
[4754] done, to put him in such a state.
[4755] I must have raised my eyebrows.
[4756] But
I always raise my eyebrows, they are almost in my hair, my brow is nothing
but wales and furrows.
[4757] I understood finally that I did not own the land.
[4758] It was his land.
[4759] What was I doing on his land?
[4760] If there is one question
I dread, to which I have never been able to invent a satisfactory reply,
it is the question what am I doing.
[4761] And on someone else's land to make
things worse!
[4762] And at night!
[4763] And in weather not fit for a dog!
[4764] But I
did not lose my presence of mind.
[4765] It is a vow, I said.
[4766] I have a fairly
distinguished voice when I choose.
[4767] It must have impressed him.
[4768] He unhanded
me.
[4769] A pilgrimage, I said, following up my advantage.
[4770] He asked me where to.
[4771] He was lost.
[4772] To the Turdy Madonna, I said.
[4773] The Turdy Madonna? he said, as
if he knew Turdy like the back of his hand and there were no Madonna in the
[⁁]length and breadth of it.
[4774] But where is the place in which there is no Madonna?
[4775] Herself, I
said.
[4776] The black one? he said, to try me.
[4777] She is not black that I know
of, I said.
[4778] Another would have lost countenance.
[4779] Not I.
[4780] I knew
my yokels and their weak points.
[4781] You'll never get there, he said. [4782] It's
thanks to her I lost my infant boy, I said, and kept his mamma.
[4783] Such
sentiments could not fail to please a cattle breeder.
[4784] Had he but known!
[4785] I told him more fully what alas had never happened.
[4786] Not that I miss
Ninette.
[4787] But she, at least, who knows, in any case, yes, a pity, no
matter.
[4788] She is the Madonna of pregnant women, I said, of pregnant married
women, and I have vowed to drag myself miserably to her niche, and thank
her.
[4789] This incident gives but a feeble idea of my ability, even at this
late period.
[4790] But I had gone a little too far, for the vicious look came
back into his eye.
[4791] May I ask you a favour, I said, God will reward you.
[4792] I added, God sent you to me, this evening.
[4793] Humbly to ask a favour of
people who are on the point of knocking your brains out sometimes produces
- Segments
Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt