Read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for Free Online

something,” she
persisted: “something like God—I knowyou do, Alec; you’ve got that look sometimes, as if you’d got something
special to do, like a priest. Alec, don’t smile, it’s true.”
    He shook his head.
    “Sorry, Liz, you’ve got it wrong. I don’t
like Americans and public schools. I don’t like military parades and people who
play soldiers.” Without smiling he added,“And I don’t like conversations about Life.”
    “But Alec, you might as well say—”
    “I should have added,” Leamas
interrupted, “that I don’t like people who tell me what I ought to
think.” She knew he was getting angry but she couldn’t stop herself any
more.
    “That’s because you don’t want to
think, you don’t dare! There’s somepoison
in your mind, some hate. You’re a fanatic, Alec, I know you are, but I don’t
know what about. You’re a fanatic who doesn’t want to convert people, and
that’s a dangerous thing. You’re like a man who’s…sworn vengeance or
something.”
    The brown eyes rested on her. When he spoke she
was frightened by the menace in his voice.
    “If I were you,” he said roughly,
“I’d mind my own business.”
    And then he smiled, a roguish Irish smile. He hadn’t smiled like
that before and Liz knew he was putting on the charm.
    “What does Liz believe in?” he asked,
and she replied:
    “I can’t be had that easy, Alec.”
    Later that night they talked about it again.
Leamas brought it up—he asked her whether she was religious.
    “You’ve got me wrong,” she said,
“all wrong. I don’t believe in God.”“Then what do you believe in?”
    “History.”
    He looked at her in astonishment for a moment, then laughed.
    “Oh Liz…oh no! You’re not a
bloody Communist?”
    She nodded, blushing like a small girl at his
laughter, angry and relieved thathe
didn’t care.
    She made him stay that night and they became lovers.
He left at five in themorning.
She couldn’t understand it; she was so proud and he seemed ashamed.
***
    He left her flat and turned down the empty street toward the
park. It was foggy. Some way down the road—not far, twenty yards, perhaps a bit
more— stood the figure of a man in a raincoat, short and rather plump. He was
leaning against therailings of
the park, silhouetted in the shifting mist. As Leamas approached, the mistseemed to thicken, closing in around
the figure at the railings, and when it parted theman was gone.

5
Credit
    Then one day about a week later, he didn’t come to
the library. Miss Crail was delighted; by half-past eleven she had told her
mother, and on returning from lunch she stood in front of the archaeology
shelves where he had been working since he came. She stared with theatrical
concentration at the rows of books, and Liz knewshe was pretending to work out whether Leamas had stolen
anything.
    Liz entirely ignored her for the rest of that day,
failed to reply when she addressed her, and worked with assiduous application.
When the evening came shewalked
home and cried herself to sleep.
    The next morning she arrived early at the library.
She somehow felt that thesooner
she got there, the sooner Leamas might come; but as the morning dragged onher hopes faded, and she knew he
would never come. She had forgotten to make sandwiches for herself that day so
she decided to take a bus to the Bayswater
Road and go to the A.B.C. Café? She felt sick and
empty, but not hungry. Should she go andfind him? She had promised never to follow him, but he had promised to tell
her; should she go and find him?
    She hailed a taxi and gave his address.
    She made her way up the dingy staircase and
pressed the bell of his door. The bell seemed to be broken; she heard nothing.
There were three bottles of milk onthe
mat and a letter from the electricity company. She hesitated a moment, then
banged on the door, and she heard the faint groan of a man. She rushed
downstairs tothe flat below,
hammered and rang at the door. There was no reply so she