Alison Lurie

Foreign Affairs

Michael Joseph, 1985.

He scarcely sees the picturesque scene through which he is walking: on the one hand a bank of long grass and wild flowering weeds, on the other the brightly painted barges and the tall horse chestnuts in the gardens on the opposite shore, which have begun to scatter their clusters of bloom onto the canal, transforming it into a floating carpet of cream and pink stars

Fred, a visiting American academic, is 'walking along the Regent's Canal above Camden Lock on a glowing June day', preoccupied with thoughts of Rosemary. Another American visitor, Vinnie, has rented a flat in Regent's Park Road and visits the Zoo. 'An early-afternoon shower has sluiced the dust from the still-shiny leaves and the mica-flecked paths, and has lent the air a scented freshness.' Seated on a bench and musing on her life, she too becomes preoccupied with thoughts of her lover.