MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

[0681] the name of my town,^[₰] I resolved to stop by the kerb, to wait for
a passer-by with a friendly and intelligent air,^[₰] and then to take ^whip[₰]
off my hat and to^[₰] say, with my smile, I beg your pardon,^[₰] 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^[₰]
where I stood.

[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 ^even less so too, than I once had been.

[0687] But to tell the truth (to
tell the truth!) I have never been particularly resolute, I mean
subject to taking ^{[⁁]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^cess.

[0688] But from this leaning too I derived scant satisfaction
and if I have never quite got rid of it is ^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.

[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 ^{unpardonable[₰]}
as the dog, duly leashed, was not out on the road, but in on the
pavement, docile at its mistresse^'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^yy of her dog was