Status Updates From Smiley's People (The Karla ...

The streets were cobbled; the freezing air smelt of roast chestnuts and cigars. The ancient fountains advanced on him through the fog, the medieval houses were the backdrop to a play he had no part in. So many nights, he thought. So many streets still here. He thought of Hesse:strange to wander in the fog...no tree knows another. The frozen mist curled low over the racing water; the weir burned creamy yellow.

Peering calmly into his own heart, Smiley knew that he was unled, and perhaps unleadable; that the only restraints upon him were those of his own reason, and his own humanity. As with his marriage, so with his sense of public service. I invested my life in institutions - he thought without rancour - and all I am left with is myself.

Against stupidity the gods themselves fight in basin, thought Smiley: but Schiller had forgotten the bureaucrats.

A couplet of Auden’s rang in his mind: let us honour if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one.