MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[3017] you'd like to try a real emetic, I said, as if nothing had happened. [3018] I'm
tired, he said. [3019] You go and lie down, I said, I'll bring you something
nice and light in bed, you'll have a little sleep and then we'll leave
together. [3020] I drew him to me. [3021] What do you say to that? I said. [3022] He said to
it, Yes papa. [3023] Did he love me then as much as I loved him? [3024] You could never
be sure with that little hypocrite. [3025] Be off with you now, I said, cover
yourself up well, I won't be long.

[3026] I went down to the kitchen, prepared
and set out on my handsome lacquer tray a bowl of hot milk and a slice of
bread and jam. [3027] He asked for a report, [3028] he'll get his report. [3029] Martha
watd^ched me in silence, lolling in her rocking-chair. [3030] Like a Fate who had
run out of thread. [3031] I cleaned up everything after me and turned to the door.
[3032] May I go to bed? she said. [3033] She had waited till I was standing up, the
laden tray in my hands, to ask me this question. [3034] I went out, set down the
tray on the chair at the foot of the stairs and went back to the kitchen.

[3035] Have you made the sandwiches? I said. [3036] Meanwhile the milk was getting cold
and forming a revolting skin. [3037] She had made them. [3038] I'm going to bed, she
said. [3039] Everyone was going to bed. [3040] You will have to get up in an hour or
so, I said, to lock up. [3041] It was for her to decide if it was worth while
going to bed, under these conditions. [3042] She asked me how long I expected to
be away. [3043] Did she realize I was not setting out alone? [3044] I suppose so.
[3045] When she went up to tell my son to come down, even if he had told her
nothing, she must have noticed the haversack ^knapsack. [3046] I have no idea, I said.

[3047] Then almost in the same breath, seeing her so old, worse than old, aging,
so sad and solitary in her everlasting corner, There, there, it won't be
long. [3048] And I advised her, in terms for me warm, to have a good rest while
I was away,^[₰] and to amuse herself ^{a good time} visiting her friends and receiving them.
[3049] Stint neither tea nor sugar, I said, and if by any chance you should happen
to need money, apply to Mr Savory. [3050] I carried this sudden cordiality so