The Careful Use of Compliments Read Online Free Page A

pupil, as if for rescue from that quarter, but the boy looked away, his embarrassment compounded by the complicity that had now arisen between them.
    Jamie’s deliberate distance seemed only to spur this woman on, and she had invited him to join her for coffee after the lesson. He had replied that he could not, as there was another pupil, and then he added, “And I don’t think it would be a good idea anyway.” She had looked at him mischievously, and then, as if oblivious to the presence of her son on the other side of the room, had said, “It may not be a good idea, but it’s always fun.” After that, he had asked her not to come up to fetch her son, but to wait for him downstairs.
    She had been outraged. “Who exactly do you think you are?” she had hissed.
    â€œYour son’s bassoon teacher,” he said.
    â€œEx–bassoon teacher,” she said, and she had withdrawn her son from further lessons.
    Isabel had laughed when she heard of this. “I can see her,” she said. “I can just see her saying that.”
    â€œBut I haven’t told you who she was,” Jamie protested.
    â€œBut of course I know,” said Isabel. “Remember that this is Edinburgh. I can work it out. It’s…” And she had named the name, and got it right, to Jamie’s astonishment.
    â€œToo much money,” Isabel went on. “She’s incapable of handling it. She thinks that it buys bassoon lessons—and the bassoon teacher.”
    Isabel was not like that at all. But now this talk of spending twenty-five thousand pounds on a painting made Jamie feel vaguely uneasy.
    â€œShould you spend that much?” he asked, but he went on to answer his own question immediately. “Of course, if you can afford it, then that’s your business.”
    Isabel detected a note of disapproval in his tone; she had not expected this reaction. They had never discussed money; the subject simply had not arisen between them. And if there was a yawning disparity between their respective financial positions—which there was—it seemed to her that it was quite irrelevant. Isabel had never judged people by their means; it simply was not an issue with her. But at the same time, she realised that it could be difficult for Jamie. Money gave power over people, no matter how tactful one was about it. With money you could get the attention of others; you could ask them to do things.
    â€œI can afford it,” she said quietly. “If I want it. But the problem is…well, I feel guilty.” She paused. “And you’re not helping much.”
    He frowned. “Not helping? I don’t know what you mean.”
    â€œYou disapprove of the fact that I can buy that,” said Isabel. “You’re making it rather obvious.”
    Jamie’s surprise was unfeigned. “Why should I disapprove? It’s your money. What you do with it—”
    â€œIs my business,” Isabel interjected. “If only that were the case. But it isn’t, you know. People watch what other people do with their money. They watch very closely.”
    Jamie shrugged his shoulders. “Not me,” he said. “I don’t. If you think that I do, then you’re wrong. You really are.”
    Isabel watched his expression as she spoke. She had misjudged him; what he said was true—he had no interest in what she did with her money; there was no envy there.
    â€œLet’s not argue,” she said. “Especially in front of Charlie.”
    Jamie smiled. “No. Of course.” The discussion had made him feel uncomfortable, as it had raised something which had not been present in their relationship before: a financial dimension. As they left the auction house, with Charlie returned to his sling on Isabel’s front, Jamie thought about what had been said. And there was something else worrying him, something else that had not been spoken about but