MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

[0427] mouth a thin flexible object I could not identify. [0428] I had time
to become aware of these details before he dismissed me. [0429] He
listened to his subordinate's report and then began to interrogate
me in a tone which, from the point of view of civility, left
increasingly to be desired, in my opinion. [0430] Between his questions
and my answers, I mean those deserving of consideration, the
intervals were more or less long and turbulent.

[0431] I am so little
used to being asked anything that when I am asked something I take
some time to know what. [0432] And the mistake I make then is this, that
instead of quietly reflecting on what I have just heard, and
heard distinctly, not being hard of hearing, in spite of all I
have heard, I hasten to answer blindly, fearing perhaps lest my
silence fan their anger to fury.

[0433] I am full of fear, I have gone
in fear all my life, in fear of blows. [0434] Insults, abuse, these I
can easily bear, but I could never get used to blows. [0435] It's strange.
[0436] Even spits still pain me. [0437] But they have only to be a little gentle,
I mean refrain from hitting me, and I seldom fail to give satisfaction,
in the long run.

[0438] Now the sergeant, content to threaten me with
a cylindrical ruler, was little by little rewarded for his pains
by the discovery that I had no papers in the sense this word had
a sense for him, nor any occupation, nor any domicile, that my
surname escaped me for the moment and that I was on my way to my
mother, whose charity kept me dying.

[0439] As to her address, I
was in the dark, but knew how to get there, even in the dark. [0440] The
district? [0441] By the shambles your honour, for from my mother's room,
through the closed windows, I had heard, stilling her chatter, the
bellowing of the cattle, that violent raucous tremulous bellowing