[0306] didn't realize what she was saying. [0307] Anyone but myself would
have been lost in this clattering gabble, which can only have
stopped during her brief instants of unconsciousness. [0308] In any
case I didn't come to listen to her. [0309] I got into communication
with her by knocking on her skull. [0310] One knock meant yes, two no,
three I don't know, four money, five good[|=|] by[₰].
[0311] I was hard put to
ram this code into her ruined and frantic understanding, but I did
it, in the end. [0312] That she should confuse yes, no, I don't know,
and good[|=|]by was all the same to me, I confused them myself. [0313] But
that she should associate the four knocks with anything but
money was something to be avoided at all costs.
[0314] During the period
of training, therefore, at the same time as I administered the four
knocks on her skull, I stuck a bank[#] note under her nose or in her
mouth. [0315] In the innocence of my heart! [0316] For she seemed to have lost,
if not absolutely all notion of mensuration, at least the faculty of
counting beyond two.
[0317] It was too far for her, yes, the distance
was too great, from one to four. [0318] By the time she came to the
fourth knock she imagined she was only at the second, the first
two having been erased from her memory as completely as if they had
never been felt, though I don't quite see how something never felt
can be erased from the memory, and yet it is a common occurrence.
[0319] She must have thought I was saying no to her all the time, whereas
nothing was further from my purpose. [0320] Enlightened by these consid-
erations I looked for and finally found a more effective means of
putting the idea of money into her head. [0321] This consisted in
replacing the four knocks of my index-knuckle by one or more (accord-
ing to my needs) thumps of the fist, on her skull.
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Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt