MS-HRC-SB-4-3

[2560] apart and so astutely disposed that Lemuel had never been able
to determine how best, that is to say with the minimum of fat-
igue and annoyance, to visit them in turn. [2561] In the first a young
man, dead young, seated in an old rocking-chair, his shirt
rolled up and his hands on his thighs, would have seemed asleep
had not his eyes been wide open. [2562] He never went out, unless com-
manded to do so, and then someone had to accompany him, in order
to make him move forward.

[2563] His chamber-pot was empty, whereas in
his bowl the soup of the previous day had congealed. [2564] The reverse
would have been less surprising. [2565] But Lemuel was used to this, so
used that he had longed since ceased to wonder on what this
creature fed. [2566] He emptied the bowl into his empty bucket and from
his full bucket filled it with fresh soup. [2567] Then he went, a bucket
in each hand, whereas up to now a single hand had been enough to
carry the two buckets.

[2568] Because of the excursion he locked the door
behind him, an unnecessary precaution. [2569] The second cell, four
or five hundred paces distant from the first, contained one whose
only really striking features were his stature, his stiffness and
his air of perpetually looking for something while at the same
time wondering what that something could possibly be.

[2570] Nothing
in his person gave any indication of his age, whether he was mar-
vellously well-preserved or on the contrary prematurely decayed. [2571]
He was called the Saxon, though he was far from being any such
thing. [2572] Without troubling to take off his shirt he had swathed
himself in his two blankets as in swaddlings and over and above