The Deputy Under Secretary could talk of his host's prospects and disappointments, he could learn of the problems of digging out foreign exchange and hard currency in the Third World, the tribulations over the renewal of Residence Permits, the difficulties of keeping reliable servants, but of his own world he must remain silent. The Deputy Under Secretary headed the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom, and that was not a subject matter for gossip and conversation on a bougainvillaea-fringed veranda as the lights of the fishermen's dug-outs floated inside the coral reef... No bloody way. He was a man who could be honest with himself and in honesty he could say that he was both pleased and relieved to be back at his desk on a grey Monday morning in London.
the Deputy Under Secretary was both pleased and relieved to be back at his desk on a grey Monday morning in London