Pagina 180 di 1294

This chance raised his spirits extraordinarily.

He walked along quietly and sedately, without hurry, to avoid

awakening suspicion. He scarcely looked at the passers-by, tried

to escape looking at their faces at all, and to be as little

noticeable as possible. Suddenly he thought of his hat. "Good

heavens! I had the money the day before yesterday and did not get

a cap to wear instead!" A curse rose from the bottom of his soul.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye into a shop, he saw by a

clock on the wall that it was ten minutes past seven. He had to

make haste and at the same time to go someway round, so as to

approach the house from the other side....