MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[3733] calmly picking up the objects littered on the ground and putting them back
in his pockets. [3734] How could he be made to understand? [3735] Stop that and listen,
I said. [3736] I gave him the notes. [3737] Count them, I said. [3738] He counted them. [3739] How
much? I said. [3740] Four pounds ten, he said. [3741] Ten what? I said. [3742] Ten shillings,
he said. [3743] You have four pounds ten shillings, ^I said. [3744] Yes, he said. [3747] It
was not true, I had given him five. [3748] You agree, I said. [3749] Yes, he said.

[3750] And why do you think I have given you all that money? I said. [3752] His face
brightened. [3753] To buy a bicycle, he said, without hesitation. [3756] Do you imagine
a second-hand bicycle costs four pounds ten shillings? I said. [3757] I don't
know, he said. [3758] I did not know either. [3759] But that was not the point. [3760] What
did I tell you exactly? I said. [3761] We racked our brains together. [3762] Second-
-hand for preference, I said finally, that's what I told you. [3763] Ah, he said.

[3764] I am not giving this duet in ^full. Just the main ^[⁁]themes. [3765] I didn't tell
you second-hand, I said, I told you second-hand for preference. [3766] He had
started picking up his things again. [3767] Will you stop that, I cried, and
pay attention to what I am saying. [3768] He ostentatiously let fall a big ball
of tangled string.

[3769] The ten shillings were perhaps inside it. [3770] You see no
difference between second-hand and second-hand for preference, I said, do
you? [3771] I looked at my watch. [3772] It was ten o'clock. [3773] I was only making our
ideas more confused. [3774] Stop trying to understand, I said, just listen to
what I am going to say, because I shall not say it twice. [3775] He came over
to me and knelt down. [3776] You would have thought I was about to breathe my
last. [3777] Do you know what a new bicycle is? I said. [3778] Yes papa, he said.

[3779] Very well, I said, if you can't find a second-hand bicycle buy a new
bicycle. [3780] I repeat. [3781] I repeated. [3782] I who had said I would not repeat. [3783] Now
tell me what you are to do, I said. [3784] I added, Take your face away, your
breath stinks. [3785] I almost added, You don't brush your teeth and you complain
of having abscesses, but I stopped myself in time. [3786] It was not the