MS-HRC-SB-4-2-7

[0248] switches off impatiently, winds tape forward, switches on
again)[0249]—great granite rocks the foam flying up in the
light of the lighthouse and the wind-gauge spinning like
a propeller, clear to me at last that the dark I have
always struggled to keep under is in reality my most—

[0250] (KRAPP curses, switches off, winds tape forward, switches
on again)[0251]—unshatterable association until my dissolution
of storm and night with the light of the understanding
and the fire—[0252](KRAPP curses louder, switches off, winds
tape forward, switches on again)[0253]—my face in her breasts
and my hand on her.[0254] We lay there without moving.[0255] But
under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down,
and from side to side.

[0256] ( ^{[place = margin left] [₰]} Pause.) ^{[place = margin left] [₰]}
[0257] Past midnight.[0258] Never ^{[place = margin left] k}new such silence.[0259] The earth might
be uninhabited.
[0260] ( ^{[place = margin left] [₰]} Pause.) ^{[place = margin left] [₰]}
[0261] Here I end—

[0262] ( ^{[place = margin left] [₰]} KRAPP switches off, winds tape back, switches on again.) ^{[place = margin left] [₰]}
[0263] —upper lake, with the punt, bathed off the bank, then
pushed out into the stream and drifted.[0264] She lay
stretched out on the floorboards with her hands under
her head and her eyes closed.[0265] Sun blazing down, bit of a
breeze, water nice and lively.[0266] I noticed a scratch on her
thigh and asked her how she came by it.

[0267] Picking goose-
berries, she said.[0268] I said again I thought it was hopeless
and no good going on, and she agreed, without opening
her eyes.[0269] (Pause.)[0270] I asked her to look at me and after a
few moments—(pause)— ^{[place = margin left] after a few moments} she did, but the eyes just slits,
because of the glare.[0271] I bent over her to get them in the
shadow and they opened.[0272] (Pause.[0273] Low.)[0274] Let me in.

[0275] (Pause.)[0276] We drifted in among the flags and stuck.[0277] The
way they went down, sighing, before the stem![0278] (Pause.)
[0279] I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and
my hand on her.[0280] We lay there without moving.[0281] But
under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down,
and from side to side.