Alfie

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Just fancy, Lily, old Harry’s wife! And it was funny how I’d got myself involved there. I’d gone out to the sanatorium one Sunday, see, just to let them have a proper look at me. I mean they’d only seen me in captivity, they hadn’t seen how I looked when I was really dressed up; and somehow I’d got that bit attached to them all. Here, a funny thing happened. There’s this little Gina, see, what I was so intimate with. Know what, when she saw me all dressed up she didn’t want to know. I mean, you could have understood it if it had been the other way about – I had been dependent on her and I no longer was. But now it’s Gina who don’t want to know, so that’s another of those little things turn out quite the opposite to what you expect.
Now I’ve had a nice hour or so – except for this cool interlude with Gina – and I’m just going off when old Harry asks me am I going Maidenhead way back, so that I can give Lily a lift in my car. As a matter of fact I’m not, I’m going back by Wokingham and Ascot. But just to please him I say I could go back that way.
Now it’s one of the worst mistakes you can make – going out of your way to oblige somebody. It’s very rare I do it, but whenever I do you can bet something is sure to go wrong. I’m not cut out for that boy scout lark, because if ever I do a good deed it always seems to rebound on me. The funny thing is, Lily doesn’t want to come in the car either. I can tell it by the look on her face. So we both agree just to oblige old Harry, lying there in bed. Never oblige a sick person – no good comes of it.
Lily sits there in silence as I’m driving along, and seeing how ribby she looks and thinking how it would be a nice thing for old Harry’s sake, I drive a roundabout way by the river, and on top of that I ask her would she like some tea. The thought had never struck her and she doesn’t know what to say. Now I’ve got old Ruby’s Zodiac with me, automatic drive, Windsor Grey, real leather individual seats. That’s a car you can take anywhere. So’s I’ve seen one of these big hotels and I’ve driven straight in. It’s a place with these green lawns running right down to the side of the river and little tables set out by themselves under the trees. I quite like anything like that at times. Mind you, you’re paying for the view

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Just fancy, Lily, old Harry’s wife! And it was funny how I’d got myself involved there. I’d gone out to the sanatorium one Sunday, see, just to let them have a proper look at me. I mean they’d only seen me in captivity, they hadn’t seen how I looked when I was really dressed up; and somehow I’d got that bit attached to them all. Here, a funny thing happened. There’s this little Gina, see, what I was so intimate with. Know what, when she saw me all dressed up she didn’t want to know. I mean, you could have understood it if it had been the other way about – I had been dependent on her and I no longer was. But now it’s Gina who don’t want to know, so that’s another of those little things turn out quite the opposite to what you expect.
Now I’ve had a nice hour or so – except for this cool interlude with Gina – and I’m just going off when old Harry asks me am I going Maidenhead way back, so that I can give Lily a lift in my car. As a matter of fact I’m not, I’m going back by Wokingham and Ascot. But just to please him I say I could go back that way.
Now it’s one of the worst mistakes you can make – going out of your way to oblige somebody. It’s very rare I do it, but whenever I do you can bet something is sure to go wrong. I’m not cut out for that boy scout lark, because if ever I do a good deed it always seems to rebound on me. The funny thing is, Lily doesn’t want to come in the car either. I can tell it by the look on her face. So we both agree just to oblige old Harry, lying there in bed. Never oblige a sick person – no good comes of it.
Lily sits there in silence as I’m driving along, and seeing how ribby she looks and thinking how it would be a nice thing for old Harry’s sake, I drive a roundabout way by the river, and on top of that I ask her would she like some tea. The thought had never struck her and she doesn’t know what to say. Now I’ve got old Ruby’s Zodiac with me, automatic drive, Windsor Grey, real leather individual seats. That’s a car you can take anywhere. So’s I’ve seen one of these big hotels and I’ve driven straight in. It’s a place with these green lawns running right down to the side of the river and little tables set out by themselves under the trees. I quite like anything like that at times. Mind you, you’re paying for the view

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Just fancy, Lily, old Harry’s wife! And it was funny how I’d got myself involved there. I’d gone out to the sanatorium one Sunday, see, just to let them have a proper look at me. I mean they’d only seen me in captivity, they hadn’t seen how I looked when I was really dressed up; and somehow I’d got that bit attached to them all. Here, a funny thing happened. There’s this little Gina, see, what I was so intimate with. Know what, when she saw me all dressed up she didn’t want to know. I mean, you could have understood it if it had been the other way about – I had been dependent on her and I no longer was. But now it’s Gina who don’t want to know, so that’s another of those little things turn out quite the opposite to what you expect.
Now I’ve had a nice hour or so – except for this cool interlude with Gina – and I’m just going off when old Harry asks me am I going Maidenhead way back, so that I can give Lily a lift in my car. As a matter of fact I’m not, I’m going back by Wokingham and Ascot. But just to please him I say I could go back that way.
Now it’s one of the worst mistakes you can make – going out of your way to oblige somebody. It’s very rare I do it, but whenever I do you can bet something is sure to go wrong. I’m not cut out for that boy scout lark, because if ever I do a good deed it always seems to rebound on me. The funny thing is, Lily doesn’t want to come in the car either. I can tell it by the look on her face. So we both agree just to oblige old Harry, lying there in bed. Never oblige a sick person – no good comes of it.
Lily sits there in silence as I’m driving along, and seeing how ribby she looks and thinking how it would be a nice thing for old Harry’s sake, I drive a roundabout way by the river, and on top of that I ask her would she like some tea. The thought had never struck her and she doesn’t know what to say. Now I’ve got old Ruby’s Zodiac with me, automatic drive, Windsor Grey, real leather individual seats. That’s a car you can take anywhere. So’s I’ve seen one of these big hotels and I’ve driven straight in. It’s a place with these green lawns running right down to the side of the river and little tables set out by themselves under the trees. I quite like anything like that at times. Mind you, you’re paying for the vie

When I saw his white sweaty forehead and this unhappy lad’s eyes, I was sorry I’d spoke. It’s my one trouble – I will keep going on after everybody’s heard enough.

don’t know why I should, because normally a thing like that would make me feel relieved. I like that feeling of unloading the nearest and dearest birds – let alone a woman who’s got herself a kid