MS-BRML-NWWR-2-38

[0407] after us, calm faces and joyful faces, faces of men, of women ^{[place = inline] ,}
and of children. [0408] I seemed to hear, at a certain moment, a
distant music. [0409] I stopped, the better to listen. [0410] Go on, he
said. [0411] Listen, I said. [0412] Get on, he said. [0413] I wasn't allowed to
listen to the music. [0414] It might have drawn a crowd.

[0415] He gave me
a shove. [0416] I had been touched, oh not my skin, but none the less
my skin had felt it, it had felt a man's hard fist, through its
coverings. [0417] While still putting my best foot foremost I gave
myself up to that golden moment, as if I had been someone else.

[0418] It was the hour of rest, the forenoon's toil ended, the afternoon's
to come. [0419] The wisest perhaps, lyaing in the squares or sitting on
their doorsteps, were savouring its languid ending, forgetful
of recent cares, indifferent to those at hand. [0420] Others ^{[place = inline] ,} on the
contrary ^{[place = inline] ,} were using it to make their plans, their heads in their
hands.

[0421] Was there one among them to put himself in my place,
^{[place = margin left] [stet]} to feel how ^{[place = supralinear] more} removed I was then from him I seemed to be, and in
that remove what strain, as of hawsers about to snap. [0422] It's
possible. [0423] Yes, I waa ^{[place = overwritten] s} straining towards ^{[place = infralinear] [₰]} those spurious deeps,
their lying promise of gravity and peace, from all my old
poisons I struggled towards ^{[place = infralinear] [₰]} it, safely bound. [0424] Under the blue
sky, under the watchful gaze. [0425] Forgetful of my mother, set free
from the acts, merged in this alien hour, saying, respite, respite.

[0426] At the police station I was brought before a very strange offi-
cial. [0427] Dressed in plain-clothes, in his shirt-sleeves, he was
sprawling in an arm-chair, his feet on his desk, a straw hat on
his head ^{[place = inline] ,} and protruding from his mouth a thin ^{[place = inline] ,} flexible object
I could not identify. [0428] I had time to become aware of these
details before he dismissed me. [0429] He listened to his subordinate's
report and then began to interrogate me in a tone which, from