MS-BRML-NWWR-2-38

[0656] a prick of misgiving, like one dying of cancer obliged to consult
his dentist. [0657] For I did not know if it was the right road. [0658] All
roads were right for me, a wrong road was an event, for me. [0659] But
when I was on my way to my mother only one road was right, the
one that led to her, or one of those that led to her, for all did
not lead to her.

[0660] I did not know if I was on one of those right roads
and that disturbed me, like all recall to life. [0661] Judge then of my
relief when I saw, ahead of me, the familiar ramparts loom. [0662] I
passed byond them, into a district I did not know. And yet I knew
the town well, for I had been born there and had never succeeded in
putting between it and me more than ten or fifteen miles, such was its
grasp on me, I don't know why.

[0663] So that I came n ^{[place = supralinear] N}ear to wondering if
I was in the right town, where I first saw the murk and which still
harboured my mother, somewhere or other, or if I had not stumbled,
as a result of a wrong turn, on a town whose very name I did not
know. [0664] For my native town was the only one I knew, having never set
foot in any other.

[0665] But I had read with care, while I still could
read, accounts of travellers more fortunate than myself, telling
of other towns as beautiful as mine, and even more beautiful, though
with a different beauty.

[0666] And now it was a name I sought, in my
memory, the name of the only town it was given me to know, with
the intention, as soon as I had found it, of stopping, and saying
to a passer-by, doffing my hat, I beg your pardon, Sir, this is X,
isn't it, ^{[place = supralinear] ? [place = inline] []} X being the name of my town.

[0667] And this name that I sought,
I felt sure that it began with a B or with a P, but in spite of
this clue, or perhaps because of its falsity, the other letters
continued to escape me. [0668] I had been living so far from words so
long, you understand, that it was enough for me to see my town,
since we're talking of my town, to be unable, you understand. [0669] It's