athere was an ironic1 fragment of truth in what the lady said.
the thing was, the dog only accepted *ll as a temporary companion - of course it did not understand the fact that *ll's brother was n*r coming home. it continued waiting for him. waiting for the familiar footfall, waiting for the imminent2（迫近的） return of a voice it knew and devotedly3 listened for. the dog regarded the present as a state of waiting. its life was in a state of suspension - a kind of 'this will have to be got through until *rything returns to the way it really should be'. its pointless patience was matched only by its growing detachment from *rything else.
i sat with *ll for a couple of hours, and i ran out of tape. it was among the last times i *r visited him in his house, having left home myself - returning to stoke only at holidays.
i took *ll up on his offer of a cup of tea before i left. there was snow on the ground outside, and the temperatures had plunged4. i was shown through into the kitchen cum living area in the rear of his house, and looked again at the collected *ts and pieces of this man's life.
the old radio with its bakelite（胶木） casing and valves on a high shelf, the unsliced loaf on the table, the open fire, with a butter dish nearby and the photographs on the mantel.
*ll as a youngster,
*ll as a boy,
*ll's dog,
*ll's dog, lying in a dark yard, * than half a century ago. lying near to a door. a narrow little yard.
"typical of him, that was," *ll put in when he saw me looking at the picture again.
"old bram, he lay out there *ry day, come what *r the weather was, you know! he couldn't let go. waited for frank to come back. waited until the day he died himself, that dog. he'd only move when i went and opened the back door, then he'd stroll in, and wait until he could go out and wait again."
*ll stood alongside me, and picked up the little frame. he looked down his nose at it.
"do us a favour and pass us me glasses," *ll asked, "it'd take me half the day to get over there to get them. my bloody5 feet are no good to me these days, particularly in this weather."
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