PARTISAN REVIEW
501
I was treated well by him because apart from being willing
and able to labor physically, I also bothered myself industriously
with books and writing paper. I sat on a chair in the kitchen, b)'
the light of an oil lamp shining from its hook above the table,
reading or drawing maps, and I know that he looked at me
strongly from time to time because he had not seen the like of it
before. Sometimes he passed me the newspaper, and asked me to
read him the latest news from Abyssinia, where "that swine Mus–
solini was knocking people about."
When I came in on Sunday afternoon from playing in the
garden, or along the lane outside, Mary-Ann and Emily would
already be laying the tea table - and waiting for that peculiar
authoritative stump of Burton as he came downstairs in his stock–
inged feet.
1£
he saw the cat in front of the fire he would kick it away–
though it was often alert and leapt out of sight before he came into
the room.
If
the dog stayed there, being near enough human to
hope for better things, he would usually move that away also. But
if Burton was in an affectionate mood he would sometimes grip the
dog around its long mouth and hold the jaws fast, an action which,
as well as being painful, induced in the animal a feeling of claustro–
phobia and panic, so that it struggled to get free, much to Burton's
delight, whined and wriggled, until, to the loud protests of his wife
and daughters, he let it go with as fri endly a pat as he could muster
under the thwarting circumstances. This pat was the nearest I
c\·er saw him get to an expression of guilt.
And so he came in to his tea, having taken special care, it
seemed, to reestablish his reputation as a " rotten old bagger" in
front of his family, so that normal life could be resumed once more.
There would be salmon and cucumber and jam-pasty to eat, but he
never had much of it, not being a big eater, in spite of his work.
He would put on hi s boots, and be off into the yard or garden, to
busy himself for an hour or so before walking off for his evening
bout at some pub or other.
In his own world he was without fea r, and he despised anyone
who was not the same, though he might occasionally condescend
to
talk to them for reasons of work or business. Those who were
similar in stature to himself might be lucky to get a passing nod
