The History of Mr. Polly

eased emphasis: "'Ole!" He paused, and then broke out with one of hi

two threadbare looking fields, and

sh that life as a whole and every aspect of life that presented itself was "beastly." And this afternoon, lured by the delusive blueness of a sky that was blue because the wind was in the e

d his cap-the new golf cap-and Mrs. Polly must needs fish out his old soft bro

taken the thing. He put it on. But it didn't feel right. Nothing felt right. He put a trembling hand upon t

poke with a wrathful eye regarding his wife from under the brim. In a voice thick with fury he said: "I s'pose you'd like me to we

o the ground, and kicked it with extraordinary fury across the kitchen. It fl

his hands into his jacket pockets disco

straight upstairs without a word, a

antrums," she added. "I 'aven't patience." And moving with the slow reluctance of a deeply offended woman, s

e gherkins, two onions, a small cauliflower head and several capers with every appearance of appetite, and indeed with avidity; and then there had been cold suet pudding to follow, with treacle, and then a nice bit of cheese. It was the

g with the mustard on his plate and expressing the

adequate as a solution. He hated Foxbourne, he hated Foxbourne High Street, he hated his shop and hi

this silly Hole?" he

impalpable flaws at a world in which even the spring buds were wilt

church nor state nor school will raise a warning finger between a man and his hunger and his wife's catering. So on nearly every day in his life Mr. Polly fell into a violent rage and hatred against the outer world in the afternoon, and never suspected that it was this inner world to which I am with such masterly delicacy alluding, that was thu

industrial city during a period of depression; agitators, acts of violence, strikes, the forces of law and order doing

le. It made Mr. Polly's teeth seem loose in his head, and his ski

give us an antido

Polly catching sight of his shadow, "you blighted, degenerated Paintbru