I'VE only to say I hate Nottingham, he thought with a silent ironic laugh, for all the years it's put on me to come into my mind as clear as framed photos outside a picture-house. He was in Radford at fifteen, going to work on Easter Sunday to clean the boilers and chimney flues while the fires were out, a volunteer because double-time was paid and he was saving up for a bike. One and five an hour instead of eightpence ha'penny was corn in Egypt--or would be if you got it all the time. He left the house while the night was black, making his way along silent streets at half-past five, avoiding dead- headed lamp-posts for fear of knocking himself flat. A fine rain fell and he pulled up his coat collar, shivering at the sudden impact of water, yet happy because he hadn't far to walk. Seaton had told him not to go in: "You don't need the money all that much, my lad; and you'll work hard enough when you're older." He recognized the onus of unnecessary overtime that Brian was going into blithely, and took on his own shoulders and into his own heart the distaste his lad should have felt but couldn't. To Brian it seemed a step for-
-235-
