But I o see t Binfield house.

    I felt really bad t morning. t  ever since I struck Lo continuously from every opening time to every closing time. t  occurred to me till te,  really to do. t rip ed to so far—the booze.

    to tcs and scling to and fro. My enemies, I t. t’s sacked to if it  to find Loo a kind of Dagen  like to see tting fuller and country turning into to it isn’t t at all. I don’t mind to merely spread like gravy over a tableclot people  to o live, and t if a factory isn’t in one place it’ll be in anoturesqueness, trified stuff, ter dis- not, it merely gives me tever  picturesque. Motiques t endy  like gateleg tables—s your legs’. As for pey greasy stuff’, s. And yet, say   no you probably can’t reamlined milk-bar o look for it, and I  found it. And yet some even no got my teet for an aspirin and a cup of tea.

    And t started me t t Binfield er seeing o too see ed. And yet it migoor-oil and paper bags. But maybe till t black fisill cruising round it. Maybe, even, it ill  day to t existed. It e possible. It  of ten brusrees gave o oaks round about t people don’t care to penetrate. Queerer things have happened.

    I didn’t start out till late afternoon. It must   four  and drove on to t and stopped and trees began. t took t-o make a detour round and come back to Binfield  presently I stopped to  trees seemed just to a bit of grass beside t out and  tillness, t beds of rustling leaves t seem to go on from year to year  rotting. Not a creature stirring except tree-tops   easy to believe t t great noisy mess of a too make my tle copse, in tion of Binfield . And Lord! Yes! t and apult ss, and Sid Lovegrove told us  my first fisty near forty years ago!

    As trees t again you could see tting  up a op, suc to see round a loony-bin. I’d puzzled for some time about o get into Binfield il finally it ruck me t I’d only to tell to put er t te ready to s I probably looked prosperous enougo e asylum. It  till I ually at te t it occurred to me to he grounds.

    ty acres, I suppose, and t likely to be more ten. t  a great pool of er for to droo live,  tes  tes I  ypes —loonies, I suppose. I strolled up to t. to fis mig to tside trees seemed to  muche pool.

    I stood for a moment, . t it rees s edge. It looked all bare and different, in fact it looked extraordinarily like ton Gardens. Kids s and paddling, and a fe in ttle canoes , - o stand among t of pavilion and a s kiosk, and a e notice saying UPPER BINFIELD MODEL YACht CLUB.

    I looked over to t. It  used to gro tropical jungle, . Only a ferees still standing round ty- looking udor colonies like t day at top of C a fool I’d been to imagine t till t  tiny bit of copse,   been cut do  on my -sized to it lying chunk of Lower Binfield.

    I o t and making to be ser looked kind of dead. No fis noanding cufts of  s and sandals and one of ts open at ticed, but ruck me  kind of t you from beacles. I could see t o do s—in eit ones for Nature and t me as if o speak.

    ‘Upper Binfield’s gro deal,’ I said.

    me.

    ‘Groo groional people up  a little colony of us all by ourselves. No interlopers—te-hee!’

    ‘I mean compared o live here as a boy.’

    ‘O. t ime, of course. But tate is sometates, you knoe a little s okin, tect. You’ve  of Nature up oion of Loanic mills—te-hee!’

    old c. Immediately, as telling me all about tate and young Edkin, tect,  ridiculous prices. And suceresting young felloe t parties. ed a number of times t tional people in Upper Binfield, quite different from Loermined to enricryside instead of defiling it (I’m using  any public ate.

    ‘talk of ties. But y—te-ure!’   of trees. ‘t brooding round us. Our young people groural beauty. e are nearly all of us enlig t ters of us up arians? tc like us at all—te-e eminent people live —you’ve ic cer!  into t find  mealtimes. —te- a  sceptical. But ograp convincing.’

    I began to arianism, simple life, poetry, nature- a feo sate. t of t resses t don’t buttress anyte bird-bater elves you can buy at ts’? You could see in your mind’s eye ters and simple-lifers  lived ts  let ake me far. Some of t a . I tried to damp  object to living so near tic asylum, but it didn’t . Finally I stopped and said:

    ‘to be anot can’t be far from here.’

    ‘Anot. I don’t ther pool.’

    ‘t off,’ I said. ‘It ty deep pool. It  behind.’

    For t time  uneasy. he rubbed his nose.

    ‘O understand our life up ive. t so. But being so far from toary arrangements are not altogetisfactory. t-cart only calls once a month, I believe.’

    ‘You mean turned to a rubbish-dump?’

    ‘ell, ture of a—’  to dispose of tins and so fort clump of trees.’

    e  across t a ferees to . But yes, t   made a great round y or ty feet deep. Already it was in cans.

    I stood looking at tin cans.

    ‘It’s a pity t,’ I said. ‘to be some big fis pool.’

    ‘Fis t. Of course  it ime.’

    ‘I suppose t a good long time?’ I said.

    ‘Oen or fifteen years, I think.’

    ‘I used to kno  any  Binfield  t little bit of copse over t c on my way here.’

    ‘A! t is sacrosanct. e o build in it. It is sacred to ture, you kno me, a kind of roguisting me into a little secret: ‘e call it the Pixy Glen.’

    t rid of  back to to Loin cans. God rot t t you like— call it silly, c doesn’t it make you puke sometimes to see o England, er gnomes, and tin cans, wo be?

    Sentimental, you say? Anti-social? Oug to prefer trees to men? I say it depends rees and  t t it, except to wiss.

    One t as I drove doion of getting back into t. ’s trying to revisit t exist. Coming up for air! But t any air. tbin t ratosp particularly care. After all, I t, I’ve still got t. I’d  of peace and quiet, and stop bot o Lower Binfield. As for my idea of going fis was off, of course. Fis my age! Really, .

    I dumped to t  in time to  fe gave me a bit of a jolt, I admit. For the words I heard were:

    ‘—where his wife, hilda Bowling, is seriously ill.’

    t instant t on: ‘e,   to  raig made me feel rat it over after urned an eyelas even a pause in my step to let anyone kno I e s in ter. Ot a couple of caying at t kno I kept my  a sign to anyone. I merely o te bar,  as usual.

    I o t over. By time I’d drunk about  I began to get tuation. In t place,  ill, seriously or ot. Sly  time of t kind. She was shamming. hy?

    Obviously it  anot   I  really at Birming ting me  bear to t otake it for granted t I  imagine any otive. And naturally s I’d come rushing home as soon as I heard she was ill.

    But t’s just   to myself as I finis. I’m too cute to be caug raordinary trouble sake to catc. I’ve even kno to see rut my movements. And t time  in on me at temperance el. And t time, unfortunately, so be rig least, s, but tances est belief t s, I kne say exactly how.

    I  and tter. Of course t  t t. Curiously enoug to look for urned out not to exist, t of o me all t  t peace s it. And suddenly I decided t I OULD  like it. It y-minded, and besides,  isn’t true?

    But as t o amuse me. I  fallen for it, but it  t to or’s certificate, or do you just send your name in? I felt pretty sure it  o it. It seemed to me to ouch.

    But all t! t imes you can’t hem.