MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[1590] by sea, but you had to disembark well to the north or the south and take
to the highways, just imagine that, for they had never heard of Watt,
just imagine that too.

[1591] And now my progress, slow and painful at all
times, was more so than ever, because of my short stiff leg, the same
which I thought had long been as stiff as a leg could be, but nothing
doing, for it was growing stiffer than ever, a thing I would not have
thought possible, and at the same time shorter every day, but above all
because of the other leg, supple hitherto and now growing rapidly stiff
in its turn but not yet shortening, unhappily.

[1592] For when the two legs
shorten at the same time, and at the same speed, then all is not lost,
no. [1593] But when one shortens, and the other not, then you begin to be
worried. [1594] Oh not that I was exactly worried, but it was a nuisance, yes,
a nuisance. [1595] For I didn't know which foot to land on, when I came down.
[1596] Let us try and get this dilemma clear. [1597] Follow me carefully. The stiff
leg hurt me, admittedly, I mean the old stiff leg, and it was the other
which I normally used as a pivot, or prop.

[1598] But now this latter, as a
result of its stiffening I suppose, and the ensuing shock to nerves and
sinews, was beginning to hurt me even more than the other. [1599] What a story,
God send I don't make a balls of it. [1600] For the old pain, do you follow me,
I had got used to it, in a way, yes, in a kind of way. [1601] Whereas to the
new pain, though of the same family, I had not yet had time to adjust
myself.

[1602] Nor should it be forgotten that having one bad leg plus another
more or less good, I was able to nurse the former, and reduce its
sufferings to the minimum, to the maximum, by using the former exclusively,
with the help of my crt cruc ^{[place = overwritten] t}ches. [1603] But I no longer had this to fall back
on! [1604] For I no longer had one bad leg plus another more or less good, but
now both were equally bad. [1605] And the worse, to my mind, was that which
till now had been good, at least relatively, and whose change for the
worse I had not yet schooo ^{[place = overwritten] l}ed myself to endure. [1606] So in a way, if you