t of t in t came after it almost completely.

    I kno in a sense one never forgets anyt piece of orange-peel you sater teen years ago, and t coloured poster of torquay t you once got a glimpse of in a railing-room. But I’m speaking of a different kind of memory. In a sense I remembered teapot and Jackie troug-place. But none of it   I’d finis  some day I mig to go back to it.

    It ime, t after t queerer tself, t remember it so vividly. In a rat form tronger t of to find t try t for didn’t  to any illusions t still existed. Bands of ex-service men marctling collection boxes, masked reets, and cunics o be scrambling for jobs, myself included. But I came off luckier t. I got a small uity, and  and t of money I’d put aside during t year of  unity to spend it), I came out of ty quid. It’s rateresting, I to notice my reaction. e enougo do t up to do and t is, start a sy of capital. If you bide your time and keep your eyes open you can run across quite nice little businesses for ty quid. And yet, if you’ll believe me, to me. I not only didn’t make any move toarting a s it  till years later, about 1925 in fact, t it even crossed my mind t I mig  I’d passed rig of t. t o you. It turned you into an imitation gentleman and gave you a fixed idea t t of money coming from someo me t I ougo start a sobacco and s sore in some god- forsaken village—I’d just andards  time I didn’t sty common among ex- officers, t I could spend t of my life drinking pink gin. I kne to   kno sometant, sometelepary   year or so of  of us . travelling salesman, and travelling salesman sa  of Army life, t of o t ing for us t  least as muc didn’t circulate, no .

    ell, I didn’t get t job. It seemed t nobody o pay me 2,000 pounds a year for sitting among streamlined office furniture and dictating letters to a platinum blonde. I ers of t from a financial point of vieter off in to be again. e’d suddenly clemen y’s commission into miserable out-of-o t even jobs of t seem to exist. Every mortal job oo old to figoo young. tards  out in till it never occurred to me to go back to t a job as a grocer’s assistant; old Grimmett, if ill alive and in business (I  in touc knoo a different orbit. Even if my social ideas  risen, I could er o tence beer. I ed to be travelling about and pulling doed to be a travelling salesman, w me.

    But travelling salesmen—t’s to say, jobs tac t racket  beginning on a big, scale. It’s a beautifully simple metising your stuff  taking any risks, and it alring by ing t perime, and o take over. Naturally it  long before I  I e a number in rapid succession. to peddling vacuum- cleaners, or dictionaries. But I travelled in cutlery, in soap- poent corkscrein-openers, and similar gadgets, and finally in a line of office accessories—paper-clips, carbon paper, typeer ribbons, and so fort do so badly eitype t CAN sell t temperament and I’ve got t I never came any, in jobs like t—and, of course, you aren’t meant to.

    I  a year of it altoget ime. try journeys, tco you’d never imes. tly bed-and-breakfast s ally of slops and t breakfast  you’re aling, middle-aged faten overcoats and bo sooner or later trade urn to five quid a raipsing from so ss   to listen, and tanding back and making yourself small  t it icularly. to some c kind of life is torture. t even o a s screop. But I’m not like t. I’m tougalk people into buying t , and even if t doesn’t botually o making a bit of doug of it. I don’t kno I unlearned a good deal. It knocked t of me, and it drove into tions t I’d picked up during t tective stories, all time I  a ies of modern life. And ies of modern life? ell, ting, frantic struggle to sell t people it takes t’s to say, getting a job and keeping it. I suppose t been a single montrade you care to name, in ’s brougly feeling into life. It’s like on a sinking seen survivors and fourteen lifebelts. But is ticularly modern in t, you say?  anyto do  feels as if it  feeling t you’ve got to be everlastingly figling, t you’ll never get anyt from somebody else, t ter your job, t monter taff and it’s you t’ll get t, I s exist in the war.

    But mean and I’d still got plenty of money in t sooner or later I’d get a regular job. And sure enouger about a year, by a stroke of luck it roke of luck, but t is t I o fall on my feet. I’m not type t starves. I’m about as likely to end up in to end up in type, type t gravitates by a kind of natural lao all I’ll back myself to get one.

    It ypeer ribbons. I’d just dodged into a  Street, a building o, as a matter of fact, but I’d managed to give t attendant t my bag of samples tacoote firm t I’d been recommended to try, ion. I kneely t it o take up more room and  you can feel fifty yards ao me I sa it er  actually rain, because   you some t t antly. But curiously enoug seen me for years. to my surprise opped and spoke to me.

    ‘’s your name? It’s on tip of my tongue.’

    ‘Boo be in the A.S.C.’

    ‘Of course. t said  a gentleman.  are you doing here?’

    I migold ypeer ribbons, and t I ions t you get occasionally—a feeling t I mig of t properly. I said instead:

    ‘ell, sir, as a matter of fact I’m looking for a job.’

    ‘A job, e so easy, nowadays.’

    rain-bearers ed ttle distance a nose, looking me over and realized t o ’s queer, t me in er urned aside like an emperor suddenly co a beggar.

    ‘So you  a job?  can you do?’

    Again tion. No use, s. Stick to trut I  a job as a travelling salesman.’

    ‘Salesman?  sure t I’ve got anyt present. Let’s see.’

    , e pere deeply. It  time I realized t it ant old bloke,  ually taking t on my beed ed at least tes of ime, all because of a co make years earlier. I’d stuck in o take tiny bit of trouble t o find me a job. I dare say ty clerks the sack. Finally he said:

    ‘o go into an insurance firm? Alo  to eat.’

    Of course I jumped at to an insurance firm. Sir Joseperested’ in terested’ in. One of ted ylo out of coat pocket, Sir Josepe to some ion, and her again.

    ell, I got t me. I’ve been een years. I started off in t noor, or, icularly impressive, a Representative. A couple of days a rict office, and t of time I’m travelling around, intervies s, making assessments of sy, and no. I earn round about seven quid a ’s tory.

    my active life, if I ever een. Everyt really matters to me  date. But in a manner of speaking till ance—up to time er t— ories, and neit day for you could properly describe as an event, except t about t t married.