MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[2316] he suspected nothing. [2317] Or did it amuse him to see how far I would go? [2318] Or
did it tickle him to have me commit a sin? [2319] I summarised the situation
briefly as follows. [2320] If knowing I have beer taken and ^he gives me the
sacrament, his sin, if the sin there be, is as great as mine. [2321] I was
therefore risking little. [2322] He came back with a kind of portable pyre ^[⁁]pyx,
opened it and dispatched me without an instant's hesitation. [2323] I rose and
thanked him warmly. [2324] Pah! he saiee^d, it's nothing. [2325] Now we can talk.

[2326] I had nothing else to say to him. [2327] All I wanted was to return home as
quickly as possible and stuff myself with stew. [2328] My soul appeased, I was
starving ^ravenous. [2329] But being slightly in advance of my schedule,^[₰] I resigned myself
to allowing him eight minutes. [2330] They seemed endless. [2331] He informed me that
Mrs.^[₰] Clement, the chemist's wife and herself a first-class ^{[⁁]highly qualified} chemist, had
fallen, in her laboratory, from the top of a ld^adder, and broken the neck—.

[2332] The neck! I cried. [2333] Of her femur, he said, C^can't you let me finish. [2334] He
added that it was bound to happen. [2335] And I, not to be outdone, told him
how worried I was about my hens, particularly my grey hen, which would
neither brood nor lay and for the past month and more had done nothing but
sit with her arse in the dust, from morning to night. [2336] Like Job, haha, he
said. [2337] I too said haha.

[2338] How good ^{[⁁]What a joy} it is to laugh, from time to time, he
said. [2339] Is it not? I said. [2340] It is peculiar to man, he said. [2341] So I have
noticed, I said. [2342] A brief silence ensued. [2343] What do you feed her on? he
said. [2344] Corn chiefly, I said. [2345] Cooked or raw? he said. [2346] Both, I said. [2347] I
added that she ate nothing any more. [2347|001] Nothing! he cried. [2347|002] Next to nothing,
I said. [2348] Animals never laugh, he said.

[2349] It takes us to find that funny,
I said. [2350] What? he said. [2351] It takes us to find that funny, I said loudly.
[2352] He mused. [2353] Christ never laughed either, he said, so far as we know. [2354] He
looked at me. [2355] Can you wonder? I said. [2356] There it is, he said. [2357] He smiled
sadly. [2358] She has not the p^pip, I hope, he said. [2359] I said she had not,