MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[3786] moment to introduce another theme. [3787] I repeated, Tell me what you are to do.
[3788] He pondered. [3789] Go to Hole, he said, fifteen miles away — [3790] Don't worry
about the miles, I said. [3791] You're in Hole. [3792] What for? [3793] No, I can't.
[3794] Finally he understood. [3795] Who is this bicycle for, I said, Goering? [3796] He had
not yet grasped that the bicycle was for him. [3797] Admittedly he was nearly
my size already.

[3798] As for the carrier, I might g^just as well have not have
mentioned it. [3799] But in the end he had the whole thing off pat. [3800] So much so
that he actually asked me what he was to do if he had not enough money.
[3801] Come back here and ask me, I said. [3802] I had naturally foreseen, while
reflecting on all these matters before my son woke, that he might have
trouble with people asking him how he came by so much money and he so young.

[3803] And I knew what he was to do in that event, namely go and see, or send for,
the police-sergeant, give his name and say it was I, Jacques Moran,
ostensibly at home in Turdy, who had sent him to buy a bicycle in Hole.
[3804] Here obviously two distinct operations were involved, the first consisting
in foreseeing the difficulty (before my son woke), the second in overcoming
it (at the news that Hole was the nearest locality).

[3805] But there was no
question of my conveying instructions of such complexity. [3806] But don't worry,
I said, you've enough and to spare to buy yourself a good bicycle. I added,
And bring it back here as fast as you can. [3807] You had to allow for everything
with my son. [3808] He could never have guessed what to do with the bicycle once
he had it. [3809] He was capable of hanging about Hole, under God knows what
conditions, waiting for further instructions. [3810] He asked me what was wrong.

[3811] I must have winced. [3812] I'm sick of the sight of you, I said, that's what's
wrong. [3813] And I asked him what he was waiting for. [3814] I don't feel well, he
said. [3815] When he asked me how I was I said nothing, and when no one asked
him anything he announced he was not feeling well. [3816] Are you not pleased,
I said, to have a nice brand-new bicycle, all your own? [3817] I was decidedly