“TO SAY OF A MAN THAT HE WAS SAILING TO SARANTIUM WAS TO SAY THAT HIS LIFE WAS ON THE CUSP OF CHANGE: POISED FOR EMERGENT GREATNESS, BRILLIANCE, FORTUNE – OR ELSE AT THE VERY PRECIPICE OF A FINAL AND ABSOLUTE FALL AS HE MET SOMETHING TOO VAST FOR HIS CAPACITY.”       T IS MIDNIGHT WHEN Alasdair awakes.    Awakes is the wrong word. He has not been sleeping and so he does not so much awake as he does sit up and pull the covers off. The fortune-teller lies beside him, a