MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[0681] the name of my town, I resolved to stop by the kerb, to wait for
a passer-by with a friendly and intelligent air, and then to take
off my hat and to say, with my smile, I beg your pardon, Sir,
excuse me Sir, what is the name of this town, if you please? [0682] For
the word once let fall I would know if it was the right word, the
one I was seeking, in my memory, or another, [0683] and so would know
where I stood.

[0684] This resolution, actually formed as I rode along,
was never to be carried out, an absurd mishap prevented it. [0685] Yes,
my resolutions were remarkable in this, that they were no sooner
formed than something always happened to prevent their execution.

[0686] That must be why I am even less resolute now than then, just as then
I was less so too, than I once had been. [0687] But to tell the truth (to
tell the truth!) I have never been particularly resolute, I mean
subject to taking resolutions, but rather inclined to plunge
headlong into the shit, without knowing who was shitting against
whom or on which side I had the better chance of skulking with
sucf ^{[place = overwritten] c}ess.

[0688] But from this leaning too I derived scant satisfaction
and if I have never quite got rid of it is ^{[place = supralinear] it} is not for want of
trying. [0689] The fact is, it seems, that the most you can hope to be
is to be a little less,in the end, the creature you were in the
beginning, and the middle.

[0690] For I had hardly perfected my plan,
in my head, when my bicycle ran over a dog, as subsequently appeared,
and fell to the ground, with an ineptness all the more inexcusable
as the dog, duly leashed, was not out on the road, but in on the
pavement, docile at its mistresse ^{[place = overwritten] '}s heels.

[0691] Precautions are like
resolutions, to be taken with precaution. [0692] The lady must have thought
she had left nothing to chance, so far as the safetl ^{[place = overwritten] y} of her dog was