too.

    I could remember ts broelpiece and its bronzy-yello to be t colour, or  got like t from age and smoke—and ting, also by m. Sandford, Painter amp; Carpenter, of ttle of tel-el-Kebir. No tyle. Brick fireplace  of it a fake t you could ted fifty yards a of some old sailing-s it didn’t  eyes on t do my table, and ter came toapped t so! Not even  up ion and t it over.

    But t bad. I  sauce, and I tle of some  but made me feel  ty aying at to get off ’s funny  mixed up. ime I  icking out into t, Market day, and t solid farmers table, ing on tone floor, and ity of beef and dumpling you  believe ttle tables e clotions and t it out again. And I’d t t. I’m little Georgie Boorcar?’ And tomacally take hes off.

    It ernoon as I lay about in t it reamlined leatopped tables—s, but on t. As a matter of fact I iny bit boozed and  t I could scrape acquaintance. S  till nearly tea-time t I  out.

    I strolled up to t-place and turned to t. t y-one years ago, t in tation fly, and seen it all s up and dusty,  off  cared a damn. And noails about t I couldn’t remember, t of seeing it again did to my  and guts. I passed till a barber’s, t. A  of t quite so good as takia. ty yards farther down. Ah!

    An arty-looking sign—painted by t t :

    ENDY’S tEAShOP

    MORNING COFFEE

    hOME-MADE CAKES

    A tea-shop!

    I suppose if it c a seedsman’s, it ’s absurd t because you o ain  you’ve got rig for t of your life, but so you do. to its name, all rigains in tanding about, t’s covered e and  one  stuck some in. I didn’t really  any tea, but I o see the inside.

    tly turned bot used to be to tea-rooms. As for t tbin used to stand and Fattle patco gro all over and dolled it up ic tables and  to ts! texts on t on opposite sides of ternoons! t tique style teleg tables and a er plates -not. Do you notice o make it in ty tea-rooms? It’s part of tiqueness, I suppose. And instead of an ordinary ress t ea, and sen minutes getting it. You knoea— Cea, so  you could t’s er till you put tting almost exactly and. I could almost  a ‘piece’, as o call it, from t t gave me a most peculiar feeling t I ences and t if t simultaneously I o tell somebody t I’d been born  I belonged to t I really felt) t to me. tea. t  if I  been teet into one of t me.  titute. But in to speak. I said:

    ‘have you been in Lower Binfield long?’

    Sarted, looked surprised, and didn’t ansried again:

    ‘I used to live in Lower Binfleld myself, a good while ago.’

    Again no ans I couldn’t  of t oo muco go in for back-c omers. Besides, s I rying to get off  elling , it  interest . I paid t.

    I o t I’d been o, o kno I needn’t  a face I knes. It seemed as if toion.

    to to ery. to t I didn’t kno to find. I on  scytt tcre-ser and ete one anot as if till singing at eac got er all. Born in ‘43 and ‘departed  en Ser, as usual. Ser died in ‘26.  a time old et  t t under a , and in tctle crosses. All gone to dust. Old obacco-coloured teetiger, and  —not of any of t a slab of stone and God knoh.

    I found Mot. Botty good repair. ton  ttle  of t used to look like tead,  do you feel er ty years? I don’t kno I’ll tell you   of my mind. It’s as if ted somey, Moteapot, Fattle mealy, and acles and acure, and yet in some  seem to o do ood to  of a start.

    I looked over my s o be creeping hem.

    I strolled into t t time since I got back to Lo ly feeling, or rat in a different form. Because not t all ty, sis  of lig creeping up till got pe Ser. Sies and Og tones in till apted doo  te our peill knes of it by . Even ttern to uck in my memory. Lord knohe sermon.

    .,

    of t amp;

    upright..........................

    ..................................

    to e bene

    volences .......

    ...................................

    .......................beloved wife

    Amelia, by..............iffue feven

    daughters..........................

    I remembered o puzzle me as a kid. Used to wonder wheir S’s as F’s, and if so, why.

    tep beanding over me. It he vicar.

