The cards were dealt and the bidding began. Bruce opened with an impossibly high bid, which led to a sharp telling-off from Carol. The bidding resumed and eventually Carol played to Diane’s dummy. Bruce watched the cards go out and tried to remember them. For her part, Lizzie played carefully and confidently and Carol and Diane were two tricks down.

‘So,’ said Bruce. ‘My first game, and we’ve won!’

‘It’s not that simple, Bruce,’ said Diane. She was watching him closely, and now and then exchanged a glance with Lizzie. Bruce was unaware of this. He could think of many better ways to spend an evening. Yet he had noticed that Diane’s gaze was upon him rather more than necessary. Fancies me, he thought. It was what he would always have thought in such circumstances, even if, since he had turned over a new leaf, he had thought it less often. But now it was coming back, as an ancient habit will return, persistently, perversely, as a weed with a long root will come up from below no matter what is done on the surface.

29. Underneath the Lamplight

It was a ten-minute walk from the bridge class in Buccleuch Place to Sandy Bell’s bar in Forrest Road. It was not a large group that made its way there – six in all: Bruce and Lizzie were joined by Diane and Carol, their partners at the bridge table, and then there was another couple, Alex and Frances. Alex was a Glaswegian, and, unusually for one from that gregarious and entertaining city, almost completely silent; Frances made up for this, though, with a high-pitched, penetrating laugh. Bruce noticed that her eyes stayed on him as they were introduced. Hello! he said to himself. So Frances isn’t entirely satisfied with Alex! Diane noticed this too; she saw the smile play about Bruce’s lips. She looked at Lizzie, but Lizzie was talking to Carol and had not noticed.

They walked through George Square. Lizzie was still engaged in the conversation with Carol that she had started as they left the bridge class and so Bruce moved to Diane’s side.

‘I think we’ve met before,’ he said. It was a gambit he used even when he had not met somebody, but on this occasion it was more than that. He was sure that he had seen her somewhere before.

She smiled at him. ‘I don’t think so. I would have …’ She did not finish what she was saying.

Bruce laughed. ‘You would have remembered me? Is that what you were going to say?’

Diane bit her lip. ‘Well, maybe. I remember faces.’

‘Especially some?’ asked Bruce.

‘Meaning?’

He shrugged. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘One remembers some people and not others.’