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Violating his fastidiousness, he lay down on the bedThe musty smell of old thatch was mingled with the smell of MrsTulsi's medicaments: bay rum, soft candles, Canadian Healing Oil, ammoniaHe didn't feel a small man, but the clothes which hung so despairingly from the nail on the mud wall were definitely the clothes of a small man, comic, make-believe clothes He wondered what Samuel Smiles would have thought of him But perhaps he could changeLeave Shama, forget the Tulsis, forget everybodyBut go where? And do what? What could he do? Apart from becoming a bus-conductor, working as a labourer on the sugar-estates or on the roads, owning a shopWould Samuel Smiles have seen black chanel quilted bag more than that? He was in a state between waking and sleeping when there was a rattling on the door: no ordinary rattling: this was rattling with a purpose: he recognized Shama's handHe shut his eyes and pretended to be asleepHe heard the hook lift and fallShe came into the room and even on the earth floor her footsteps were heavy, meant to be noticedHe felt her standing at the side of the fourposter, looking down at himHe stiffened