The Spy Who Came in From the Cold: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

That evening in London, two men call on Liz Gold. Liz has nothing to remember Leamas by, and no mutual friend who reminds her of him except Miss Crail at the library, who had hated him. Miss Crail is frustrated because Leamas never collected his final wages. Liz keeps working at the library because it reminds her of him. Once, after he left, she had gone to his apartment. His landlord told her that two men, including a plump, short man with glasses, had come and settled Leamas’s outstanding rent.

Liz wonders why Leamas hit Ford the grocer. She knows he has a terrible temper, but feels that this was not the reason. If he had hit Ford spontaneously, she thinks, he would not have known to say goodbye to her the night before. She cannot believe that he broke things off with her just because he was sick of their relationship, and instead thinks that he always had something he planned on doing, although she has no idea what. At her Communist party branch meeting, they had discussed the incident, and even had it written up in a party newspaper as an instance of how easily the Capitalist system could turn violent. The branch treasurer, George Hanby, had spoken to a man in spectacles who had seen the incident, and had told him it happened very spontaneously.

Two men come to Liz’s apartment. One is short and plump, with glasses and a worried expression that makes Liz trust him. He asks Liz about her relationship with Leamas, asking if anyone else knew about their relationship, and if she was surprised that he hit Mr. Ford. Liz does not want to say too much, but she has bottled up her feelings and wants to talk, so she answers the men’s questions. She tells them that the night before Leamas hit Ford, he had told her that he had a job to do. The short man (who turns out to be George Smiley) asks Liz if she knows that Leamas had a wife and two children, but she only blushes and says that she was in love with him, although she does not know if he was in love with her.

Liz asks the two men to leave, and the short man gives her a card and tells her he is a friend of Leamas’s, and to call if she ever needs help. He asks her if Leamas knew that she was in the Communist party, and she says yes. He also asks if the Party knew that she was seeing Leamas, and she says no one knew. Then Liz begins to cry and beg for information about where Leamas is. The short man says that Leamas is abroad, and that Leamas never should have said so much to her. When the men leave, Liz looks at the card, which is expensively printed and says, “Mr. George Smiley.”