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.