At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances

and indeed it was not. He had made his decision, and now he would implement it. The moment had come.

‘I wish to make a speech,’ said von Igelfeld to his Colombian staff. ‘Make sure that somebody writes down what I have to say.’

‘Certainly, Senor Presidente,’ said his private secretary. ‘We shall do as you order.’

‘Good,’ said von Igelfeld, clearing his throat. ‘Dear colleagues, dear civil servants, diplomats, colonels, military attaches et cetera et cetera. In recognition of the close ties of friendship between the Republic of Germany and the Republic of Colombia, it is my pleasure today to invest our dear German hosts with well-deserved honours of the Colombian state.’

‘Professor Florianus Prinzel, I hereby confer on you the Order of the Andes, First Class. This is in recognition of your contribution to scholarship, and its first-class nature.’

Prinzel smiled, and bowed to von Igelfeld, who nodded in acknowledgement and then continued: ‘And on the Librarian, Herr Huber, I have great pleasure in conferring the title of Honorary Corresponding Librarian of the Colombian Academy of Letters.’

Herr Huber was too overcome to do anything, but his gratitude was palpable, and so von Igelfeld proceeded to the third task.

‘And now, on Professor Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer, in recognition of his contribution to scholarship, I now confer the Order of the Andes . . . ’ There was a moment of complete silence, a moment in which von Igelfeld confronted one of the greatest temptations of his moral life, far greater than any quandary which had confronted him in the heat of the Colombian revolution. It would have been easy, oh so easy, to say, Third Class, as the Belgians had said to him. That would have taught Unterholzer. That would have paid him back for using his room without his permission; but no, he said instead, with a flourish, First Class, and Unterholzer, weak with emotion, stepped forward and took his hand and shook it.

All that remained for von Igelfeld to do was to resign as President of Colombia, which he did immediately after carrying out these last generous acts of liberality. His resignation speech was short, and dignified.

‘I have served Colombia to the best of my ability,’ he said, ‘but now the torch must be handed to another. I therefore appoint dear Senor Pedro as my successor, with all the powers and privileges of the office. May he discharge the duties in an honest and decent way, remembering that in a bad country – and, please, I am not for a moment suggesting that Colombia is a bad country – there are many ordinary people who will be counting on those in high office to remember their suffering and their aspirations. My place is here. This is where I have been called to serve. Viva el Presidente Pedro! Viva la Patria!’

And with that he sat down. There was, of course, a certain amount of confusion amongst the Colombian officials, but they soon recovered their composure and went off to lunch in a restaurant which Herr Huber was able to recommend to them. Then von Igelfeld went to his room and began to attend to his mail. There was so much to read, and he would be busy writing letters all that afternoon and well into the following day.

He looked about him. Were there signs of Unterholzer having been in his room? He thought that some of the books had been moved, although he could not be sure. He stopped himself. He remembered being at a window, looking down an avenue of trees, and waiting for an army to advance. He remembered Dolores Quinta Barranquilla standing beneath the rising helicopter and waving to them as the blades of the aircraft cut into the thin Andean air. And he heard again the cries of Viva! and the expression of sheer relief on the faces of the guerrillas and the soldiers as they realised that nobody was going to ask them to die after all. And he realised then that there were more important things to worry about, and that we must love those with whom we live and work, and love them for all their failings, manifest and manifold though they be.

VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2004

Text copyright © 2003 Alexander McCall Smith

Illustrations copyright © Iain McIntosh

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright

Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any

electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval

systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer,

who may quote brief passages in a review.

Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of

Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. First published in

Great Britain in 2003 by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh.

Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of

Random House of Canada Limited.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948–

At the villa of reduced circumstances / Alexander McCall Smith.

(Portuguese irregular verbs trilogy)

“A Professor Dr von Igelfeld entertainment”.

I. Title. II. Series: McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948–

Portuguese irregular verbs trilogy.

PR6063.C326A’.914 C2004- 904092-8

www.randomhouse.ca

www.randomhouse.com

eISBN: 978-0-307-42488-4

v3.0

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

eins - ON BEING LIGHT BLUE

zwei - AT THE VILLA OF REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES

Copyright Page