Chapter 35: The Female Future

These two seductions caused me much concern. I had intended neither of them, but had been unable to avoid them even though I was well aware of what was happening. I knew that sooner or later, if this sort of thing went on, someone was bound to notice, and what then? I had nightmare visions of being emblazoned across the tabloid press; and I feared, too, that the civil authorities might take some action against me, although I hardly dared think what this might be.

Indeed, I thought, already someone had noticed, or at least had become highly suspicious. I kept thinking of Elspeth's warning about this Dr Stone: "She's clever. Very." So on the Tuesday I had looked in at a bookshop and bought a copy of The Female Future. The assistant gave me a slightly odd look, and I could see why. It was obvious even from the pastel-shaded cover that this was aimed at the young female market.

Over the next couple of days I worked my way through it, either in the office when I should have been working, or braving further strange looks on the tube. Dr Stone wrote in an easy, chatty style obviously aimed at a popular rather than an academic market, but she made some very interesting points.

She argued (if I can do her justice in a few sentences) that the trend to greater equality between the sexes was the result of fundamental social changes. In the past, when societies had been based on arduous manual labour, with frequent recourse to warfare, men's attributes of physical strength and aggression were at a premium and the male-dominated social structures of the time had reflected this. But the move to economic systems based first on machines, and more recently on information, meant that women had become equally valuable. As a result, long-accepted norms of behaviour were becoming outdated. For example, she gave short shrift to marriage: an institution that required the parties to make promises about how they were going to feel in the future had always been fundamentally flawed, she argued, because people can promise only what they will do, not how they will feel; but when women were neither socially nor financially independent, it had at least had the merit of providing them with the protection and financial support they needed to raise a family. But now that women's qualities were at least as valuable as men's, they could look after themselves and marriage had become redundant. But in arguing this she was at pains to stress that she was no man-hater. She enjoyed the company of men as it was only natural for women to do, but now it could be appreciated for its own sake without the underlying agenda of seeking a life-long commitment as a basis for child-rearing. Seen this way, she emphasised, her outlook was liberating not only for women but for men too.

She concluded with the assertion that the changes that had enhanced the status of women had not come to an end; on the contrary, they were accelerating. Women's qualities of acuity and sensitivity would be even more valuable in the future; the day would come, if indeed it had not already arrived, when they would be more socially useful than men. They should recognise this and slough off the outdated conventions that held them back. The future was theirs for the taking.

Notwithstanding its popular style, the book was intelligently argued and I could see why it had achieved the flattering reviews it quoted from women's glossy magazines and the impressive sales it boasted on the back cover. I had never heard of it before, which is not surprising because it was not aimed at me, but when I mentioned it to Fran she told me that several friends had talked about it and she had meant to buy it.

Reading the book did nothing to quiet my unease about its author. My concern would have been greater still had I known what took place at a library at Cambridge on the Wednesday.

It was a beautiful summer's day and most students were too busy very sensibly enjoying the fine weather to waste time working, so the library was very quiet. But Elspeth was there, working furiously on an essay that (she had realised as she drove back on Tuesday) had to be in the following Monday; which, with her weekend committed, meant in effect that she had to write it from scratch in two and a half days. There was a large open area on the ground floor with desks equipped with computer terminals, and it was there that she was working when Laura, searching for a book on the first floor gallery, caught sight of her.

Looking down unobserved from her vantage-point, Laura was surprised to see that the girl was apparently engrossed in her work, periodically referring to the books she had piled on the desk, or checking something on the internet, but most of the time tapping energetically away at the keyboard. Elspeth was in short, and in total contrast to her recent manner, the picture of the hard-working student.

Intrigued by this abrupt reversion to type, Laura watched closely. After a while Elspeth paused in her labours to reach into her bag and draw out a sheet of paper. She looked at it for a few moments, as if deriving some kind of strength from it; then she resumed work with even greater energy. Laura noticed that she had not replaced the piece of paper in her bag; instead she had left it on the desk so she could glance at it periodically.

Elspeth, meanwhile, was focusing furiously on this wretched essay. I had told her to apply herself to her work and she was doing it, but I had not told her she had to like it. To motivate herself she thought of the forthcoming weekend in Surrey as a reward for all this effort, and she dredged out the paper with my writing on it to provide physical evidence of this incentive. Then, to her irritation, just as the essay was beginning to take shape, she discovered that a reference crucial to her argument was not to be found in the pile of books she had already accumulated. She folded the inspirational sheet of paper and slipped it into one of the volumes on the desk to keep her page — it would not do for anyone to see it, after all — and hurried off to search the shelves for the book she needed.

Laura, still watching from above, felt convinced that this piece of paper must be the vital clue. She rushed downstairs and, seeing no sign of Elspeth, retrieved the paper (not forgetting to mentally note the page number it had been keeping). She did not even look at it; she hurried to the copier, took a photostat, and replaced the original paper exactly where she had found it. Then she walked briskly off with the copy in her pocket. Elspeth, returning with her book a few moments later, had no idea that anything had happened.

Only when Laura was safely out of the building did she allow herself to take the copy out of her pocket and look at it. When she saw my note with its obvious sexual double meaning, she flushed a little with a mixture of embarrassment at spying on Elspeth in this underhand way and triumph at having been right all along: it was a man. But who was he? "J" meant nothing to her. Maybe it was George Majoribanks after all, and "J" was a nickname or some private joke. It certainly seemed to be his house. Yet Elspeth had seemed so comfortable and relaxed in speaking dismissively of him; surely she was not that good a liar. Elspeth was due in her tutorial the following afternoon, Laura reflected; she would study her closely.

The tutorial only served, in fact, to heighten Laura's fascination and suspicion still further. For one thing, it was attended not only by Elspeth but also by Kathryn Hayward, whom Laura had almost forgotten about but who was just as distant and vacant as she had been the previous week, smiling absently and gazing out of the window all afternoon. It was a telling reminder of what both girls had been like the week before, but now Elspeth could hardly have been a greater contrast. She was bright and loquacious throughout, full of ideas, fearlessly challenging Laura on several points and more than holding her own in the ensuing discussion. At one level, Laura was delighted; she loved it when students behaved this way. But she was also deeply puzzled; it was obvious from the note and Elspeth's high spirits that her love affair was still going on, so why was she behaving so utterly differently?