Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Molloy

MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

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Segment 1

[0681] the name of my town, [place = margin left] [] I resolved to stop by the kerb, to wait for
a passer-by with a friendly and intelligent air, [place = margin left] [] and then to take [place = supralinear] whip [place = margin right] []
off my hat and to [place = margin left] [] say, with my smile, I beg your pardon, [place = margin right] [] Sir,
excuse me Sir, what is the name of this town, if you please?
[0682] For
the word once let fall I would know if it was the right word, the
one I was seeking, in my memory, or another,
[0683] and so would know [place = margin right] []
where I stood.

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Segment 2

[0684] This resolution, actually formed as I rode along,
was never to be carried out, an absurd mishap prevented it.
[0685] Yes,
my resolutions were remarkable in this, that they were no sooner
formed than something always happened to prevent their execution.
[0686] That must be why I am even less resolute now than then, just as then
I was [place = supralinear] even less so too, than I once had been.

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Segment 3

[0687] But to tell the truth (to
tell the truth!) I have never been particularly resolute, I mean
subject to taking [place = supralinear] []given to resolutions, but rather inclined to plunge
headlong into the shit, without knowing who was shitting against
whom or on which side I had the better chance of skulking with
sucf [place = overwritten] cess.

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Segment 4

[0688] But from this leaning too I derived scant satisfaction
and if I have never quite got rid of it is [place = margin right] it is not for want of
trying.
[0689] The fact is, it seems, that the most you can hope to be
is to be a little less,in the end, the creature you were in the
beginning, and the middle.

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Segment 5

[0690] For I had hardly perfected my plan,
in my head, when my bicycle ran over a dog, as subsequently appeared,
and fell to the ground, with an ineptness all the more inexcusable [place = supralinear] unpardonable [place = margin left] []
as the dog, duly leashed, was not out on the road, but in on the
pavement, docile at its mistresse [place = supralinear] 's heels.
[0691] Precautions are like
resolutions, to be taken with precaution.
[0692] The lady must have thought
she had left nothing to chance, so far as the safetl [place = overwritten] y [place = overwritten] y of her dog was

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