MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[4793] good results. [4794] A little hot tea, I implored, without sugar or milk, to
revive me. [4795] To grant such a small favour to a pilgrim on the rocks was
frankly a temptation difficult to resist. [4796] Oh all right, he said, come
back to the house, you can dry yourself, before the fire. [4797] But I cannot,
I cannot, I cried, I have sworn to make a bee-line to her. [4798] And to efface
the bad impression created by these words I took a florin from my pocket
and gave it to him. [4799] For your poor-box, I said.

[4800] And I added, because of
the dark, A florin for your poor-box. [4801] It's a long way, he said. [4802] God
will go with you, I said. [4803] He thought it over. [4804] Well he might. [4805] Above
all nothing to eat, I said, no really, I must not eat. [4806] Ah Moran, wily
as a serpent, there was never the like of old Moran. [4807] Of course I would
have preferred violence, but I dared not take the risk.

[4808] Finally he took
himself off telling me to stay where I was. [4809] I do not know what was in
his mind. [4810] When I judged him at a safe remove I closed the umbrella and
set off in the opposite direction, at right angles to the way I was going,
in the driving rain. [4811] That was how I spent a florin.

[4812] Now I may make an end.

[4813] I skirted the graveyard. [4814] It was night. [4815] Midnight perhaps. [4816] The lane
is steep, I laboured. [4817] A little wind was chasing the clouds over the
faint sky. [4818] It is a great thing to own a plot in perpetuity, [4819] a very great
thing indeed. [4820] If only ^that were the only perpetuity. [4821] I came to the
wicket. [4822] It was locked. [4823] Very properly. [4824] But I could not open it. [4825] The
key went into the hole, but would not turn. [4826] Long disuse? [4827] A new lock^?

[4828] I burst it open. [4829] I drew back to the other side of the lane and hurled
myself at it. [4830] I had come home, as Youdi had commanded.me. [4831] In the end
I got to my feet. [4832] What smelt so sweet? [4833] The lilacs? [4834] The primroses
perhaps. [4835] I went towards my hives. [4836] They were there, as I feared. [4837] I
lifted the top off one and laid it on the ground. [4838] It was a little roof,