MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-1

[0805] for my stiff leg. [0806] Without ceasing to ply me with delicacies she kept up
a chatter of which I did not understand the hundredth part. [0807] With her own
hand she took off my hat, and ^[⁁]carried it away, to hang it up somewhere, on
a ^{[⁁]hat-rack} I suppose, and seemed surprised when the lace pulled her up in
her stride. [0808] She had a parrot, very pretty, all the most approved colours.

[0809] I understood him better than his mistre^ss. [0810] I don't mean I understood him
better than she understood him, I mean I understood him better than I
understood her. [0811] He ^exclaimed from time to time, Fuck the son of a bitch,
^fuck the son of a bitch. [0812] He must have belonged to an American sailor,
before he belonged to Lousse. [0813] Pets often change masters.

[0814] He didn't say
much else. [0815] No, I'm wrong, he also said, Putain de merde! [0816] He must have
belonged to a French sailor before he belonged to the American sailor.
Putain de merde! [0817] Unless he had hit on it alone, it wouldn't surprise me.
[0818] Lousse tried to make him say, Pretty Polly!

[0819] I think it was too late. [0820] He
listened, his head on one side, pondered, then said, Fuck the son of a
bitch. [0821] It was clear he was doing his best. [0822] Him too one day she would
bury. [0823] In his cage ^probably. [0824] Me too, if I had stayed, she would have
buried. [0825] If I had her address I'd write to her, to come and bury me.

[0826] I fell asleep. [0827] I woke up in a bed, in my skin. [0828] They had carried their
impertin^[⁁]ence to the point of washing me, to judge by the smell I gave ^off,
no longer gave off. [0829] I went to the door. [0830] Locked. [0831] To the window. [0832] Bar^red.
[0833] It was not yet quite dark. [0834] What is there left to try when you have tr^ied
the door and the window? [0835] The chimney perhaps. [0836] I loo^ked for my cloth^es.

[0837] I found a light switch and switched it on. [0838] No result. [0839] What a story!
[0840] All that left me cold, or nearly. [0841] I found my crutches, against an e^asy
chair. [0842] It may seem strange that I was able to go through the motio^ns
I have described without their help. [0843] I find it strange. [0844] You don't
remember immediately who you are, when you wake. [0845] On a chair I fo^und