Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Molloy

MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

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Segment 1

[3503] my back against a trunk, drew my feet up under me, took my legs in my arms
and rested my chin on my knee.
[3504] Even in this posture I could throw no light
on the matter.
[3505] What was I looking for exactly? [3506] It is hard to say. [3507] I was
looking for what was wanting to make Gaber's statement complete.
[3508] I felt
he must have told me what to do with Molloy once he was found.
[3509] My
particular duties never terminated with the running to earth.

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Segment 2

[3510] That would
have been too easy.
[3511] But I had always to deal with the client in one way
or another, according to instructions.
[3512] Such operations took on a multitude
of forms, from the most vigorous to the most discreet.
[3513] The Yerk affair,
which took me nearly three months to conclude successfully, was over on the
day I succeeded in possessing myself of his tiepin and destroying it.

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Segment 3

[3514] Establishing contact was the least important part of my work. [3515] I found Yerk
on the third day.
[3516] I was never required to prove I had succeeded, my word
was enough.
[3517] Youdi must have had some way of verifying. [3518] Sometimes I was
asked for a report.

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Segment 4

[3519] On another occasion my mission consisted in bringing the person to a
certain place at a certain time.
[3520] A most delicate affair, for the person
concerned was not a woman.
[3521] I have never had to deal with a woman. [3522] I regret
it.
[3523] I don't think Youdi had much interest in them. [3524] That reminds me of the
old joke about the female soul.
[3525] Question, Have women a soul? [3526] Answer, Yes.
[3527] Question, Why? [3528] Answer, In order that they may be damned. [3529] Very witty.

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Segment 5

[3530] Fortunately I had been allowed considerable licence as to the day. [3531] The hour
was the important thing, not the date.
[3532] He came to the appointed place and
there I left him, on some pretext or other.
[3533] He was a nice youth, rather sad
and silent.
[3534] I vaguely remember having invented some story about a woman.
[3535] Wait, it's coming back. [3536] Yes, I told him she had been in love with him for
six months and greatly desired to meet him in some secluded place.
[3537] I even
gave her name.
[3538] A quite [place = supralinear] []Quite a well-known acr [place = overwritten] tress. [3539] Having brought him to the place

Transcription
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