I cra of bed aste in my mouth and my bones creaking.

    t , tle of  lunc dinner, and several pints in betoo muco drink tes I stood in t, gazing at noticular and too done-in to make a move. You kno god-a sometimes in t’s a feeling c it says to you clearer t? C up, old cick your he gas oven!’

    teet to t beginning to slant over t ts on treet. t look

    eigreet off t-place te a croream of clerkly-looking cs cion, just as if ting for tube, and traggling up to- place in t I’d  erlopers! ty te-cras even knoy eetcuff t nobody ed to listen to about t y and forty years ago. C! I t, I o t I  myself. I’m dead and they’re alive.

    But after breakfast—oast and marmalade, and a pot of coffee—I felt better. t breakfasting in t get rid of t in t blue flannel suit of mine I looked just a little bit distingue. By God! I t, if I’m a g, I’ll BE a g! I’ll  of black magic on some of tards wolen my own from me.

    I started out, but I’d got no fart-place ed to see. A procession of about fifty screet in column of fours—quite military, t-major. te, and blue border and BRItONS PREPARE on it in ters. t on to ep to  to h shiny black hair and a dull kind of face.

    ‘ are those kids doing?’

    ‘It’s tice,’ ising, like. t’s Miss todgers, t is.’

    I mig odgers. You could see it in oug’s al in cacs, Y..C.A. els, and . S and skirt t somerong impression t s, tually s. I kneo  I ting out at t-major yell, ‘Monica! Lift your feet up!’ and I sa te, and blue border, and in the middle

    E ARE READY. ARE YOU?

    ‘ do t to marco the barber.

    ‘I dunno. I s’pose it’s kind of propaganda, like.’

    I kne t t of it, tmas, so doo t argue. t black planes from alton ern end of to, arts it  surprise us any more tening for t bomb. t on to tell me t to Miss todgers’s efforts their gas-masks already.

    ell, I started to explore to just ify. And all t time I never ran across a soul t kne actually invisible, I felt like it.

    It ell you. Did you ever read a story of  a c once— t’s to say,  ion t  ttom of t instead of tables and cer crabs and cuttlefis to get   like t. For   t my paces as I  do and treet and slap t  petrol pump is really an elm tree. And ments. And treet (it tle roaco go ie Simmons, and t-bus I got tances  tions reets tle as ty years ago. It ryside ion from ter suburbs. Nearly t used to be old Bree. t my first fis over, so t I couldn’t even say exactly o stand. It le red cubes of   pato t door. Beyond tate to a bit, but t. And ttle knots of o buy a plot of land, and t roads leading up to ty lots s of ruined fields covered les and tin cans.

    In tre of to c. A lot of till doing trade, alt. Lillyill a draper’s, but it didn’t look too prosperous.  used to be Gravitt’s, tc sold radio parts. Mottle ’s ill a grocer’s, but it aken over by ternational. It gives you an idea of t te old skinflint like Grimmett. But from o mention t slap-up tombstone in t  out o fifteen to take to  ill in to enormous dimensions, and t of to turned into a kind of general store and sold furniture, drugs, uff.

    For t part of t actually groaning and rattling a c sometimes feeling t I’d like to. Also I  as soon as I got to Loarted on ter t to open quite early enougongue  ime.

    Mind you, I  in time. Sometimes it seemed to me t it didn’t matter a damn if Loed. After all, o get a do all ted to do, even go fis like it. On turday afternoon I even  to tackle sreet and boug-cane rod (I’d al-cane rod as a boy—it’s a little bit dearer t) and  and so fortmospever else cackle doesn’t— because, of course, fis c see anyt middle-aged man buying a fisrary, le talk about t on a paste made of bro tell  I ed tted it to myself—bougrongest salmon trace , and some No. 5 roaco t Binfield ill existed.

    Most of Sunday morning I ing it in my mind—s I? One moment I’d t, and t moment it o me t it  one of t you dream about and don’t ever do. But in ternoon I got t and drove doo Burford eir. I t I’d just  tomorro, maybe I’d take my ne and grey flannel bags I case, and  like it.

    I drove over C ttom turns off and runs parallel to to out of t of little red and , of course. And to be a lot of cars standing about. As I got nearer to tiddle-tiddle-plonk!—yes, the sound of gramphones.

    I rounded t of to! Anot. ter-meadoo be—tea- mac kiosks, and c as e. I remember to for miles, and except for t tes, and noen I’ve sat ternoon, and a  be standing in ter fifty yards up t be anyone passing to scare   gro go fisions, tinuous c til it struck me t t be some fiss—ros, canoes, punts, motor-launc to noting and most of ts of trying to fisor-boats.

    I tle y, cer, in spite of tc even minnoo. A cro  actually, as I cs rocking up and doubs and ted cill fis be. And yet I’ll ser isn’t t used to be. Its colour is quite different. Of course you t’s merely my imagination, but I can tell you it isn’t so. I knoer er as it used to be, a kind of luminous green t you could see deep into, and t see to ter no’s all broy,  from tor-boats, not to mention the paper bags.

    After a bit I turned back. Couldn’t stand t’s Sunday, I t. Mig be so bad on a  after all, I kne t ‘em keep t  be in thames.

    t me. Croroop of girls came past, tomed trousers and ed on teen s  urned aside and  tell your fortune as ten card came sliding out.

    ‘You are tional gifts,’ I read, ‘but oo excessive modesty you  you underrate your abilities. You are too fond of standing aside and alloo take t for ionate, and alo your friends. You are deeply attractive to te sex. Your  fault is generosity. Persevere, for you will rise high!

    ‘eigone 11 pounds.’

    I’d put on four pounds in t ticed. Must he booze.