MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[2005] view was gaining ground, even among the clergy, more and more disposed to
admit that the sabbath, so long as you go to mass and contribute to the
collection, may be considered a day like any other, in certain respects.
[2006] This did not affect me personally, I've always loved doing nothing. [2007] And
I would gladly have rested on weekdays too, if I could have afforded it.

[2008] Not that I was positively lazy. [2009] It was something else. [2010] Seeing something
done which I could have done better myself, if I had wished, and which I
did do better whenever I ^{put my mind} to it, I had the impression of
dischargin^g a function to which no form of activity could have exalted me.
[2011] But this was a joy in which, during the week, I could ^seldom indulge.

[2012] The weather was fine. [2013] I watched absently the coming and going of ^my
bees. [2014] I heard on the gravel the scampering steps of my son, caught up in
I know not what fantasy of flight and pursuit. [2015] I called to him not to
dirty himself. [2016] He did not answer.

[2017] All was ^still. [2018] Not a breath. [2019] From my neighbours^' chimneys the smoke
rose straight and blue. [2020] None but tranquil sounds, the clicking of mallet
and ball, a rake on pebbles, a distant lawn-mower, the bell of my beloved
church. [2021] And birds of course, blackbird and thrush, their song sadly dying,
vanquished by the heat, and leaving dawn's high boughs for the bushes'
gloom. [2022] Contentedly I inhaled the scent of my lemon-verbena.

[2023] In such surroundings slipped away my last moments of peace and
happiness.

[2024] A man came into the garden and walked swiftly towards me. [2025] I knew him
w^ell. [2026] Now I have no insuperable objection to a neighbour's dropping in,
on a Sunday, to pay his respects, if he feels the need, though I much
prefer to see nobody. [2027] But this man was not a neighbour. [2028] Our dealings
were strictly of a business nature and he had journeyed from afar, ^{[⁁] on purpose} to
disturb me. [2029] So I was disposed to receive him frostily enough, all the more