Those to whom good financial fortune comes are alone. Their money frightens them. They feel unsettled. To be told that there are others in exactly the same boat is reassuring.
So the lawyer said: “Of course, we have a number of clients who are pretty much in a similar position to yourself. They find . . . and I hope I don’t speak out of turn here, but they find that there are advantages in keeping everything under one roof.”
And here, unintentionally, he looked up at the ceiling, as if to emphasise that the roof under which they were sitting was quite capable of accommodating Matthew’s new-found wealth.
Matthew looked at the lawyer. He knew this man from the parties that his father occasionally gave. He knew his son too, a tall boy called Jamie, who had been at school with him and who had once hit him with a cricket bat, across the shoulders, and who had once said to the others – within Matthew’s hearing
– that the reason why Matthew was then afflicted by a particular rash of pimples was . . . It was so unfair. And now here was 26
The Warm Embrace of the Edinburgh Establishment the father of the same persecutor offering to handle his money.
“Thanks,” said Matthew. “But I propose to handle it myself.
I enjoy reading the financial press and I think I’m perfectly capable.”
The lawyer looked at Matthew. He thought: Jamie once used a rather uncomplimentary word to describe this young man.
How apt that epithet! Boys may be cruel to one another, but they were often very good judges of character.
9. The Warm Embrace of the Edinburgh Establishment Matthew had left the lawyer’s office feeling slightly light-headed.
He paused at the front door, and thought about what he had done; it would be easy to return, to go back to the man whom he had written off on the basis of his son’s unpleasant behaviour all those years ago. It would be easy to say to him that mature reflection – or at least such reflection as could be engaged in while walking down the stairs and through the entrance hall
– had led him to believe that it would be best, after all, to have the funds consigned to the colleague whom the lawyer had so unctuously mentioned. Presumably it would be easy to stop the transfer that he had asked for – the transfer from the firm’s client account to Matthew’s own account – and once that was done the serious business of putting four million pounds to work in the market could begin. But he did not do this. All his life, money had come from somebody else (his father) and had been doled out to him as one would give sweets to a child. Now he had the money at his own disposal, and he felt like an adult at last.
He walked along Queen Street, in the direction of Dundas Street and his gallery. This route took him past Stewart Christie, the outfitters, and that is where he paused, looking thoughtfully into the window. It was a shop that sold well-made clothes for men, not the expensive rubbish – as Matthew thought of it –
produced by Italians, but finely-tailored jackets made of Scottish The Warm Embrace of the Edinburgh Establishment 27
tweed; yellow-checked waistcoats for country wear; tight-fitting tartan trews for formal occasions.
On impulse, he went into the shop and began to examine a rack of ties. Many of them were striped, which would not suit him, as he would not like others to think that he was one of those people who was emotionally tied to an institution of some sort – an institution that gave you stripes by which to remember it. He picked out a spotted tie and set it aside without looking at the price. You don’t have to ask the price any more, he told himself. It doesn’t matter. You can afford anything you want.
The thought, which he had not entertained to any extent since his fortunes had changed, was an intoxicating one. What did it entail? If he went down to London, then he could walk into John Lobb’s shop in St James’s Street and have himself measured for a pair of bespoke shoes. Matthew had read about that recently in a lifestyle supplement, and had remembered the price.
Two thousand four hundred pounds that would cost, and that was without the shoe trees. Shoe trees made by John Lobb would cost an additional three hundred pounds.
Matthew reached for a box of lawn handkerchiefs. He would take that, as he did not have many handkerchiefs. And then he saw some socks, all wool with toes reinforced with a special fabric, described as revolutionary. Matthew pulled out three pairs of these and then a further two. One could never have enough socks, particularly in view of the tendency of socks to disappear in the laundry. No matter what precautions were taken, socks disappeared into a Bermuda Triangle for socks, a swirling vortex that swallowed one sock at a time, leaving its partner stranded.
He was now assisted by a solicitous young man who had appeared from the back of the shop. Together, they chose four shirts, an expensive cashmere sweater which cost one hundred and twenty pounds, a pair of crushed-strawberry corduroy trousers, and a covert coat in oatmeal drill.
“Very nice,” said the assistant. “You can wear that for shooting.”
Matthew frowned. He did not go shooting, but then it occurred to him that he could if he wanted to. I can do anything, 28
The Warm Embrace of the Edinburgh Establishment he thought, and smiled. He closed one eye and swung up an imaginary shotgun. “Bang,” he said.
“Quite,” said the assistant. “Bang.”
His purchases nestling in a copious carrier bag, Matthew left the outfitters and continued his walk along Queen Street. The spending of a large amount of money within a short space of time had been a strangely liberating experience. In a way which he found difficult to express, the whole process of shopping had made him feel better. The tie, the fine cashmere sweater, the covert coat – all of these had been added to him and had made him bigger. He felt more confident, more assured, and, critically, less vulnerable. Having money, he thought, means that the world cannot hurt you. You can lose things and just replace them. You can protect yourself against disappointment because you can get the best things available. Ordinary shoes might pinch; shoes made for you by John Lobb did not.
He reached Dundas Street and turned down the hill. There, at the end of the street, beyond the roofs of Canonmills, was Fife – a dark green hillside, clouds, a silver strip of sea. Passing Glass and Thompson, he decided to call in for a slice of quiche and a glass of melon juice. Big Lou’s was just a little way down the street, but Big Lou did not make quiche and there was no melon juice to be had there.
Matthew perched on a stool at one of the tables. There were a few other customers in at the time – a woman in a dark trouser suit, engrossed in a file of papers; a thin man paging through an old copy of a design magazine, an architect, as Matthew knew.
He picked up a copy of a newspaper and turned the pages at random. Split trust victims seek compensation, a headline read.
And then another: with-profits policies encounter painful shortfall. Matthew paused, his glass of melon juice half way to his lips.
Outside, he did not have to wait long for a taxi, and he was soon outside the lawyers’ offices again, and then, within minutes, inside, seated opposite the lawyer himself.
“Very wise,” said the lawyer. “Very wise to change your mind.”
And then he added: “You know, I seem to recollect that my boy Does He Wear Lederhosen?