MS-BRML-NWWR-22-546

[0208] I took off my hat and looked at it. [0209] It is fastened, it has always
been fastened, to my buttonhole, always the same buttonhole, at
all seasons, by a long lace. [0210] I am still alive then. [0211] That may come
in useful. [0212] The hand that t^had seized the hat and that held it still
I trust as far as possible from me and caused ^it to come and go in an
arc.

[0213] So doing, I watched the lapel of my greatcoat, and saw it
open and close. [0214] I understand now why I never wore a flower in my
buttonhole, though it was large enough to hold a whole bunch. [0215] My
buttonhole was set aside for my hat. [0216] It was my hat that I
beflowered. [0217] But it is neither of my hat nor of my greatcoat that
I hope to speak at present, it would be premature.

[0218] Doubte^l[x]^ess I
shall speak of them later, when the time comes to draw up the
inventory of my goods and possessions. [0219] Unless I lose them between
now and then. ^{[90/91 Here]} [0220] ^[[]But even lost they will have their place, in the
inventory of my possessions. [0221] But i am easy in my mind, I shall
not lose the[x]^m. [0222] Nor my crutches, I shall not lose my crutches either.

[0223] But I shall perhaps one day throw them away. [0224] I must have been on
the top, or on the slopes, of some considerable eminence, for
otherwise how could I have seen, so far away, so near at hand, so
far beeⁿei^ath, so many things, fixed and moving. [0225] But what was an
eminence doing in this land with hardly a ripple? [0226] And I, what was
I doing there, and why come? [0227] These are things that we shall try
and discover. [0228] But these are things we must not take seriously.

[0229] There is a little of everything, apparently, in nature and freaks
are common. [0230] And I am perhaps confusing several different occasions,
and different times, deep down, and deep down is my dwelling, oh not
deepest down, somewhere between the mud and the scum. [0231] And perhaps it