
[4722] friends call a trench-coat, and I could smell the rubber, though trench-
-coats are not rubberized as a rule.
[4723] So I avoided as far as possible
having recourse to proper shelters, made of boughs, preferring the shelter
of my faithful umbrella, or of a tree, or of a hedge, or of a bush, or
of a ruin.
[4724] The thought of taking to the road, to try and get a lift, never
crossed my mind.
[4725] The thought of turning for help to the villages, to the peasants,
would have displeased me, if it had occurred to me.
[4732] It was evening.
[4733] I was waiting quietly, under my umbrella, for the
weather to clear, when I was brutally accosted from behind.
[4734] I had heard
nothing.
[4735] I had been in a place where I was all alone.
[4736] A hand turned me
about.
[4737] It was a big ruddy farmer.
[4738] He was wearing an oilskin, a bowler
hat and wellingtons.
[4739] His chubby cheeks were streaming, the water was
dripping from his bushy moustache.
[4740] But why describe him.
[4741] We glared at
each other with hatred.
[4742] Perhaps he was the same who had so politely
offered to drive us home in his car.
[4743] I think not.
[4744] And yet his face was
familiar.
[4745] Not only his face.
[4746] He held a lantern in his hand.
[4747] It was not
lit.
[4748] But he might light it at any moment.
[4749] In the other he held a spade.
[4750] To bury me with if necessary.
[4751] He seized me by the jacket, by the lapel.
[4752] He had not yet begun to shake me exactly, he would shake me in his own
good time, not before.[4753] He merely cursed me.
[4754] I wondered what I could have
- Segments
Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt