MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

[0651] fart at all, I should never have mentioned it. [0652] Extraordinary how
mathematics help you to know yourself. [0653] In any case this whole
question of climate left me cold, I could stomach any mess. [0654] So
I will only add that the mornings were often sunny, in that part
of the world, until ten o'clock or coming up to eleven, and that then
the sky ^darkened and the rain fell, fell till evening.

[0655] Then
the sun came out and went down, the drenched earth sparkled an
instant, then went out, bereft of light. [0656] There I am then back in
the saddle, in my numbed heart a prick of misgiving, like one dying
of cancer obliged to consult his dentist. [0657] For I did not know if it
was the right road.

[0658] All roads were right for me, a wrong road was
an event, for me. [0659] But when I was on my way to my mother only one
road was right, the one that led to her, or one of those that led
to her, for all did not lead to her. [0660] I did not know if I was on
one of those right roads and that disturbed me, like all recall to
life. [0661] Judge then of my relief when I saw, ahead of me, the familiar
ramparts loom. [0662] I passed beyond them, into a district I did not know.

[0662] And yet I knew the town well, for I ^{was born} there and had never
succeeded in putting between it and me more than ten or fifteen miles,
such was its grasp on me, I don't know why. [0663] So that I came near to
wondering if I was in the right town, where I first saw the ^{murk of day} and which still harboured my mother, somewhere or other,
or if I had not stumbled, as a result of a wrong turn, on a town
whose very name I did not know.

[0664] For my native town was the only one
I knew, having never set foot in any other. [0665] But I had read with care,
while I still ^could read, accounts of travellers more fortunate
than myself, telling of other towns as beautiful as mine, and even