    But I mean t terton, ter of fact, ever since I could remember, but since 1904 or ts. I recognized  once, te we.

    recognize me. I  tripper in a blue suit doing a bit of sigly started on talk—erested in arcecture, remarkable old building tions go back to Saxon times and so on and so forts, suco try, brass effigy of Sir Roderick Bone tle of Ne did I tell  I kne all already? Did I tell  I  I’d not only listened to en years and gone to ion classes, but even belonged to t Sesame and Lilies just to please . I merely follo t is five  t to say except t it doesn’t look it. From t t I set eyes on o let ranger. As soon as I decently could I dropped sixpence in the Church Expenses box and bunked.

    But act, no at last I’d found somebody I knew?

    Because ter ty years ually frig  !  suddenly taug time.

    I suppose old Betterton  sixty-five no y-five—my o age. e no reaky grey, like a s as soon as I sa struck me   of er all  so very old. As a boy, it occurred to me, all people over forty o me just  old  ty-five o me older ty-five seemed noy-five myself. It frightened me.

    So t’s o cy, I t as I made off bet a poor old   care a damn about my age. , but I’m strong and  to do. A rose smells to me no did y. A do I smell to t een, came up to pass  a tiny momentary look. No, not frigile. Only kind of e, like a y years wo  world from me, like an animal.

    I  back to ted a drink, but t open for anot for a bit, reading a Sporting and Dramatic of tly t mige yearning to get off ed to s t, even if to eeter all, I t, if sy and I’m forty-five, t’s fair enouganding in front of ty fireplace, making believe to  I didn’t look so bad. A bit fat, no doubt, but distingue. A man of tockbroker. I put on my toniest accent and said casually:

    ‘onderful June her we’re having.’

    It ty  it? Nor in t I met you somewhere before?’

    But it  a success. S ans  o you like a bullet. In t split second I saaken out to dance-er, and been to one of t myself oo. Ne or no ne, I COULDN’t pass for a stockbroker. Merely looked like a commercial traveller   of dougo te bar to  or two before dinner.

    t t used to  of taste in it because it  of cer. I asked the barmaid:

    ‘ill got the brewery?’

    ‘Bessemers? Oo, NO, sir! they’ve gorn. Oo, years ago—long before we come ‘ere.’

    S, er type of barmaid, ty-fivis arms told me t aken over t from taste, as a matter of fact. t bars ran round in a circle ments in bettle t see alk o kno a single one of t s even rew, wo he old days.

    ‘I used to live in Loold  he war.’

    ‘Before t look t old.’

    ‘See some ctle.

    ‘to’s tories, I suppose.’

    ‘ell, of course tly  tories. truefitt Stockings. But of course they’re making bombs nowadays.’

    I didn’t altoget  selling me about a young felloruefitt’s factory and sometimes came to told  tockings, t understand, being easy to combine. And told me about tary aerodrome near alton—t accounted for t seeing—and t moment arted talking about t ly to escape t of  I’d come  ’s in the.

    I said it tle said   gave he creeps. She said:

    ‘It doesn’t seem to do muc, after all said and done? And sometimes I lie a nig to myself, “ell, no o drop a bomb rigop of me!” And all todgers, selling you it’ll be all riguff to dig a ser under to it is,  a gas- mask on a baby?’

    ttle said  you ougo get into a  batill it  of a by-play on t of  into told t to get saucy, and t up t a couple more pints of old and mild. I took a suck at my beer. It uff. Bitter, t. And it ter, rigoo bitter, a kind of sulpaste. Co beer noo co beer. I found myself t Uncle Ezekiel,   A.R.P. and ts of sand you’re supposed to put te bombs out o my side of the bar I said:

    ‘By t the hall nowadays?’

    e alo call it ts name o understand.

    ‘the hall, sir?’

    ‘‘E means Binfield ‘Ouse,’ said ttle.

    ‘O you meant t’s Dr Merrall’s got Binfield house now.’

    ‘Dr Merrall?’

    ‘Yes, sir.  more ty patients up they say.’

    ‘Patients? urned it into a al, or something?’

    ‘ell—it’s not orium. It’s mental patients, reely.  tal home.’

    A loony-bin!

    But after all, ?