MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[1124] little, she seldom showed hersl ^{[place = overwritten] e}lf, to me, out of tact perhaps, fearing
to r ^{[place = overwritten] f}righten me. [1125] But I think she spied on me a great deal, hiding behind
the bushes, or the curtains, or skulking in the shadows of a first-floor
room, with a pair of field glasses perhaps. [1126] For had she not said she
desired above all to see me, both coming and going and rooted to the
spot.

[1127] And to get a good view you need the hole in the lock, the little
aperture among the leaves, all that conceals you and reveals to you only
bit by bit. [1128] No? [1129] Yes, she inspected me, bit by bit, and even in my very
going to bed, my sleeping and my getting up, the mornings that I went to
bed. [1130] For in this matter I remained faithful to my custom, which was to
sleep in the morning, when I slept at all.

[1131] For it sometimes happened
I did not sleep at all, for several, without feeling at all the worse
for it. [1132] For my waking was a kind of sleeping. [1133] And I did not always sleep
in the same place, but now I slept in the garden, which was large, and
now I slept in the house, which was large too, really extremely spacious.

[1134] And this uncertainty as to the times and places of my sleep must have
overjoyed her, I imagine, and made the time pass pleasantly. [1135] But it is
useless to dwell on that period of my life. [1136] If I go on long enough
calling that my life I'll end up by believing it. [1137] It's the principle
of advertising.

[1138] That period of my life. [1139] It reminds me, when I think
of it, of air in a pipe. [1140] So I will only add that this woman went on
giving me slow poison, slipping I know not what poisons into the drink
she gave me, or into the food she gave me, or both, or one day one, the
next the other.

[1141] That is a grave charge to bring and I do not bring it
lightly. [1142] And I bring it without ill-feeling, yes, I accuse her without
ill-feeling of having drugged my food and drink with noxious and insipid
powders and potions. [1143] But even sipid they would have made no difference,
I would have swallowed it all down with the same whole-heartedness.
[1144] That celebrated whiff of almonds for example would never have taken away