MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[1025] something intended to mollify me, to mollify Molloy, with the result
that I was nothing more than a lump of melting wax, so to speak. [1026] And
from these propositions, which she enunciated slowly and distinctly,
repeating each clause several times, I finally elicited the following,
or gist. [1027] I couldn't prevent her having a weakness for me, neither could
she.

[1028] I would live in her home, as though it were my own. [1029] I would have
plenty to eat and drink, to smoke too if I smoked, for nothing, and the
rest of my days would glide away without a care. [1030] I would as it were
take the place of the dog I had killed, as it for her had taken the place
of a child. [1031] I would help in the garden, in the house, when I wished, if
I wished.

[1032] I would not go out on the street, for once out I could never
get in again. [1033] I would adopt the ^rhyth^m of life which best suited me, get-
-ting up, going to bed and taking my meals at whatsoever hours I pleased.
[1034] If I did not choose to be clean, to wear nice clothes, to wash and so on,
I need not. [1035] She would be grieved, but what was her grief, compared to my
grief.

[1036] All she asked was to feel me near her, with her, and the right
to contemplate from time to time this extraordinary body both at rest
and in motion. [1037] Every now and then I interrupted her, to ask what town
I was in. [1038] But either because she didn't understand me, or because she
preferred to leave me in ignorance, she did not reply to my question,
but went on with her own soliloquy, reiterating tirelessly each new
proposition, then expounding further, slowly, gently, the benefits for
both of us if I would make my home with her.

[1039] Till nothing was left but
this monotonous voice, in the deepening night and the smell of the damp
earth and of a strongly scented flower which at the time I could not
identify, but which later I identified as spike-lavender. [1040] There were
beds of them everywhere, in this garden, for Lousse loved spike, she
must have told me herself, otherwise I would not have known, she loved