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349
The Journal of a Disappointed Man
·
W. N. P. Barbellion
304
"Don'
'em
let
it
down,
I
zay?"
In
later
years,
when
I
was
occupied
in
the
top
attic,
making
dissections
of
various
animals
that
I
collected,
she
would
sometimes
leave
her
scrubbing
and
cleaning
in
the
room
below
to
thrust
her
head
up
the
attic
stairs
and
enquire,
"'Ow
be
'ee
gettin'
on
then?"
Her
unfeigned
interest
in
my
anatomical
researches
gave
me
real
pleasure,
and
I
took
delight
in
arousing
her
wonder
by
pointing
out
and
explaining
the
brain
of
a
Pigeon
or
the
nervous
system
of
a
Dog-fish,
or
a
Frog's
heart
taken
out
and
still
beating
in
the
dissecting
dish.
She,
in
reply,
would
add
reflections
upon
her
own
experiences
in
preparing
meat
for
dinner--anecdotes
about
the
"maw"
of
an
old
Fowl,
or
the
great
"pipe"
of
a
Goose.
Then,
suddenly
scurrying
downstairs,
she
would
say,
"I
must
be
off
or
I
shall
be
all
be'ind
like
the
cow's
tail."
Now
the
dignified
interest
of
the
average
educated
man
would
have
chilled
me.
By
the
way,
years
later,
when
he
was
a
miner
in
S.
Wales,
that
historic
errand-boy
displayed
his
consciousness
of
the
important
role
he
once
played
by
sending
me
on
a
postcard
congratulations
on
my
success
in
the
B.M.
appointment.
It
touched
me
to
think
he
had
not
forgotten
after
years
of
separation.
[1]
So
it
proved.
See
September
26
et
seq.
[2]
In
"La
Recherche
de
l'Absolu"
(Balzac).
[3]
See
September
3
(next
entry),
"A
Jolt,"
and
September
24
(infra).
[4]
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laboured,
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across
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page
and
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crooked
as
to
be
almost
undecipherable
in
places.
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