lawn, a small brown bag in her hand. It would be something from the delicatessen; Cat never came empty-handed, and would give Isabel a small jar of truffle pâté or olives picked at random from the shelves of her shop.

“Belgian chocolate mice,” said Cat, laying the packet on the table.

“Cats bring mice as an offering,” remarked Isabel, laying the proofs to one side. “My aunt—your great-aunt—had a cat which caught mice and put them on her bed. So thoughtful.”

Cat sat down on the wicker chair next to Isabel’s. “Grace tells me that you’re in seclusion,” she said. “Not to be disturbed except by me.”

That was tactful of Grace, thought Isabel. It was not helpful to mention Jamie too often.

“Life has been getting rather complicated,” said Isabel. “I wanted a day or two to get on with some work and decomplicate. I’m sure you know how it feels.”

“Yes,” said Cat. “Curl-up-and-get-away-from-it-all days. I have them too.”

“Grace will bring us tea and we can have a chat,” said Isabel. “I’ve done enough work for the day.”

Cat smiled. “And I’m going to throw in the towel too,” she said. “Eddie can look after things until closing time. I’m going to go home and get changed. Then I … we’re going out.”

“Good,” said Isabel. We. Toby, of course.

“We’re going to celebrate,” said Cat, looking sideways at Isabel. “Dinner, then a club.”

Isabel caught her breath. She had not expected it, but she had dreaded it nonetheless. And now the moment had arrived. “A celebration?”

Cat nodded. She did not look at Isabel as she spoke, but was staring out over the lawn. Her tone was cautious. “Toby and I are engaged,” she said. “Yesterday evening. We’ll put it in the papers next week. I wanted you to be the first to know.” She paused. “I think that he’s told his parents now, but apart from them, nobody else knows. Only you.”

Isabel turned to her niece and reached to take her hand. “Darling, well done. Congratulations.” She had mustered a supreme effort, like a singer straining for a high note, but her attempt proved inadequate. Her voice sounded flat and unenthusiastic.

Cat looked at her. “Do you mean that?”

“I only want you to be happy,” said Isabel. “If this is what makes you happy, then of course I mean that.”

Cat weighed these words for a moment. “The congratulations of a philosopher,” she said. “Can’t you say something personal?” She did not give Isabel time to respond, although Isabel had no answer ready and would have had to battle to find one. “You don’t like him, do you? You’re simply not prepared to give him a chance—even for my sake.”

Isabel lowered her eyes. She could not lie about this. “I haven’t warmed to him. I admit it. But I promise you: I’ll make every effort, even if it’s hard.”

Cat seized on her words. Her voice was raised now, the indignation coming through. “Even if it’s hard? Why should it be so hard? Why do you have to say that?”

Isabel was not in control of her emotions. This news was devastating, and she forgot her intention not to mention what she had seen. Now it came out. “I don’t think that he’s faithful to you,” she said. “I’ve seen him with somebody else. That’s why. That’s why.”

She stopped, horrified by what she had said. She had not meant to say it—she knew it was wrong—and yet it had come out, as if spoken by somebody else. Immediately she felt miserable, thinking:
So are wrongs committed, just like that, without thinking.
The doing of wrong was not a hard thing, preceded by careful thought; it was a casual thing, done so easily. That was Hannah Arendt’s insight, was it not? The pure banality of evil. Only good is heroic.

Cat was quite still. Then she shrugged off the hand which Isabel had lightly placed upon her shoulder. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “You say that you’ve seen him with another woman. Is that what you say?”

Isabel nodded. She could not recant now, and that left honesty as the only option. “Yes. I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to tell you, because I really don’t think that it’s my business to interfere in your affairs. But I did see him. I saw him embracing another girl. He was going to see her. It was in the doorway to her flat. I was … I was passing by. I saw it happen.”

“Where was this?” she asked quietly. “Where exactly did you see this?”

“Nelson Street,” said Isabel.

Cat was silent for a moment. Then she began to laugh, and the tension drained from her. “His sister, Fiona, lives there, you know. Poor Isabel! Of course you had it all mixed up. He often
goes to see Fiona. Of course he gives her a kiss. They’re very fond of one another. And it’s a touchy-feely family.”

No, thought Isabel. They’re not a touchy-feely family; not at least according to my understanding of the term.

“Actually, it was his sister’s flatmate,” said Isabel. “It wasn’t his sister.”

“Lizzie?”

“I have no idea what her name is,” said Isabel.

Cat snorted. “It’s nonsense,” she said firmly. “You’ve misinterpreted a peck on the cheek. And now you’re not even prepared to accept that you’re wrong. It would be different if you acknowledged that, but you aren’t. You hate him so much.”

Isabel fought back. “I do not hate him. You have no right to say that.” But she knew that Cat did, for even as she spoke, the image of an avalanche came into her mind, and she felt ashamed.

Cat now rose to her feet. “I’m very sorry about this. I understand why you might have wanted to tell me what you told me, but I think that you’re being totally unfair. I love Toby. We’re going to get married. That’s all there is to it.” She stepped out of the summerhouse.

Isabel rose from her chair, scattering the proofs as she did so. “Cat, please. You know how fond I am of you. You know that. Please …” She trailed off. Cat had started to run across the lawn, back to the house. Grace was at the kitchen door, a tray in her hand. She moved to one side to let Cat past, and the tray fell to the ground.

THE REST OF THE DAY
was ruined. After Cat’s departure, Isabel spent an hour or so discussing the situation with Grace, who did her best to be reassuring.

“She may be like that for the time being,” she said. “She may have closed her mind to the possibility right now. But she will think about it and the possibility will work away in her mind. She’ll start to think maybe, just maybe, it’s true. And then the scales will begin to fall from her eyes.”